Maximize Excel:  Internal Controls​​
 
Date: 10/7/2024
Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST
CPE Credit: 2 hours

Excel expert David Ringstrom, CPA, shows you how to implement internal control features within your Excel spreadsheets in this comprehensive webcast. Step-by-step, David explains how several Excel features—Data Validation, Conditional Formatting, and hide and protect features—can be implemented to control users’ actions and protect your worksheets and workbooks from unauthorized changes.
 
David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the subscription-based Office 365 version of Excel. David draws your attention to any differences in the older versions of Excel (2019, 2016, 2013, and earlier) during the presentation as well as in his detailed handouts. David also provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples he uses during the webcast.
 
Office 365 is a subscription-based product that provides new-feature updates as often as monthly. Conversely, the perpetual licensed versions of Excel have feature sets that don’t change. Perpetual licensed versions have year numbers, such as Excel 2019, Excel 2016, and so on.


Topics Covered

• Toggling the locked status of a worksheet cell on or off by way of a custom shortcut.
 
• Limiting users to entering whole numbers in a worksheet cell by way of Data Validation.
 
• Tweaking Data Validation settings for a given range of cells.
 
• Creating self-expanding drop-down lists with Excel’s Data Validation feature.
 
• Using the Find & Select command to locate cells that contain Data Validation.
 
• Ensuring proper VLOOKUP integrity by using Data Validation to create an in-cell drop-down list.
 
• Using Conditional Formatting to identify unlocked cells into which data can be entered.
 
• Removing the Table feature from Excel spreadsheets once it’s no longer needed or simply erasing the alternate row shading.
 
• Utilizing Data Validation to limit percentages entered in a cell to a specific range of values.
 
• Identifying situations where VLOOKUP may return #N/A instead of a value.
 
• Preserving key formulas using hide and protect features.
 
• Ensuring proper VLOOKUP integrity by using Data Validation to create an in-cell drop-down list.


Learning Objectives:

• Apply lookup formulas to look up data automatically from lists.
• Apply Excel’s Table feature to future-proof elements of your spreadsheet.
• Define how to use Excel’s Data Validation feature to restrict data entry to a list of permissible choices.