Data Analytics and Visualization for Accounting Professionals (Beyond the Basics)

Accounting has always been about analytical thinking. The skillset that accountants have needed to perform math and to keep order has evolved from pencil and paper, to typewriters and calculators, then to spreadsheets and accounting software. 

A new skillset that is becoming more important for nearly every aspect of business is that of big data analytics: analyzing large amounts of data to find actionable insights. This course is designed to help accounting professionals develop an analytical mindset and prepare them to use data analytic programming languages like Python and R. 

Upon successful completion of this course, you will earn 21.5 ICMA CPE, a certificate of completion, and a digital badge.

Learning Outcomes:

• Articulate the benefits of using big data and analytics in the modern accounting profession.
• Describe and implement a framework for using big data to help provide insights that lead to action.
• Critique the ability of a dataset to answer questions, and then assemble data from different sources into a structure that can be summarized, visualized, and analyzed.
• Use Excel, Tableau, and Visual Basic for Applications to design and perform basic and advanced analyses.

Course Curriculum:

• Module 0: Course Introduction
• Module 1: Introduction to Accountancy Analytics
• Module 2: Accounting and an Analytics Mindset
• Module 3: Data and its Properties
• Module 4: Data Visualization 1
• Module 5: Data Visualization 2
• Module 6: Analytic Tools in Excel 1
• Module 7: Analytic Tools in Excel 2
• Module 8: Automation in Excel