Excel Arrays - Published by Texas CPA Society

We were really excited that the Texas CPA Society published our article "Incorporating Excel Arrays into Your Audit Plan". Click here to access a copy the Array article.

If it is of interest we have a more detailed version of that course for which you can earn CPE credit -
Using Arrays to become a Power Excel user.

We offer a lot of different Excel CPE courses. so if you are a CPA check them out when you get a chance.


Here is a link to other articles that we have written over the last few years.



Best wishes to you all and your families. I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Surviving the File Restore Virus

My Survival of the File Restore Virus

Well yesterday I was sitting around and getting ready to update this blog but first I made a serious error and went to YouTube. Out of nowhere, a virus called File Restore appeared with dialog box after dialog box telling me I had critical hard disk errors! Essentially it tells you that you have all these critical problems and low and behold just click the Buy Button and for $85 they will fix the problems. (There really are no problems except what they created. The Virus locks down your system and hides all your files.) Nice huh?

Looks really official - doesn't it? Just trying to instill fear !  

But hey, no problem, right - this wasn't the first virus I have experienced. After all,  I had a spyware program installed on my computer. Ha Ha. No, it is never that easy. I couldn't access the program since all the files were hidden. So, first thing I did was try to download Malwarebytes Anti-Malaware which always works. Not this time! Access Denied every time I tried to install it. Then I tried pulling it in off a flash drive - No! Access Denied again. Aha, you are all thinking hey go into Safe Mode and restore your system to a prior date.  Well, if not, that is what I thought - as I said I have been through this before.
(To get into safe mode you can just press and hold the F8 key as you restart your computer. You can also press the Window key and R to access Run and then type msconfig)

Again, I was blocked - it would not restore it to a prior date. Luckily I  realized that I had a backup CD of Spyware Doctor. I always pay for the CD as a preventative measure and boy did it pay off this time.(Maybe now my husband won't laugh at me for being so cautious.) After about 3 tries, in safe mode I was able to get Spyware Doctor to identify and remove a couple of the threats. Notice I said couple! Once those threats had been removed I was able to get back into the system. I could tell I still had problems but luckily File Restore does not shut off access to the internet and I found this handy dandy thread of how to remove the File Restore Virus and I wanted to share it with you.
http://malwaretips.com/Thread-How-to-remove-File-Restore-virus.

This thread walked me through all the steps including downloading Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (which I was able to finally download and install ) and downloading links to two of my new favorite products HitmanPro, which removed File Restore's  Rootkit, and  RogueKiller which restored my shortcuts in the temporary internet folder and removed some malicious  registry keys (don't you love the names of these programs.)
Now, at that point, everything was supposed to be fine but I re-ran Malwarebytes and it found another high-level threat. After I removed that I re-ran Spyware Doctor which found another high-level threat.
So, definitely double-check. I will be running both of these and possibly a third again - just to make sure everything is as it should be.

Malawarebytes, Rogue Killer and HitmanPro were all free. HitmanPro gives you a one time free trial, Malawarebytes offers a free and an upgrade version and RogueKiller appears to be written by an individual who asks you to donate if you wish.

So, lessons to be learned.
Have active spyware on your system to prevent a virus from getting in. I thought mine was on but apparently I was incorrect so check it periodically and remember Malwarebytes and Spydoctor in case you ever need them.  I personally plan to upgrade to the pro version of Malwareebytes and I need to donate to the RogueKiller cause.  Without these my 3 or 4 hours of frustration would have increased tenfold and possibly ended with me reformatting the drive.
Oh yes... last lesson to be learned... BACKUP your files periodically. Backing up is one thing I try to do religiously and which is what allowed me to remain relatively calm as I removed the virus!

It's Friday - Have a great day and wonderful weekend. I just had 3 deer and  big buck walking through my backyard. It's time to move away from the computer and go and enjoy the beautiful day.

Day of the Week

Day of the Week and Weekday()

I was working with dates and had to remind myself on how to display a date as a day of the week so I thought perhaps some of you might be interested in it too.

I was double-checking items and I wanted to verify that nothing was occurring on the weekend so the easiest way to do that would be for Excel to tell what day of the week that date was. 

In Cell A4 I had my date so all I needed to do was enter =Text(A4,"ddd") and it displayed Thu for November 1st.  If I had entered =Text(A4,"dddd") it would display Thursday.
Pretty easy - eh?

If you wanted to incorporate this into an IF or some other formula then you might prefer to have the actual number of the day as opposed to the text. In that case, you can use the Weekday function. The resulting answer for November 1,2012 is 5 which is Thursday.

LinkedIn- Privacy/Email Settings

LinkedIn - Privacy / Email Settings

I just finished writing a CPE EBook entitled LinkedIn for Accountants- What is it and What Do I Do with It?
Everyone talks about Privacy Settings on Facebook but no one ever mentions LinkedIn. It may not be as worrisome as it is not "personal information per se "however you should be aware of how and to whom your information is displayed.  I also thought I would help you understand how to change the frequency of emails you might be receiving if you belong to a number of different groups.

If you start joining a lot of groups and start getting a lot of emails, you can change the frequency of communication by clicking on Groups, Companies and Applications and making some changes

Become an Excel VBA Master!

I wanted to tell you about Daniel Ferry's Excel Academy.
Daniel is a Microsoft Excel MVP and runs a really interesting Excel enthusiast blog.
If you have not discovered it yet, definitely check it out. It’s called Excel Hero. What makes Daniel's blog interesting is that he does all sorts of things with Excel that no one has ever seen before. Some really fun things as well as some very important and useful business things as well.

The Excel Hero Academy that he runs  has been extremely popular and is now in its fourth year. Excel Hero Academy (EHA4) opens on October 1.  This program teaches you how Excel “thinks” and how to leverage that to be drastically more productive at work. This makes you a valuable commodity in today’s competitive workforce.  You will be an expert by the time you finish it.

This 16-week course will teach you to craft proper VBA, including truly understanding and leveraging the Excel object model, modularization, functions and UDFs, classes, branching, looping, and interfacing with external applications such as Access. But this is not a theory course, it’s hands-on, applied learning focused on business solutions including extraordinary Dashboards and other methods of reporting. Heavy emphasis is on database functionality both by using Excel exclusively, and with using Excel as the front-end to a real database.

Daniel says “We will push Excel hard, seeing just what is possible without any VBA coding at all (a fun example of this is my Excel Chess Game Viewer), but then Discovering the Next Level of power and the universe of possibilities that VBA brings to the table.”

The Excel Hero Academy is extremely in depth and is video based. If you can dedicate three to four hours a week for the next four months, the course will revolutionize the way you solve business problems.

 
There is homework and I want to be clear -you need to have the time for this course - you just can't squeeze it in and think you can do it in ten minutes. I tried it and that does not work :(
I will also state that I personally would only recommend this for high intermediate to advanced Excel users and those having an interest in learning more about VBA. You jump right in – if you have been looking to move to the next level in Excel and VBA this is it. I will be attending this program again and hope to see you there.

Daniel is committed to continually improving the Excel Hero Academy and the results speak for themselves. Just take a moment to peruse the many dozens of student reviews on his LinkedIn Profile. Here is just one: “Daniel is an Excel genius who does extraordinary things with Excel, and uses his considerable skills to create exceptional training opportunities. ...inspiring!” – Doug Kim, Senior Editor, Office.com, Microsoft”

If you enroll in the class, you will be glad that you did. I have worked with Daniel and have secured a $50 discount for you. To learn more and enroll in the course click here

Your $50 discount code: CPASELFSTUDY.

If you sign up let me know. I always appreciate feedback particularly when I am recommending something. Daniel and I are still talking about ways to set up this course for CPE credit down the road so all comments etc. are appreciated. I also want to let you know that I do receive a small commission for anyone who signs up.