It’s March and the CMA Case Exam is just around the corner. Once again I feel like time has flown past me over the past few months. Having completed Module 3 out of 6 modules, we are now smack in the middle of the CMA qualification process. (more…)
On March 5, 2010, In Management Accounting, By Darran Thayaparan
On February 5, 2010, In Management Accounting, By Darran Thayaparan
The CMA Entrance Exam (EE) is one of the toughest exams I’ve written. It is the sum of all accounting, finance and soft topics courses you have studied in university or the Accelerated Program (AP) , all condensed to 120 multiple choice questions. However, if you do your share of work, you can pass the exam in flying colors. It’s not going to be easy but the rewards are well worth the effort. (more…)
On February 3, 2010, In Microsoft Excel, By Darran Thayaparan
This function turns Excel in to a database management system. There are plenty of databases out there such as Access, SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle etc, but the power Excel user always finds a way to turn Excel in to a functioning Database.
Excel has its limitations when it comes to storing large amounts of data. I would recommend anyone to consider deploying one of the above mentioned databases if they have large amounts of data. The inability of Excel to separate the storage of information from the presentation of it is its key drawback.
Having said that, I want to move on to show you how cool the VLOOKUP() function is. (more…)
On February 2, 2010, In Management Accounting, By Darran Thayaparan
It’s amazing how time flies. It feels like only recently that I came out of writing the Entrance Exam, but that was in June of last year. Since then we have completed two modules of the SLP and currently in the middle of module number 3. Next will be the Case exam scheduled for May of this year. (more…)
On February 1, 2010, In Microsoft Excel, By Darran Thayaparan
Doesn’t it make you nuts when you receive a list of names is Excel and all of them are in caps? Or better yet, the person who gave you the data decided to mix and match them with alternating cases. (more…)
On January 31, 2010, In Travel, By Darran Thayaparan
En route to Cyprus, my flight had a stop over at Istanbul and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to experience Istanbul in the short layover I had. I had to decide how I can get the most out of Istanbul in 24 hours. I naturally picked the famous attractions such as the Ayasofya, Grand Bazaar and the Blue Mosque. The following are reflections of mine on Istanbul during my short stay there (more…)
On January 30, 2010, In Microsoft Excel, By Darran Thayaparan
When I download bank statements from our bank’s trusty website in to Excel, they don’t appear to be quite user friendly. Well you can read the information and deduce what the transactions are, but analyzing that information presents some challenges.
Have a look at the following superficial bank transactions. They closely resemble what we get from our bank accounts at the office. The cheque numbers are conveniently lumped together with a bunch of zeroes that the bank thought was a good idea. (more…)
On January 27, 2010, In Travel, By Darran Thayaparan
The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is the oldest and largest indoor bazaar in the world. First opened in 1401, it has over 1,200 shops in 60 covered streets. So be prepared to be lost, or be traveling in circles. It’s amazing how they have integrated modern store fronts in a 400 year old mall.
There were plenty of gold, silver, iron and copper artifacts, porcelain tiles and decorative items. You need, at the very least one whole day to experience the entire Bazaar, but be prepared to be hassled by vendors. (more…)
On January 27, 2010, In Microsoft Excel, By Darran Thayaparan
Like the word implies, the MATCH function compares one variable against a list of variables to see if they are equal. When it finds a match, the function returns the row number of the matching variable.
I use it most at work while doing bank reconciliations.
In the following example, I am checking to see if an outstanding cheque is in the list of cashed cheques. That is to see if each value in column B is in column A. The values to enter in the formula are =MATCH(B2,A:A,0). This means, check the value in cell B2 against the list in column A; the zero in the end means exact match. (more…)