self-paced course
Power Query Essentials for Accountants
Use Power Query to load, clean, and combine data from Excel tables, files, folders, the web, and PDFs, without touching a single formula. Built for accountants and finance professionals who are tired of rebuilding the same data prep by hand every month.
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Taught by Paul Barnhurst
What you'll be able to do
Stop rebuilding the same data prep every month.
Automate it once with Power Query.
Pull data from anywhere — including PDFs and the web
Load from Excel tables, CSV and text files, entire folders, web pages, and PDFs. The monthly export you used to copy-paste by hand, connected once and refreshed in seconds.
Clean messy data without writing formulas
Split columns, filter rows, fix data types, build conditional columns, and group totals — all through Power Query's interface, no nested formulas to maintain.
Combine datasets that never used to line up
Append files into one table and merge data sources using the six join types — without creating the duplicate records that break a VLOOKUP.
Reshape data so it's ready to analyze
Unpivot cross-tab summaries into clean flat files that pivot tables and Power Pivot can actually use.
What You'll Learn
Course Description:
Who Should Take This Course?
Management Accountants
You pull the same cost and performance data every month and reformat it by hand before you can report on it. Power Query turns that recurring prep into a workflow you build once and refresh in a click.
Finance
Professionals
You work across exports from multiple systems that never line up the same way twice. You'll learn to load, clean, and combine them — including merging sources without the duplicate records that break a VLOOKUP.
Accountants
You spend more time cleaning data than analyzing it. This course shows you how to automate the cleanup — fixing formats, splitting columns, filtering, and reshaping — without writing or maintaining a single formula.
FP&A
You build forecasts and variance reports on data scattered across files, folders, and PDFs. You'll connect all of it once, so your models refresh from source instead of being rebuilt every cycle.
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SNEAK PEEK
Don't take our word for it.
Watch two real lessons.
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Meet Your Instructor
Paul Barnhurst
Paul, known across the finance community as The FP&A Guy, is an FP&A professional, corporate trainer, and speaker with over 100,000 followers on LinkedIn. Microsoft named him an MVP for his work with Excel — the tool Power Query lives inside — and he holds the FPAC, FPAP, and Advanced Finance Modeler certifications along with an MBA in Finance. He's built his career on making technical finance skills practical.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will this actually count for my CPE requirement?
Yes. CPE Flow is registered with NASBA on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors (Sponsor ID #149952). This course provides 4 NASBA-approved CPE credits, accepted toward CPA, CMA, CIA, and most other certification renewal requirements.
Do I need any prior Power Query experience?
No. The course starts from a blank Power Query window and assumes no prior exposure. If you can work in Excel, you're ready.
Which version of Excel do I need?
Power Query is built into Excel for Windows (2016 and later) and Microsoft 365. It's also available in Excel for Mac, though the interface differs slightly and a few features are Windows-only. You'll get the most from this course using Excel for Windows or Microsoft 365.
Is this the same as Power BI?
Not quite — but they share an engine. Power Query is the data-prep tool built into Excel, and the same Power Query engine runs inside Power BI. Everything you learn here transfers directly if you move to Power BI later.
Will my firm reimburse this?
Most firms reimburse NASBA-approved CPE. You'll get an itemized receipt at checkout and a NASBA-stamped completion certificate to submit to your procurement department. Check with your firm first to confirm there's a professional development reimbursement plan.
How is the course structured?
Self-paced video lessons with downloadable practice files, lesson quizzes, and a final assessment. You follow along in your own copy of Excel, building the skills as you go.
one last thing
The first build takes an afternoon.
Every refresh after takes a click.
For your records - and for your state board
DELIVERY METHOD
FIELD OF STUDY
CPE CREDITS
KNOWLEDGE LEVEL
PREREQUISITES
ADVANCED PREP
