Models that reconcile, reports that tie back to the ledger, and month-end that does not depend on one person being available.
Send the file, not a brief. No call required.
Finance is the one function where a spreadsheet error has a legal shape. The work we are asked for is rarely a new model — it is making an existing one auditable: separating the assumptions from the arithmetic, adding the checks that fail loudly, and removing the fifteen hard-coded numbers that nobody can trace back to a source.
The four engagements that come up most often
The columns that carry the argument
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Entity | Account | Budget | Actual | Variance | Check |
| 2 | FR-01 | Revenue | 1,240,000 | 1,318,400 | +6.3% | OK |
| 3 | FR-01 | COGS | -486,000 | -521,300 | -7.3% | OK |
| 4 | DE-02 | Revenue | 880,000 | 812,900 | -7.6% | OK |
| 5 | DE-02 | COGS | -344,000 | -318,100 | +7.5% | OK |
Why each one is written the way it is
=SUMIFS(Ledger[Amount], Ledger[Entity], [@Entity], Ledger[Account], [@Account], Ledger[Period], Period)
Every reported figure pulled from the ledger by account code rather than pasted. A report that is typed can disagree with the source; one that is derived cannot.
=IF(ABS(Assets-Liabilities-Equity)>0.5, "⚠ Does not balance", "OK")
The check that has to hold. A balance sheet without a visible, loud integrity test is a spreadsheet that will be wrong quietly.
=([@Actual]-[@Budget])/ABS([@Budget])
Variance against budget. Dividing by ABS keeps the sign meaningful on cost lines, where the budget is negative — the single most common sign error in management reporting.
=SUMPRODUCT(Rates[FX], (Rates[Currency]=[@Currency])*(Rates[Period]=Period))*[@Amount]
Translation at the period rate held in one table. Rates typed into formulas are how two reports for the same month end up different.
A worked case from this sector
A group with three entities closed in roughly eight working days, most of it spent reconciling three workbooks that had drifted apart — each had its own chart of accounts mapping. Consolidating onto one ledger extract with a single mapping sheet, and adding a balance check per entity, brought close to four days. The reconciliation step did not get faster; it stopped being necessary.
Free, and adaptable to your own data
Specific to this work, not generic
Yes — Xero, QuickBooks, Sage and most ERPs export a transaction list with a stable enough structure for Power Query to consume on a repeat basis. Mapping account codes to reporting lines is a one-time setup on its own sheet.
That depends on whether it can be traced, which is what we build for: no constants inside formulas, one input cell per assumption, and a documentation sheet naming the source of every input. Auditors do not object to spreadsheets; they object to ones nobody can follow.
Excel, in almost every case — Data Tables, Solver and formula tracing have no Sheets equivalent, and diligence teams expect it. The full comparison is in our platform guide.