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Where should I start?

Two short quizzes — one for Excel, one for bookkeeping and accounting software. Answer honestly rather than optimistically; the point is to land in the right room.

There is no signup, no email capture and nothing stored. If JavaScript is off the quiz still works — add up the points yourself and read the band underneath. When you have a result, take it to the matching course hub or check it against the Excel skill path.

Excel

Eight questions about what you already do in Excel, not about what you know the names of. Answer honestly rather than optimistically — the point is to land in the right room.

1You need the total of a column of numbers. What do you do?
2A formula needs to always point at cell B1, even when copied down. What do you do?
3You have a list of 4,000 rows and need to see one region at a time.
4You need a price from another sheet, matched on product code.
5How do you produce a summary by category and month?
6The monthly report needs the same export, cleaned the same way, every time.
7Someone asks you to make a dashboard.
8The same fifteen clicks, every single day.

Scoring key — out of 29

0–6 points

Start at the beginning — and that is a normal place to be

You are getting work done in Excel by treating it as a grid you type into. That works, and it caps out quickly. Introduction to Excel covers structure and references, which is what everything above this level is built on.

If most of your low answers were about lookups and pivot tables specifically, and the rest felt easy, Excel Intermediate 1 may be a better fit.

Introduction to Excel

7–13 points

Excel Intermediate 1

You are comfortable entering and formatting data, and you are still doing the summarising by hand. Intermediate 1 is where tables, sorting, filtering and proper referencing turn that into something the workbook does for you.

Introduction to Excel if the referencing question was a guess; Intermediate 2 if you are already confident with tables and filters.

Excel Intermediate 1

14–19 points

Excel Intermediate 2

You have the basics solidly and you are hitting the ceiling on conditional logic and lookups. Intermediate 2 covers those plus pivot tables, which from your answers is the piece that would change the most work.

Advanced Functions instead if lookups are already routine and it is the multi-condition formulas that trip you up.

Excel Intermediate 2

20–25 points

Excel Advanced Functions, or Advanced Data Management

You can build most of what you need and the remaining problems are about formulas that survive contact with changing data. Advanced Functions covers the lookup family and conditional aggregation properly.

Advanced Data Management instead if your answer to the monthly-report question was the painful one — that is a Power Query problem, not a formula problem.

Excel Advanced Functions

26–30 points

One of the Expert courses — pick by what you are building

You are past the point where a general course helps. The Expert courses are specialised: Expert Functions for dynamic arrays and models other people depend on, Expert Dashboard for reporting, Expert Macros and Forms for automation.

Expert Dashboard if you were asked for a dashboard; Expert Macros and Forms if the fifteen-clicks question was the one that stung.

Excel Expert Functions

Bookkeeping & accounting software

Six questions to separate the two different problems here: not knowing the bookkeeping, and knowing it perfectly well but fighting the software.

1Someone says "post it to the suspense account and we will clear it at month end".
2Your trial balance does not balance.
3GST and HST on a purchase from another province.
4How is the accounting software set up?
5Bank reconciliation.
6Payroll and CRA source deductions.

Scoring key — out of 18

0–5 points

Bookkeeping Fundamentals first

The gap here is the accounting itself rather than the software. Learning QuickBooks or Sage first would mean learning which buttons to press without knowing what they do to the accounts, which is how files get into a state that costs money to fix.

If you are about to inherit a live file with a deadline attached, take the Part 1 software course alongside rather than after.

Bookkeeping Fundamentals

6–11 points

Part 1 of the package you run — QuickBooks Online or Sage

You have enough bookkeeping to be dangerous in the right way, and the friction is the software. Part 1 covers setup, the chart of accounts, daily transactions and Canadian sales tax — including fixing a setup somebody else rushed.

Sage Accounting Part 1 if your business runs Sage 50. The two are alternatives, not a sequence, and the choice is whichever your business already uses.

QuickBooks Online Part 1

12–18 points

Part 2 — the period-end half

Day-to-day entry is not your problem; month-end and the things that only happen quarterly are. Part 2 is reconciliation, adjusting entries, payroll, sales-tax filing and the reports an accountant will accept without sending back.

Sage Accounting Part 2 if you are on Sage. If the reporting side is what you actually want, the Excel courses may be a better use of the budget than more software training.

QuickBooks Online Part 2

A quiz is a starting point rather than a verdict. If the result surprises you, or you land on a boundary between two bands, talk to a trainer — it takes two minutes and it is a better use of your time than booking the wrong course. For a team, the same question is usually answered differently: corporate training is scoped to a mixed group rather than to a single level.