Excel Test for Accountants: What to Expect

An Excel test for accountants usually hands you a workbook of transactions and a list of questions: totals by account and month, correctly rounded tax, a pivot table summary, a check that the books balance, and sometimes an aging report. This guide is for anyone applying for accounts assistant, bookkeeper, accounts payable or receivable, or junior accountant roles. It shows what the questions look like, the formulas that answer them, and how to prepare.

What an Excel test for accountants looks like#

Most accounting Excel tests are practical: you work in a real spreadsheet, and your answers are checked cell by cell. Some employers use a short online quiz with multiple-choice questions instead, and some use a longer case workbook for more senior roles.

The common formats are:

Ask the recruiter which format to expect, how long it lasts, and which Excel version it uses. For a broader view of how tests are built and scored, see Excel assessments: what employers test.

Skills an accounting Excel test checks#

The skills overlap with any finance job, but accounting tests lean on totals, rounding and checks. Our guide to the Excel skills for finance and accounting jobs covers each skill in depth; this table shows how they appear as test questions.

Sample question: totals by account and month#

"What did we spend on Travel in January?" is the single most common kind of question, and SUMIFS answers it. Here is a small expense list:

=SUMIFS(C2:C8,A2:A8,"Travel",B2:B8,"Jan")

The result is 532.40 (420.00 + 112.40). SUMIFS takes the range to add first, then pairs of criteria range and criterion. In a test, put "Travel" and "Jan" in cells and point to them, as the exercise on this page does. Graders often change those inputs to check that your answer updates. With only one condition, SUMIF works too; the SUMIFS function guide explains the difference in argument order.

Sample question: rounding tax to the cent#

"Calculate VAT at 20% on each invoice" tests whether you know that formatting and rounding are different. With net amounts in column B and the rate in G1:

=ROUND(B2*$G$1,2)

ROUND changes the stored value to 2 decimals. Formatting to 2 decimals only hides the rest, so a column of formatted tax amounts can add up to a total that is a cent or two different from the sum of what you see. Accountants are expected to catch that. The $ signs lock G1 so the formula can be filled down. See the ROUND function guide and how to round numbers in Excel for ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN.

Sample question: prove that debits equal credits#

A check cell shows the grader, and you, that the numbers hold together. With debits in B2:B20 and credits in C2:C20:

=ROUND(SUM(B2:B20)-SUM(C2:C20),2)=0

This returns TRUE when the trial balance balances. The ROUND matters: Excel stores decimals in binary, so two totals that look identical can differ by a tiny amount such as 0.0000000001, and a plain =SUM(B2:B20)=SUM(C2:C20) would then say FALSE.

Other checks worth adding without being asked:

• Summary equals source: the total of your summary table equals the total of the data.
• No text numbers: =COUNT(C2:C20) equals =COUNTA(C2:C20). If COUNT is lower, some amounts are stored as text and SUM skips them.

Sample question: an aging report#

"Group unpaid invoices by days overdue" is a classic receivables task. Put the report date in a cell, for example 31 March 2025 in H1, and calculate days overdue in column D:

=$H$1-C2

Then label each invoice with IFS:

=IFS(D2<=0,"Current",D2<=30,"1-30",D2<=60,"31-60",TRUE,"Over 60")

Using a fixed report date in a cell, rather than TODAY(), keeps the answers the same when the grader opens the file on another day. Total each bucket with SUMIF on the bucket column.

Sample question: a pivot table summary#

"Summarize spend by account and month" is fastest with a pivot table. Click inside the data, go to Insert > PivotTable, and put Account in Rows, Month in Columns and Amount in Values. You get a grid of totals with row and column grand totals.

Two habits earn marks here. Check that the pivot's grand total matches the SUM of the Amount column. And refresh the pivot (Data > Refresh All) if you correct any data afterwards, because pivots don't update on their own. If the question wants a total in a fixed cell that must update automatically, use SUMIFS instead.

How to prepare for an accounting Excel test#

A week of focused practice covers most of what these tests ask:

1. Day 1–2: SUMIF and SUMIFS with criteria in cells, including date ranges.
2. Day 3: ROUND and absolute references on tax and FX calculations.
3. Day 4: Pivot tables: build, rearrange, change Sum to Count, refresh.
4. Day 5: Lookups and reconciling two lists.
5. Day 6: A full timed practice workbook, with checks at the end.

On the day, read every question before you start, answer the ones you're sure of first, and leave time for checks. If you're also applying for operational roles, the Excel skills for sales and operations and Excel skills for project managers overlap a lot. Some accounts roles include a typing-and-accuracy section too; see our tips for the Excel data entry test.

Practise it#

Start with ROUND, ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN to get rounding right, then practise SUMIF on real data, with and without a separate sum range. Finish by building your first summary in Pivot tables 1. The exercise on this page is a test-style SUMIFS question with the criteria in cells.