Power Query – Great, So Why Should I Care?
Great Power Query exists, but why should you care? Well, if you are an accountant, you should care as it makes working with data much easier. Such as:
- Cleaning spreadsheets.
- Fixing formats.
- Copying and pasting the same data every month.
- Trying to keep reports accurate while juggling deadlines.
You might then think, why waste time one learning some new tool when it doesn’t take that long to do? The issue is not the time one task takes, it is how long all these “small tasks” take. It is the sum total of the time it takes over a week, not in one sitting. Eliminating one 15 minute task a day, turns into 65 hours back in your day over a year. Eliminate two and that is 130 hours a year. Which is a little over three weeks back that you can use to spend or your clients or many with your family. Every action we take is about opportunity cost and you as the accountant need to decide what tasks benefit you and your clients more. I doubt messing around with data would be the best choice. I am not saying the tasks are not important, I am just asking you to decide it it is important that you do them?
Which brings us back around to why Power Query?. It can help to eliminate many of these tasks without requiring additional software or knowing how to code. It can handle repetitive tasks with data, leaving you more time to spend with your clients. Enough of the why, let’s look at the how.
What can it do?
You might now be thinking, “Ok, so you are saying it can help, but talk is cheap.” Well, that is a good point. Here are a few ways it can be used to make your life easier.
-
Combining multiple spreadsheets
-
Pulling in related data
-
Reformatting exported reports
-
Cleaning up duplicate rows or repeated headers
-
Rebuilding the same formulas over and over
Power Query Solves the Problems You Deal With Every Day
Power Query is built directly into Excel — no add-ins, no extra cost.
Its job is simple:
Extract. Load. Transform.
You set up the cleanup process once.
Excel repeats it every time with a click.
No formulas.
No VBA.
No more manually fixing the same issues forever.
Power Query helps you:
-
Eliminate manual errors
-
Standardize the data you rely on
-
Speed up month-end processing
-
Handle bigger workloads without adding staff
-
Spend more time analyzing and advising clients
It lets Excel take over the boring parts so you can stay focused on the parts that actually require judgment.
If You Touch Excel, This Tool Is Worth Your Time
Accountants who use Power Query gain back hours each month simply because they stop doing repetitive tasks themselves, by delegating them to their computer.
You don’t need to learn everything at once, you just need to start. Unlike in relationships, familiarity breaks competence!
If you want help identifying places Power Query could save you hours each month, reach out and let’s talk.
