Excel in the accounting curriculum: perceptions from accounting professors

ABSTRACT

Public accounting firms emphasize the importance of accounting graduates being proficient in Excel. Since many accounting graduates often aspire to work in public accounting, a question arises as to whether there should be an emphasis on Excel in accounting education. The purpose of this paper is to specifically look at this issue by examining accounting faculty's perceptions of Excel in public accounting and accounting education. We survey 245 faculty members at over 100 accounting programs. We find that a majority of faculty incorporate Excel in their accounting classes consistent with their perception of Excel importance. However, we find that students are not fully proficient in Excel based on faculty's perceptions. This study contributes to the accounting education literature by identifying possible disconnections between Excel skills faculty include in the accounting curriculum and specific Excel skills faculty believe new hires (i.e. recent accounting graduates) most often use in public accounting.

KEYWORDS:

• Accounting education
• Excel functional skills
• public accounting

Acknowledgments

This research has benefited from comments and suggestions made by Faye Borthick and workshop participants at the American Accounting Association's Accounting Information Systems (AIS) 2015 Midyear Sectional Meeting. Support from Georgia State University, Emory University, and the University of New Hampshire is also gratefully recognized.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 While it appears that Jackson and Cherrington (2002) find statistical differences between perceived level of spreadsheet importance and perceived level of spreadsheet preparation, some could argue that they do not find practical differences. That is, they find that perceived level of importance is 4.88 on a five-point scale with 5 representing most important and they find that perceived level of preparation is 4.43 on a 5-point scale with 5 representing exceptionally prepared.

2 Although outside of the scope of this paper, Hastings and Solomon (2005) investigate the amount of exposure (e.g. class time spent) covering technology and information systems in accounting programs. They find that accounting program administrators and accounting professionals believe that current and desired level of Excel coverage in accounting or business curricula (on average) reaches or exceeds three weeks of class time.

3 The survey response rate is similar to other emailed survey research using accounting faculty participants. For example, Bailey, Hermanson, and Louwers (2008) had a response rate of 13% for their study on accounting faculty perceptions of the peer review process in accounting journals. For another example, Blanthorne, Kovar, and Fisher (2007) had a response rate of 11% for their study on accounting educators' perceptions about ethics in the accounting curriculum.

4 Originally, 149 faculty members at ranked accounting programs and 119 faculty members at mid-to-large-sized universities participated in the survey. However, 12 faculty members at the ranked accounting programs and 11 from the mid-to-large-sized universities did not complete the survey. So, our total participant pool equals 137 for ranked accounting programs; 108 for mid-to-large-sized universities. Also, of those that took part in the study, 29 from the ranked accounting programs and 20 from the mid-to-large-sized universities declined the $10 gift card for participation.

5 The series of questions used in our survey are developed from two difference sources. Most of our survey questions come from Ragland and Ramachandran (2014). We modify their survey (that focuses on graduating accounting students', new hires at public accounting firms', and managers' at public accounting firms perceptions about Excel importance in public accounting and accounting education) to focus on accounting educators' perceptions of Excel importance in public accounting and accounting education. We also used feedback from accounting faculty at our universities to help develop the tailored questions related to usage of Excel in an accounting curriculum.

6 For application of Excel at the university level, approximately one-third of the faculty reported their institution offers a standalone Excel course. Additionally, more than half reported that Excel is emphasized in an Information Systems course. We also examine the frequency and delivery of Excel in accounting courses. We find that of faculty using Excel in accounting courses, 29% use Excel on a weekly basis, 35% use Excel on a monthly or three-times a semester basis, 17% use Excel on a twice a semester basis, and 10% report using Excel on a once a semester basis. The remaining 9% of faculty report using Excel on a varying basis. We also find that for the 20% of faculty that do not include Excel in accounting courses, a majority (56%) of faculty believe there is not enough time to cover course material and Excel.

7 In terms of our total sample (n = 245) a limited number of faculty members report teaching governmental accounting (n = 9). Hence, it is possible that the reported data for those teaching this course is somewhat skewed.

Also, regardless of whether a faculty member teaches a specific accounting course or not, Excel is perceived to be best suited for incorporation in Financial Statement Analysis (72% believe best suited for Excel), Cost Accounting (69% believe best suited for Excel), Managerial Accounting (68% believe best suited for Excel), Accounting Information Systems (67% believe best suited for Excel), and Intermediate accounting II (57% believe best suited for Excel).

8 While some of the differences are statistically significant, not all differences may be viewed as practically significant. For example, faculty' perceptions of using Excel's pivot table function (mean = 7.26) in public accounting may not be practically different than new hires' perception of using Excel's pivot table functions (mean = 6.10) in public accounting.

9 Brewer, Sorensen, and Stout (2014) and French and Coppage (2000) discuss educational issues challenging the future of the accounting profession. As part of their discussion they suggest that accountants should derive their knowledge and skills (including information technology skills) through individual talents, education, training, job experience, and continuing education and development.

10 While the statistical differences between basic functions and formatting functions may not seem practically significant, the differences between filter and sort data functions, vertical/ horizontal lookup functions, pivot tables, concatenate function, If/Then statements and keyboard shortcuts appear statistically significant and practically significant.

11 In an assessment setting, Awasthi, Bee, De Mello-e-Souza, and Tinus (2010) provide a useful model of how accounting faculty can assess students' Excel competency skills. While the example used in the study is limited in terms of scope, it could be adapted to include specific Excel functions used in public accounting.