Horizontal Financial Statements

The Horizontal Financial Statement exercise is designed to simultaneously impart Excel skills and reinforce Introductory Financial Accounting concepts. Students pay $9.95 for the exercise and are guided through a video with numbered steps.

The students are taught 34 different Excel concepts.
  • Using Go To feature to navigate
  • Inserting new worksheets
  • Deleting unneeded worksheets
  • Transposing data within a worksheet
  • Merging cells and centering titles
  • Autofit column widths and row heights
  • Wrap text within cells
  • Adding borders around cells
  • Bolding and underlining text
  • Using the Fill Series command
  • Using Freeze Panes feature
  • AutoFill Options command
  • Using the Ignore Error command
  • Future-proofing SUM functions
  • Comma style number format
  • Manually setting column widths
  • Creating drop-down lists with Data Validation
  • Maintaining Data Validation feature
  • Remove duplicates
  • Sorting data
  • Creating check figures
  • Using Conditional Formatting for feedback
  • ROUND function to round to nearest 1,000
  • Inserting rows in worksheets
  • Managing page breaks on printout
  • Changing print orientation
  • Using Page Break Preview feature
  • Setting print area within worksheet
  • Using SUMIF to look up values
  • Applying double-underline formatting
  • Applying single top/double-bottom border
  • Using Display Formulas feature
  • Using VLOOKUP to look up values
  • Creating a waterfall chart
Students enter 8 accounting transactions into their horizontal financial statement on their own.
  • Recording an initial issue of stock.
  • Recognizing one month of revenue.
  • Recording partial payment of accounts receivable.
  • Recording salary expense.
  • Recording rent expense.
  • Recording payment of telephone expense.
  • Recording a cash prepayment.
  • Recognizing part of a prepayment as revenue.

Each student is assigned a unique 4-digit number known as their Spreadsheet ID for use during the exercise. This ID number is incorporated several times into the exercise and helps ensure that each student turns in their own work.

The students submit their work to us and we handle all of the grading. We give you three scores:

  • Completion: This score indicates if the student attempted a given step.
  • Accuracy: This score indicates carried out the step accurately.
  • Combined: The average of the two Completion and Accuracy scores.

Within one week of an assignment’s due date we provide instructors with a spreadsheet showing all student results. Partial credit in our scoring is given if a student at least attempts a step. Instructors determine final credit for each student, and whether late submissions are allowed. Students receive written feedback confirming which steps were completed successfully, as well as providing guidance on steps that they did not attempt or did not complete correctly.

Some instructors give more weight to the Completion score than the Accuracy score, while other instructors use the combined average when determining credit. We’re happy to provide any additional information that can help you as an instructor.

Please direct questions to David Ringstrom (david@studentsxl.com) or 404.784.0275.