The reality of Covid 19 means that we need to re-think
how we receive training.

There’s no doubt that learning and development is still essential.

Many businesses will have underutilised staff on their payroll.

Now is the ideal time to upskill the workforce in preparation for the future.

Training also has the added benefit of motivating the workforce and providing a focus for the mind.

The office is out of bounds for training

 
With social distancing in operation and many workers at home, the old reality of face-to-face training needs to be re-thought.

We need to explore new alternatives and understand what will be the new normal in relation to training.

The power of technology

Thankfully, we have the power of technology to help us.

The workplace is virtually connected and we have many tools we can utilise to our advantage.

There are technology solutions from webinars to virtual training rooms to online whiteboards, which can be used to deliver in-house training remotely.

How online training can be used for in-house courses

We can deliver interactive in-house training remotely online.

There are many robust online platforms which can be successfully used to deliver training and replicate as much as possible a face-to-face envrionment.

It is, of course, important to utilise this technology effectively. It is easy for the inexperienced presenter to get it wrong.
 
At Financial Fluency we have many years of practical experience using online training room technology to deliver in-house tailored training course.

We know how to make online courses interactive and include participants in the experience. It is so important to properly engage learners and involve them in the learning process, when delivering training online.

If you would like to talk about how we can deliver our in-house training courses online and see a demonstration, please do contact us.

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As well as offering inhouse remote courses, we also offer a number of off-the-shelf online e-learning courses which still utilise a degree of interactivity.

View our full list of remote learning courses at
https://www.financial-fluency.co.uk/online-learning/full-list-of-online-courses/

It’s always the same, every December accountants are rushing to complete their annual CPD (continuing professional development) requirement.

Taking ACCA members as an example – despite having 12 months (January to December) to complete 21 hours of verifiable CPD, a large percentage leave it till December and often the last few days of December.

Sometimes with a slight panic when they can see the deadline approaching!

The CPD hockey stick

Similar to the budgeting effect in many organisations. CPD is like a hockey stick. Most of it takes place very close to the deadline of 31st December.

Why do people leave CPD until the last minute?

Have you heard of the famous quote “If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done.”?

Alas this was not said by a qualified accountant completing their CPD! It was by Rita Mae Brown an American writer, activist, and feminist. However, she did have a point!

It is easy to procrastinate one’s CPD when there are so many more urgent and more important tasks at hand. It’s only when it comes closer to 31st December that the CPD itself becomes urgent and important!

So is there anything wrong with leaving CPD till the last minute?

Many people feel the end of year holiday season when they are not working and there is less day-to-day pressure is the ideal time to complete CPD.

This may be true to some extent, however, the converse argument takes us back to the route of what CPD is all about.

Point 1: CPD is continuing professional development. It should take place on an ongoing basis and develop during the year.

Point 2: For learning to be effective it should not be crammed. Ideally learning best takes place in small increments when one has time to reflect and to implement learning points in practice.

Point 3: Fast in – Fast out. Slow in – Slow out. One’s memory works best when learning takes place in small doses.

However, perhaps this is stating the obvious and everyone knows this! Perhaps it’s just a case of practical reality which means that CPD takes place in one go at the year end.

At least people are undertaking CPD. Learning even if undertaken in not the most effective way is always better than no learning.

So how can Financial Fluency help?

Financial Fluency’s online CPD courses can help people meet the CPD deadline via e-learning. They can be undertaken anyplace / anywhere making the learning very accessible, especially when one is trying to meet a deadline!

One of the advantages of our e-learning CPD is that even if it is rushed the first time through before 31st December. It can be revisited as many times as required during the access period. Therefore, if learners uncover a key development point which would be useful in the workplace, they can always logon and repeat that part of the course.

The courses can be accessed in a non-linear fashion so it is very easy to revisit a specific part of a course. This is one way to make the learning more effective.

Find our more about our e-learning courses at financial-fluency.co.uk/online-learning

To see ACCA specific offers and information visit financial-fluency.co.uk/online-learning/acca-members

To read about our 21 hour online CPD offer visit
financial-fluency.co.uk/online-learning/acca-members/21-hours-of-acca-verifiable-cpd

CPD Year End Courses for ACCA

Complete your ACCA CPD now
whilst there is still plenty of time

The 2024 CPD year end is in
.

Are you looking for verifiable CPD hours to top up or make your allocation?

We can help with your CPD requirements

We have reasonably priced CPD courses available throughout the year.

Click on the button below to find out more about our online training courses.

Verifiable CPD

All our courses are verifiable for CPD (continuing professional development) purposes.

A verifiable certificate of completion is available for every course.

To find out more about running or attending one of our business simulations please follow the links below:

In-house business simulations for corporates and other organisations
www.financial-fluency.co.uk/financial-training-courses/financial-awareness/business-simulations

Open course for individuals
www.financial-fluency.co.uk/financial-training-courses/open-training-courses/finance-for-non-finance-business-simulation

The results

Load time = 4 times quicker
Save time = 2 times quicker
File size = 1.5 times smaller

This mainly applies to larger excel files. There is less difference for smaller excel files. See below for the basis of these results.

So what do I have to do to speed up my excel?

All you do is change the file format to xlsb. That’s it!

Tell me more!

Depending on your version of excel it will most likely default to saving as a xlsx (or potentially xls if it’s an older spreadsheet) file extension.

When saving your excel file, drop down the options menu next to “Save as type:”, just below the “File name:” box.

Choose the option called “Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb)”. See the screen grab below for an illustration:
 

So what exactly is xlsb?

xlsb is a binary file format. It’s the coding used to save the excel file, although this will be completely irrelevant to the vast majority of excel users. Binary format is an alternative to the open standard XML programming language. The binary format is specific to excel.

Will it make any difference to my excel usage?

There is no functional difference to your excel usage that you will notice in practice.

What does a tomato have to do with excel?

Nothing! I just really liked the picture! It was a nice big to small analogy and looked more interesting than a screen shot of my folder showing reduced excel file sizes!

Are there any limitations?

Yes there are a few although these will not impact on the majority of excel users.

(1) Other spreadsheet packages will be unable to read the file. Some people import excel files into other packages, such as open office. These are now unlikely to be able to read your file. If you just stick to excel then this is not an issue. You can always get round this limitation by ‘saving as’ xlsx or xls formats.

(2) The default format of xls or xlsx supports Extensible Markup Language (XML) which is an international standard format that can used across IT systems, can be viewed with a text editor as well as other uses. Xlsb is a binary file format which does not follow these standards and cannot be read or manipulated by other IT systems. This may result in a compatibility problem if you link systems together, for example import/export excel into your accounting system. As with the above limitation this will have no impact on the majority of regular excel users.

(3) Although xlsb supports macros, you may not be able to tell if there are macros in the file, unlike xlsx has to be changed to xlsm to support macros. It is therefore advisable to change your macro settings to automatically disable macros with prompt to avoid any macro issues. At the same if you use VBA regularly you may like this feature as you don’t have to change the file type to xlsm when adding a macro &/or VBA code. If you don’t use macros or VBA then this is not an issue.

(4) There have been some reports of issues when moving between versions of excel, especially in Excel 2007. I believe Microsoft made some enhancements in 2010 onwards. So to be safe it will be safer to use this format in versions of excel after 2007 e.g. 2010 or 2013.

Do you like this tip and want more tips?

Great!
(1) Sign up below to receive free notifications of other tips by email.
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(2) Check out our open course on spreadsheet skills. Below is a link to our public excel course:
www.financial-fluency.co.uk/financial-training-courses/open-training-courses/spreadsheet-excel-skills-for-finance/
We also hold in-house corporate excel training, see link below:
www.financial-fluency.co.uk/financial-training-courses/business-it-skills/spreadsheet-excel-skills/

Source of test results
*Tested in 2012 on a generated worksheet with 10,000 rows * 1,000 columns = 10,000,000 (10^7) cells of simple chained =…+1 formulas by mike7952 an excel forum expert from Florida, USA.

Financial Fluency are delighted to welcome our online learning customers from over 30 countries around the world.

Accessibility of online learning

The above map of the world demonstrates the power of online learning to increase accessibility to CPD for many people around the globe.

Many of our global customers would not otherwise have access to courses to complete their continuing professional development (CPD) requirements.

As our online courses can be accessed from anywhere in the world, 24/7, by anyone with access to the internet.

List of Countries currently using our online CPD courses

• Australia
• Barbados
• Botswana
• Canada
• China
• Cyprus
• Dubai
• England
• France
• Germany
• Gibraltar
• Republic Of Ireland
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Malaysia
• Mauritious
• Netherlands
• Nigeria
• Northern Ireland
• Poland
• Russia
• Saudi Arabia
• Scotland
• Seychelles
• Singapore
• Sri Lanka
• South Africa
• Switzerland
• Trinidad and Tobago
• UAE (United Arab Emirates)
• UK (United Kingdom)
• USA (United States of America)
• Wales
• Zimbabwe

This reflects the global diversity of the accounting qualifications such as ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW.

Find out more about Financial Fluency’s online CPD courses

You can read more about our e-learning courses and browse our list of over 100 courses at
https://www.financial-fluency.co.uk/online-learning/

Business Commentaries

Business commentaries should be:

• Focused around the needs and requirements of the user(s)

• Appropriate in breadth and depth – anticipating the “so what” questions

• Prioritised on ‘big issues’ that will likely be of most relevance

• Concise in style yet precise in language

• Commercially focused i.e. add value

Mastering ‘The 3 Cs’

The skills of business writing can be summarised by focusing on the 3Cs
 

In-house training in business writing skills

Financial Fluency has developed a focused course on business writing which can be tailored to your organisation.

Read our course description for more information at
www.financial-fluency.co.uk/financial-training-courses/professional-development/business-writing-skills