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Spreadsheets for Accounting Flashcards

6 cards from real AAT L3 practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.

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  1. Which feature in Excel allows you to protect the formulas in a spreadsheet from being accidentally changed?

    Answer: Sheet protection (with locked cells)

    Cell locking combined with sheet protection prevents users from editing specified cells (typically formula cells); input cells can remain unlocked, so data can be entered without risking formula changes.

  2. The Excel TEXT function is used to:

    Answer: Format a number as text with a specified format

    TEXT(value, format_text) converts a number to text with a specified format code — for example, =TEXT(A1,'dd/mm/yyyy') formats a date serial number as a readable date string.

  3. When preparing a payroll spreadsheet, which function could be used to look up an employee's pay rate from a separate table based on their employee code?

    Answer: VLOOKUP

    VLOOKUP is ideal for retrieving employee pay rates from a lookup table using the employee code as the lookup value — a common use of VLOOKUP in payroll and HR spreadsheets.

  4. Which of the following describes the purpose of the 'Goal Seek' function in Excel?

    Answer: It calculates what input value is needed to achieve a specific output value in a formula

    Goal Seek (under What-If Analysis) finds the input value needed for a formula to produce a desired result — for example, what sales level is needed to achieve a target profit.

  5. In a well-designed accounting spreadsheet, a control total is used to:

    Answer: Verify that data entered equals expected totals, providing a check on completeness and accuracy

    Control totals are independent checks built into a spreadsheet — for example, checking that the sum of individual entries equals an independently calculated total, catching entry errors or omissions.

  6. Which of the following is a risk of using spreadsheets for critical accounting data?

    Answer: Formula errors, version control problems, and lack of audit trail can lead to material errors

    Spreadsheet risks include formula errors (which may go undetected), lack of access controls, version control issues (wrong version used), and limited audit trails — all of which can result in material errors in financial data.