Why you should include Excel competency tests in your accountant hiring campaign

When hiring accountants, many organizations simply focus on candidates’ degrees or educational backgrounds.

However, overlooking important competencies, such as Excel skills, can lead to hiring people who may look good on paper but struggle with essential accounting tasks. This can damage your finance department’s productivity, morale, and client relationships. 

An Excel competency test can help you avoid these challenges. Below, we'll discuss what an Excel test measures, the key benefits it offers, and why it’s essential when hiring accountants.

What is an Excel competency test? 

An Excel competency test is an assessment that evaluates an individual’s skill level and proficiency in using Microsoft Excel, a popular spreadsheet application. It assesses a candidate’s ability to understand and analyze Excel spreadsheets, execute standard computations, and manage data in tables. 

The test can range from basic to advanced to test different skill levels. These cater to different accounting roles requiring proficiency in data management, analysis, and reporting.

Why are Excel skills important for accountants?

Simply put, accountants need solid Excel skills to do every part of their job effectively. Accountants use Excel for various tasks, including:

• Data organization: Excel enables accountants to organize vast amounts of financial data into manageable spreadsheets, making it easier to locate and work with specific figures.

• Complex calculations: In Excel, accountants can effortlessly perform calculations – from basic arithmetic to intricate financial analyses – using formulas and functions. 

• Financial reporting: Accountants skilled in Excel can create detailed financial reports – including cash flow and income statements, balance sheets, etc. – which are essential for financial planning and decision-making.

• Automation and efficiency: Excel’s macros and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) scripting allow accountants to automate tasks such as data entry and report generation, improving efficiency and reducing human error.

• Budgeting and forecasting: Using Excel, accountants can develop financial models for budgeting and forecasting so businesses can plan their finances and anticipate future financial performance.

• Data analysis: The data analysis tools in Excel – e.g., pivot tables and data filtering – allow accountants to analyze large datasets, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions.

• Error checking and compliance: Excel's conditional formatting and data validation functions help accountants quickly find mistakes and keep data accurate, making it easier to follow financial reporting standards like the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) or the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The benefits of using Excel competency tests when hiring accountants

In an accountant hiring campaign, an Excel competency test helps you cut through the noise and find the pros who truly excel (no pun intended).

1. Avoid costly mis-hires

Using an Excel competency test in your campaign helps avoid the consequences of a mis-hire, such as decreased productivity or the cost of hiring a replacement. 

For example, an accountant lacking Excel skills might take longer to complete financial models or make errors in budget spreadsheets, slowing down your entire finance department’s output. You might end up having to let this accountant go and restart the hiring process.

When replacing the unfit candidate, there are further recruitment costs involved in sourcing and screening new candidates, as well as the additional time and resources needed for onboarding and training the new hire. 

With an Excel skills test, you get it right the first time – picking candidates who can effectively navigate tasks, preventing bottlenecks and errors that would otherwise hurt team performance and project timelines.

2. Benchmark candidate skills

Excel competency tests give you a standardized method to evaluate all candidates on a shared basis. 

For instance, when two applicants claim to have "advanced Excel skills" on their resumes, a structured test can quantify these claims and show who truly understands complex functions like VLOOKUP or pivot tables. 

This benchmarking process eliminates guesswork, allowing you to objectively compare candidates' skills beyond their self-reported proficiency.

3. Reduce bias

By standardizing the evaluation process through an Excel test, you minimize unconscious biases that arise from traditional resume screening or interviews. An accountant candidate who might not perform as confidently in an interview setting, for example, but thrives in practical Excel tasks can still be recognized for their technical abilities. 

This promotes fairness while helping you identify the best talent for the accountant role based on quantifiable skills directly related to job performance.

4. Improve the candidate experience 

Using Excel tests during hiring helps accountant candidates understand what’s expected of them in the role. They get a fair chance to show what they can do, such as reconciling financial statements or analyzing cash flow projections.

Talent assessments improve the candidate experience by allowing individuals to showcase their skills in an objective evaluation process. They also show that you’re serious about hiring someone based on their skills. All this can help increase candidates’ interest in the role and their likelihood of accepting a job offer if you extend one.

5. Reduce training costs 

Using Excel tests in hiring also helps save on training costs. By ensuring candidates have strong Excel skills up front, your company can focus training on advanced topics, such as financial modeling or forensic accounting, rather than teaching basic spreadsheet functions all over again. 

This means your new accountants can get up to speed faster and start contributing to your organization’s goals sooner. 

6. Improve teamwork 

When all team members know Excel, accountants collaborate more smoothly and efficiently. 

For example, when accountants review financial reports, having shared workbooks in Excel ensures everyone is referencing the same data, leading to clearer communication and fewer misunderstandings. 

Team-wide Excel competency also helps ensure your new hires don’t disrupt existing workflows or decide to leave due to knowledge barriers. 

7. Enhance compliance and accuracy 

When you incorporate Excel competency tests in your accountant hiring campaign, you help ensure accuracy and compliance at your company. 

This is because these tests check candidates’ skills to detect errors using Excel’s conditional formatting function. Excel skills tests can also measure candidates’ ability to use the software’s auditing features to maintain a record of edits and comments made within financial reports.

These skills are vital for maintaining the integrity of financial statements and adhering to financial regulations.

Assess Excel skills with TestGorilla 

So, how can you efficiently evaluate Excel skills? Which tests are ideal for your accountant hiring campaign? 

TestGorilla has you covered. Our platform offers hundreds of scientifically validated talent assessments – including two powerful Excel competency tests you can use to evaluate your accountant candidates.

Our general Excel Skills test assesses an accountant’s ability to manage and analyze data effectively, ensuring you hire experts skilled in data-driven decision-making. It evaluates fundamental accounting tasks such as sheet basics, table management, and applying formulas and functions. 

We also have an Advanced Excel test, which checks whether your accountant candidates can use complex Excel features and formulas to organize data and extract insights. It also focuses on report generation and creating visualizations in Excel.

For the best results, pair our Excel skills tests with basic Excel interview questions or advanced Excel interview questions. This way, after your accountant candidates complete their assessments, they can show you their knowledge, adaptability, and thought processes in real time. 

Combine Excel tests with other talent assessments 

Excel competency tests are crucial for hiring accountants who can efficiently manage financial data, analyze trends, and create accurate reports. 

Without these skills, your new accountants won’t be able to perform essential tasks, resulting in errors, delays, and compromised financial decision-making.

Luckily, TestGorilla’s Excel tests are straightforward and fast to complete, so you can easily find accountants who truly know their stuff. To get a complete view of your candidates, combine Excel skills tests with our other expert-created tests that evaluate job-specific skills, personality traits, cognitive abilities, and more.

Start your accountant hiring campaign today with a free TestGorilla account. You can also schedule a free live demo or take a product tour to see all that TestGorilla has to offer.