Data Extraction Techniques for Spreadsheet Records

Many accounting applications use spreadsheets as repositories of accounting records, and a common requirement is the need to extract specific information from them. This paper describes a number of techniques that accountants can use to perform such tasks directly using common spreadsheet tools. These techniques include (1) simple and advanced filtering techniques, (2) database functions, (3) methods for both simple and stratified sampling, and, (4) tools for finding duplicate or unmatched records.