ICAEW has created a framework for understanding and mapping finance practitioners' ability and proficiency when using spreadsheets. We outline the level of skill needed for each competency and mapped competencies we expect are needed for various job roles.
Spreadsheet risk is an area that affects many organisations, and more than most of them realise. Although eye-catching headlines about high-profile failures are the most commonly seen , the real cost for most organisations lies in under-trained staff. This leads to constant time leakage through inefficient spreadsheet use.
Furthermore, a lack of appropriate spreadsheet skills increases the risk of mistakes and errors creeping in to data upon which organisations rely to produce results and guide decision making.
ICAEW previously published Twenty principles for good spreadsheet practice to provide the most essential guidelines for efficient and safe spreadsheet use. Since publishing that guide, ICAEW identified another area where guidance is needed: laying out exactly how different spreadsheet users’ knowledge should be streamed into a simple system, and what skills are necessary for what roles.
This guide provides a common structure for discussing spreadsheet ability. It standardises a series of competency levels, which form a basis for classifying different degrees of spreadsheet expertise. The levels can be summarised as follows.
Competency levels
Basic user
A "basic" user possess the basic skills to be able to use a spreadsheet safely. They can enter data reliably and can effectively navigate the spreadsheet.
General user
General users are familiar with a broad range of spreadsheet features. In straightforward scenarios, they can use formulas, manipulate data and develop reports for presenting data to others.
Creator
Creators are tasked with creating spreadsheets to meet the needs of their organisation. This requires an understanding of the core features of a spreadsheet. They can explain multi layered calculations and extend the spreadsheet functionality through links to other systems for data exchange.
Developer
Developers are specialists who utilise knowledge from non spreadsheet domains to enhance a spreadsheet's functionality. This may be through programming expertise, knowledge of modelling standards or awareness of working with large data sets.
Each of the competency levels should be viewed as a minimum requirement for the given role. Our recommendation is that all individuals who access an organisation’s spreadsheets should, at a minimum, be at the basic level. Similarly, those who design spreadsheets for an organisation should, at a minimum, be at the creator level.
The four competency levels comprise 82 individual competencies that are outlined in detail in the Framework. These individual competencies have been reviewed and updated following the original 2016 publication of the Framework to include significant developments in spreadsheet features in the subsequent 10 years. Considering developments in Microsoft Excel, this includes significant enhancement for cloud support (eg, version history and AutoSave), formula calculation (eg, dynamic arrays and LAMBDA functions) and other automation support (eg, Office Scripts and Python). Other spreadsheet applications, such as Google Sheets, have had comparable feature upgrades.
Sweeping changes have affected the broader world of data and information with the recent developments of large language models and general availability of AI. This has been reflected in the framework with six new competencies that outline the skills required to safely and effectively use this technology in the context of spreadsheet use and development.
This second edition of the Spreadsheet Competency Framework develops the updated list of competencies by linking them to specific groups of spreadsheet users. Various user roles have been considered within the finance domain (eg, auditor, financial modeller). Recognition has also been given to the use of spreadsheets in non-financial contexts, in particular its use in education to develop students’ and teachers’ computational thinking skills and to prepare students for technical roles.
This provides a simple guide for those wishing to recruit others into a role, and also for those looking for an objective way to understand their own level of spreadsheet competence. The structured approach supersedes the ambiguous claim, familiar to many CVs, of being "proficient with Microsoft Excel". By creating a simple structure for assessing spreadsheet ability, the framework introduces the language for discussing what different roles require, and what abilities different people have.
Below is an interactive summary of the competency framework. Click through each section, in the left-hand column, to explore the framework.
Job roles
To help users in applying the framework, we have mapped the competencies to a series of job roles. For each role we have states which skills are core to the role and which could be beneficial, alongside the competency level which is expected.
More support via our dashboard
We have built a unique Microsoft Power BI dashboard allowing users to explore the Spreadsheet Competency Framework and all of the Excel content from icaew.com, and the ION archive, in one place.
Explore the framework in more detail and filter it by section, role, level and relevance to learn how it can apply to you or your organisation.