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Data

Resources covering data analytics and big data, data handling, data protection and GDPR, and data presentation.

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Tech and audit

Analytics in external audit: current practice and trends

Explore how audit firms are using data analytics, the barriers slowing wider adoption, and the practical steps firms, vendors, methodology providers and regulators can take to support more effective, technology-enabled audits.
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Data Protection and Privacy

Data protection and privacy

All organisations that collect, store or process personal information on living and identifiable people must comply with the Data Protection Act 2018. Additional resources can be found on the GDPR (now the Data Protection Act 2018 in the UK).
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Data Analytics Community

Data Analytics Community

As data analytics plays an increasingly pivotal role in supporting audit, assurance and business decision-making, this ICAEW community will help finance professionals develop the advanced data analytics and visualisation skills needed to succeed in this insight-driven era.
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Data analytics

Get advanced data analysis, from number crunching and spreadsheets to decision-support and strategy, including access to useful and practical Excel guidance. Plus, find out how big data is used and can benefit the accountancy profession.


Back to Basics Creating Effective Data Visualisations with Power BI and Excel
  • Event
  • 21 Aug 2026
Data analytics for external auditors: current landscape, challenges and future direction
  • Webinar
  • 28 Jul 2026
This webinar brings together insights from ICAEW’s updated report and leading voices across the profession to explore current practice, key challenges and what’s next for data analytics in external audit.
Analytics in external audit: current practice and trends
  • Report
  • 28 Jul 2026
Explore how audit firms are using data analytics, the barriers slowing wider adoption, and the practical steps firms, vendors, methodology providers and regulators can take to support more effective, technology-enabled audits.
Technology, talent and operating models: re-designing the mid-tier firm
  • Article
  • 17 Jul 2026
For mid-tier accountancy firms, technology, talent and operating models are becoming ever more tightly interwoven. ICAEW’s 2026 Evolution of Mid-Tier Accountancy Firms research highlights how investment in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) is driving new thinking about workforce design, skills development and career pathways, with many firms still working through the implications.
Data Analytics for External Auditors Current Landscape Challenges and Future Direction
  • Event
  • 19 Jun 2026
How helpful is FRC’s guidance on generative and agentic AI?
  • Article
  • 06 May 2026
Pioneering new guidance from the Financial Reporting Council seeks to bring audit firms up to speed on the risks and benefits of generative and agentic artificial intelligence technologies.
How hospitality teams are embracing real-time analytics
  • Article
  • 17 Apr 2026
With so many cost pressures facing hospitality businesses, the ability to analyse data in real time has never been more important for cost management.
Three new roles finance teams might expect within the next five years
  • Article
  • 07 Apr 2026
Increasing automation over the past two decades has gradually been transforming finance teams. Since then, AI has taken the world by storm and businesses have been quick to leverage its capabilities, creating potential for new roles within the next five years.
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Data protection and privacy

Cyber round-up: March 2024
  • Article
  • 27 Mar 2024
This month we look at what can be learned from state-sponsored cyber attacks, how to avoid falling victim to increasingly sophisticated account takeover scams, and the ICO guidance on levels of fines for data breaches.
Accountability: building trust and ethics in the digital age
  • Article
  • 05 Mar 2024
New technologies are a force for good – they fuel innovation, improve efficiencies, enhance communication, and increase productivity – but they also raise new challenges that can be harmful. We’ve witnessed in recent years how technology has had undesirable consequences, with data breaches and online surveillance resulting in widespread concerns over privacy, security, and the spread of disinformation. This has eroded trust in businesses and institutions, while simultaneously knocking the confidence of businesses to fully embrace technological change.
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Join the Excel Community

Do you use Excel in your organisation? Are you using it to its maximum potential? Develop your skills and minimise spreadsheet risk with our Excel resources. Membership is free to ICAEW members. Non-ICAEW members are also welcome to join. 

Find out more Already a member? login here
A colourful wooden abacus placed on a wooden surface, featuring multiple rows of beads in vibrant colours used for counting or basic arithmetic.

Excel community

The Excel Community provides a 'one-stop shop' for accountants who want to use Excel.
Exclusive Number formats again – a custom number format can be just a click away
  • Article
  • 07 Sep 2026
We cover the subject of Excel number formats with some regularity in the Excel community. In the second part of this short series we are going to consider how to make the new custom format as easy to apply as possible.
How to Excel: Using INDEX as Excel’s grid reference function
  • Article
  • 03 Sep 2026
The INDEX function comes into its own on two-dimensional grids, explains Excel expert Giles Male. Find out how INDEX works in grids, why it is still useful and how it can return whole rows and columns.
How to Excel: COUNT, COUNTA and COUNTIFS functions
  • Article
  • 27 Aug 2026
In the latest instalment of our How to Excel series, Excel expert Fay Bordbar looks at three functions that are best deployed for counting tasks, but which serve subtly different purposes.
Exclusive Returning a subset of data with just one formula
  • Article
  • 26 Aug 2026
This month, I thought I’d be lazier than usual – if that’s possible! I want to return selected data from a larger data table with just one formula.
Exclusive Edinburgh Fringe: Excel comedy laced with tips, and flat earth believers
  • Article
  • 26 Aug 2026
Excel experts Giles Male and Fay Bordbar, founders of ‘Excel on the Road’, reflect on how a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe, featuring comedy, spreadsheets and a flooded venue, offers lessons in making technical ideas engaging, memorable and resilient to the unexpected.
Exclusive Number formats again – creating a custom number format
  • Article
  • 21 Aug 2026
We cover the subject of Excel number formats with some regularity in the community, but with thousands of new members joining each year, it’s a subject worth returning to. In this first part of a short series, we will look at why number formatting is so important and how to master its intricacies.
How to Excel: don’t abuse the IF Function
  • Article
  • 20 Aug 2026
Excel’s IF function is one of the most important in the finance profession's modelling arsenal, but can tip over into being over-used, adding complexity and unreliability to your spreadsheet. 
A refreshed look at defining spreadsheet competency
  • Article
  • 19 Aug 2026
Spreadsheet skills are often learned on the job, making it hard to define what “good” looks like. ICAEW’s recently updated Spreadsheet Competency Framework brings consistency and a more practical way to assessing and developing skills, reflecting how new Excel functionality, automation and AI are changing the way we work.
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