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Instructor
Instructor
Instructor
Mac McClelland, an attorney and accounting professional, is an associate of K2 Enterprises of Hammond, Louisiana, and Network Management Group of Hutchinson, Kansas.
Mac was formerly the director of the Centre for Financial Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he lived and worked for seven years from 1990 to 1997. He was also a member of the faculty of the Advanced Business Programme, ranked in the top 100 MBA programs in the world by The Economist, specializing in business strategy and strategic management accounting.
He gained his practical experience in information systems with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and has an established practice in business and technology consulting. Mac has taught hundreds of continuing professional education seminars to accountants and business managers in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Southeast Asia. His presentations are highly rated, and he has won several awards for teaching excellence.
Mac has been published in leading business and practitioner journals, including Tax Ideas, Computers in Accounting, Journal of Accounting Education, Chartered Accountants Journal of New Zealand, and the top-rated Journal of Accounting Research.
Excel remains one of the most powerful—and most underutilized—tools in the accounting professional's toolkit, and this focused one-day conference is dedicated to changing that. Sessions cover the unified Microsoft 365 ecosystem advantage, the transformative capabilities of Dynamic Arrays, advanced statistical analysis and forecasting using Excel's analytical engines, and how Microsoft Copilot can supercharge productivity for even experienced Excel users. Key takeaways include implementing real-time co-authoring and automated data sharing across Microsoft 365, leveraging Dynamic Arrays to automate calculations and reduce formula maintenance, applying regression analysis and forecasting functions for more accurate budgeting, and using Copilot to streamline data preparation, formula creation, and reporting.
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Anyone looking to use Excel more effectively.
Most accounting professionals use only a fraction of their Microsoft 365 subscription's power—treating Word, Excel, and Outlook as isolated tools rather than the integrated ecosystem they were designed to be. This session moves beyond basic app usage to demonstrate the unified ecosystem advantage: seamless integration of data, security, and user provisioning that allows a firm to operate as one cohesive unit. Attendees will explore real-time co-authoring, automated data sharing between Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint, and the strategic shift from file servers to a cloud-centric environment. Key takeaways include identifying integration opportunities across Microsoft 365 applications, implementing co-authoring workflows in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, utilizing automated features within Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint, and differentiating cloud-based file sharing from traditional file servers.
Dynamic arrays are one of Excel's most powerful yet widely overlooked capabilities, and most business professionals have no idea what they are missing. This focused session demystifies dynamic arrays, showing participants how to reduce time spent creating and maintaining formulas while simultaneously improving accuracy across financial models, reports, and large data sets. Attendees will learn how dynamic arrays differ from traditional formulas, which functions support them, and how to harness them for automating calculations and accessing external data sources. Key takeaways include comparing dynamic arrays to traditional Excel formulas, identifying functions that natively support dynamic arrays, using dynamic arrays to automate manual calculations, and linking external data sources directly within Excel workflows.
The role of the financial professional has shifted from reporting on the past to predicting the future—and this session bridges the gap between traditional accounting and modern data science using Excel's most powerful analytical engines. Participants will explore the Analysis ToolPak for deep statistical analysis, leverage Dynamic Arrays to build fluid, auto-updating models, and apply regression and forecasting functions for more accurate budgeting. The session also introduces AI-assisted insights and Python integration basics for 2026. Key takeaways include listing categories of business analytics and their accounting applications, utilizing the Analysis ToolPak to generate descriptive statistics, implementing regression analysis to identify performance drivers, using Dynamic Array functions for automated statistical reporting, and analyzing emerging AI and Python integrations for advanced modeling.
Mac McClelland, an attorney and accounting professional, is an associate of K2 Enterprises of Hammond, Louisiana, and Network Management Group of Hutchinson, Kansas.
Mac was formerly the director of the Centre for Financial Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he lived and worked for seven years from 1990 to 1997. He was also a member of the faculty of the Advanced Business Programme, ranked in the top 100 MBA programs in the world by The Economist, specializing in business strategy and strategic management accounting.
He gained his practical experience in information systems with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and has an established practice in business and technology consulting. Mac has taught hundreds of continuing professional education seminars to accountants and business managers in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Southeast Asia. His presentations are highly rated, and he has won several awards for teaching excellence.
Mac has been published in leading business and practitioner journals, including Tax Ideas, Computers in Accounting, Journal of Accounting Education, Chartered Accountants Journal of New Zealand, and the top-rated Journal of Accounting Research.
Copilot is not just for drafting emails and summarizing meetings—it is a powerful tool for transforming how professionals work in Excel. This intermediate session demonstrates how Copilot can help even advanced Excel users become more efficient, covering data preparation and cleaning, formula creation, data analysis, script writing, and visualization. Participants will leave with practical techniques they can apply immediately to reduce manual effort and surface better insights. Key takeaways include identifying options for using Copilot to streamline Excel-based tasks, analyzing data more efficiently with Copilot, applying Copilot-grounded techniques to streamline formula-building, differentiating between Copilot-based and traditional data analysis methods, and using Copilot to automate reporting and analysis workflows.