Steven Maki, CPA

Steven Maki, CPA - Data, Excel, and Python

Main Content

Data, Excel, and Python.

Explore data
analysis.

What we will learn

I am a professional accountant (CPA) who is passionate about exploring technology. I tackle real life business examples and cases relating to data analysis, identifying what we can do with Excel, Python, and other solutions.

An important part of this exploration involves properly defining the problems that need to be solved and how best to solve them. We will:

  1. Review the basics
  2. Clean and structure data
  3. Automate repetitive tasks
  4. Prepare meaningful stories with our data
  5. ...and so much more

Why Excel and Python?

Excel and Python are complementary. While Excel is installed on most business computers today, Python is not. This should change as Python is a powerful tool, ideal for accountants.

Consider the case of a file with one to 2 million records (rows) with fifty attributes (columns). Manipulating and performing calculations with that data is a challenge using Excel but not for Python. There are other tools to consider but as, Python is open source, it is powerful and offers great verstility via libraries.

One of my goals with this website is to identify when Python should be considered over other tools. While I will focus on Excel and Python, I will also explore other areas.

Bright light bulb

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

"Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." ― Martin Fowler

Programming is a key element of data analysis, used to perform tasks such as cleaning data, automating processes, and performing statistical analyses. I will share what I think are the good programming solutions. Best practices such as DRY (don't repeat yourself) and keeping things simple will be followed. The programming solutions will primarlily be short code snippets, eventually introducing object-oriented concepts as time goes on.

We will review what data analysis is and the role that Python and Excel can play. While I will focus on programming, I will also cover other aspects of data analysis as well.

“You've baked a really lovely cake, but then you've used dog shit for frosting.” ― Steve Jobs

This is a learning experience for me. While I am an experienced professional accountant (and work with data all the time), exploring Python is relatively new to me. I have taken some Computer Science classes and just started a Business Intelligence graduate program, so my knowledge is developing. I apologize in advance if my "cake frosting" is a little crappy. I promise it will get tasty soon. :)