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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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SMEs must wise up to cyber security risks
the 21st-century evolution of cyber security
Iain Murray, Director of Public Financial Management, CIPFA
Person sat at a table using a tablet computer.
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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Insights

Leading data-led decision making in local government

Finance professionals are pivotal in ensuring local authority decisions on service delivery are grounded in robust data analysis. CIPFA’s Iain Murray outlines the role of finance teams in ensuring data-led decision-making and the skills required for success.
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Insights

In the nick of time: EU grants UK data protection adequacy decision

With the 30 June deadline approaching, the EU has agreed an adequacy decision for the UK, allowing the free flow of personal data from the EU to the UK to continue.
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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.


Future-proofing the profession: the Next Generation ACA
  • Article
  • 16 Jul 2025
The role of finance professionals is changing and ICAEW has responded by evolving its flagship qualification to ensure that members have the knowledge, skills and critical thinking to thrive as technology and sustainability reshape the workplace and the economy.
Using data and technology to drive innovation in internal audit
  • Webinar
  • 20 Jun 2025
This engaging webinar recording delves into the cutting-edge trends in data, technology, and internal audit tools.
Suralink’s Workpaper Suite: A Fully Integrated Request-to-Test Solution
  • Article
  • 12 Jun 2025
Manual work, disjointed systems and missed deadlines are making it harder for firms to keep up. Some teams waste hours formatting and linking documents, struggle with version control, and can fall behind schedule – putting client relationships and profitability at risk.
Data: a new emerging type of intangible
  • Report
  • 12 Jun 2025
This report, commissioned by ICAEW’s Charitable Trusts, explores whether and how data can yield economic benefits, and whether its omission from financial statements hinders decision-making for users of those reports.
How to secure vital AI skills and an engaged workforce
  • Article
  • 21 Mar 2025
How should the UK nurture the skill sets that will underpin the AI-driven future of enterprise and accountancy? Members voiced their ideas for action in a round table.
CAW and Ipsos Research - AI and the future of the global chartered accountancy profession
  • Event
  • 12 Mar 2025
Data analytics for auditors: five essentials
  • Article
  • 07 Mar 2025
Data analytics is often overlooked in favour of flashier technologies, but it is a critical skill set for the modern auditor.
How to navigate software platform migration
  • Article
  • 25 Feb 2025
Whether driven by cost, functionality, security or compliance, software migration is a complex process that requires careful planning. ICAEW highlights key considerations for practices and businesses looking to migrate.
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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. 

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Excel community

The Excel Community provides a 'one-stop shop' for accountants who want to use Excel.
Exclusive Calculating car financing rates
  • Article
  • 18 Jul 2025
Liam Bastick explains how to calculate the interest rate on a car loan, using Excel's RATE function and first principles to verify the quoted rate.
Network and learn with your peers in 2025
  • Article
  • 16 Jul 2025
ICAEW hosts a variety of virtual and in-person events that members can attend for free, hearing from experts while sharing knowledge with their peers. Discover what’s going on for the rest of the year and how to sign up.
Exclusive Excel, what’s occurrin’ 12 – a fresh way to deal with stale values
  • Article
  • 14 Jul 2025
This series looks at some of the things that can go wrong in an Excel spreadsheet and at what we can do to avoid or resolve the issue. Having dealt with a range of issues including many that cause numbers to appear not to add up correctly, for our last episode we are going to look at the most read post ever on the Excel Community and see how the key issue it concerns has now been addressed by a recent Excel enhancement.
Exclusive Reach for the stars – joining the club
  • Article
  • 08 Jul 2025
Following on from using conditional formatting in a Power BI report to highlight our 500th tips and tricks article, this time we are looking at adding stars to our on-demand courses resource page to highlight the most relevant posts for each of our 6 modules. As part of allocating stars to articles, we will look at different ways of relating tables to each other in a relational database.
Exclusive Using PowerQuery for report transformation
  • Article
  • 03 Jul 2025
This article covers an overview of how to use PowerQuery to standardise a general ledger, offering insights into automating workflows and extracting essential transaction data to make reporting more efficient.
Exclusive Reduce spreadsheet maintenance with a dynamic total row
  • Article
  • 02 Jul 2025
When data changes, it is common to update formulas to accommodate the size of the data. However, less maintenance we need to do, the more efficient we can be. So, in this article we look at how to stop updating total rows by having them move position automatically.
Exclusive Summarising weekly data monthly
  • Article
  • 17 Jun 2025
Many businesses prepare their forecasts on a weekly basis, due to needing to manage their cashflows carefully or take account of five-week rather than four-week months for performance analysis, etc. Therefore, pro-rating may be required. Liam Bastick considers three common methods of converting weekly outputs to monthly outputs.
Exclusive Excel, what’s occurrin’ 11 – optional errors
  • Article
  • 12 Jun 2025
This series looks at some of the things that can go wrong in an Excel spreadsheet and at what we can do to avoid or resolve the issue. The first six parts dealt with issues that cause numbers to appear not to add up correctly. This time, we start looking at the Excel options that can ruin your day.
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Complete the FDW eLearning course

ICAEW is collaborating with Deloitte to ensure its members and students have the knowledge and skills to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the fourth industrial revolution and to meet its challenges head on.
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Finance in a digital world