Glossary — Analytic Accountant

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Accruals Accounting Financial Analysis: A method of accounting where revenues and expenses are recorded when they are earned or incurred, regardless of when cash is actually received or paid. This gives a more accurate picture of a business's financial position than cash-basis accounting.
Amortisation Financial Analysis: The gradual write-off of an intangible asset (such as a patent or goodwill) over its useful life. Similar to depreciation but applied to intangible rather than tangible assets.

Budget Variance Financial Analysis: The difference between a budgeted (planned) figure and the actual result. A favourable variance means actual performance was better than budget; an adverse variance means it was worse.

Calculated Column Power BI: In Power BI, a column added to a table using a DAX formula that is evaluated row by row at data refresh time. Unlike measures, calculated columns are stored in the model and consume memory.
Conditional Formatting Excel: An Excel feature that automatically applies formatting (colours, icons, data bars) to cells based on their value or a formula. Commonly used in financial dashboards to highlight KPIs above or below target.

DAX Power BI: Data Analysis Expressions. A formula language used in Power BI, Power Pivot, and Analysis Services to create calculated columns, measures, and tables. DAX is optimised for working with relational data and performing aggregations.
Depreciation Financial Analysis: The systematic allocation of the cost of a tangible fixed asset over its useful economic life. Common methods include straight-line (equal annual charge) and reducing balance (higher charge in early years).

EBITDA Financial Analysis: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation. A widely used proxy for a company's core operating cash generation, stripping out financing costs and non-cash accounting charges.

Filter Context Power BI: In DAX, the set of filters applied to a calculation at evaluation time — for example, the row, column, and slicer selections in a Power BI visual. Understanding filter context is essential to writing correct measures.

GETPIVOTDATA Excel: An Excel function that retrieves data from a PivotTable by referencing field names and values rather than cell addresses. Useful for building reports that remain accurate even when the PivotTable layout changes.

IRR Financial Analysis: Internal Rate of Return. The discount rate at which the Net Present Value (NPV) of a series of cash flows equals zero. Used to evaluate the expected profitability of an investment — a higher IRR indicates a more attractive return.

KPI Business Intelligence: Key Performance Indicator. A measurable value that demonstrates how effectively a company or individual is achieving a key business objective. In Power BI, KPIs can be displayed with target comparisons and trend indicators.

Measure Power BI: In Power BI, a DAX formula that calculates a value dynamically based on the current filter context. Unlike calculated columns, measures are not stored in the model — they are computed on the fly when a visual renders.

Named Range Excel: A defined name in Excel that refers to a cell or range of cells. Named ranges make formulas easier to read and maintain — for example, using `=Revenue - CostOfSales` rather than `=B12 - B13`.
NPV Financial Analysis: Net Present Value. The difference between the present value of cash inflows and outflows over a period of time. A positive NPV indicates that projected earnings from an investment exceed the anticipated cost.

Power Query Excel: A data transformation and connection technology available in Excel and Power BI. Power Query lets you connect to, clean, reshape, and combine data from a wide range of sources using a visual interface or its M formula language.

Relationship Power BI: In Power BI's data model, a link between two tables based on a common column (key). Relationships allow measures to filter across tables — for example, linking a Sales table to a Date table to enable time intelligence.
Rolling Average Financial Analysis: An average calculated over a fixed number of periods that moves forward through time — for example, a 3-month or 12-month rolling average. Used to smooth short-term fluctuations and reveal underlying trends.

Star Schema Business Intelligence: A data modelling pattern used in Power BI and data warehousing where a central fact table (containing transactional data) is surrounded by dimension tables (containing descriptive data such as dates, products, or customers).
SUMIFS Excel: An Excel function that sums values in a range based on one or more criteria. A cornerstone of financial reporting in Excel — used to aggregate data by date range, category, or any other attribute.

Time Intelligence Power BI: A category of DAX functions that simplify calculations over time periods, such as year-to-date totals, period-over-period comparisons, and rolling averages. Requires a properly marked date table in the data model.

Waterfall Chart Business Intelligence: A chart type that shows how an initial value is affected by a series of positive and negative contributions to arrive at a final value. Widely used in finance to visualise P&L movements, budget variances, and cash flow bridges.
Working Capital Financial Analysis: The difference between a company's current assets (cash, receivables, inventory) and current liabilities (payables, short-term debt). A measure of short-term liquidity and operational efficiency.

XLOOKUP Excel: An Excel function introduced in Microsoft 365 that searches a range for a value and returns a corresponding result from another range. It replaces VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP, supporting vertical and horizontal lookups, exact and approximate matching, and returning arrays.

Year-to-Date Financial Analysis: The period from the beginning of the current financial or calendar year to the present date. Commonly abbreviated as YTD and used in financial reporting to track cumulative performance against budget.

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