Accounting Exercises

Excel for Accounting · Bookkeeping · Payroll

Accounting.
Learned by doing.

Real accounting tasks in a real spreadsheet and a real journal, right in your browser. Every answer checked in a second.

Start practicing freeContinue practicing See pricing

No sign-up needed. The first exercise of every lesson is free.Welcome back. Pick up where you left off.

The real exercise, recorded as it is: every answer checked by code, every mistake explained.

Everything you need to practice.
Nothing you don't.

Checked by code

Right or wrong, in a second.

Your formulas run, and every result is compared with a correct solution. Journal entries are checked line by line and must balance. Wrong cells turn red with a hint about why.

Generated

New numbers. Every time.

Press New numbers for the same task with a different company and different amounts. You learn the method, not the answer.

Spreadsheet

A real one, in your browser.

SUMIFS, XLOOKUP, PMT, DDB, fill down, dollar-sign references, PivotTables and charts. Nothing to install.

Journal

Post it. See it.

A journal entry form and a chart of accounts, with T-accounts that post your lines as you type.

MO-220 practice

Practice for the exam.

Hands-on tasks built around the published Excel for Accounting Associate objectives, with timed checkpoints and a 50-minute mock exam.

Why practice beats reading about it.

Most people learn accounting twice. First from a textbook, a lecture or a video, where it all makes sense. Then again on the job, in front of a spreadsheet and a ledger, where it suddenly doesn't. The second time is the one that sticks, because you are doing the work instead of watching someone else do it.

Accounting Exercises skips straight to the second part. Every lesson puts a real task in front of you, such as a bank statement that doesn't match the books, an asset to depreciate or a month of entries to post, and asks you to do it. You get instant, specific feedback, and you can try again with new numbers until it's automatic.

There's also a gap we wanted to fill. Microsoft's own page for the MO-220 Excel for Accounting Associate exam says:

“No training available for this exam.”

Microsoft Learn, MO-220 certification page

The exam is hands-on, so the practice should be hands-on too.

Ten minutes at a time.

Each exercise takes five to fifteen minutes, so you can do one on a lunch break or before class. Lessons go from easy to hard in small steps: one adjusted balance, then the reconciling items from a check register, then the whole reconciliation. You move on when the code says you got it right, so gaps don't pile up, and your progress is saved as you go.

Do the work instead of watching it.

Watching someone build a depreciation schedule feels like learning, but it rarely survives until the next morning. Here you type every formula and every journal line yourself. When something is wrong, the cell or line is highlighted, and the most common mistakes get their own explanation, like "Deposits in transit increase the bank balance" or "Cash should be credited." You fix it, check again and remember why.

A bank reconciliation after Check: the adjusted book balance is green, the adjusted bank balance is red, and the feedback explains that deposits in transit increase the bank balance and outstanding checks reduce it.

Help when you want it. Not before.

Every exercise has hints that start gentle and get more specific, so you can get unstuck without being handed the answer. Still stuck? Open the solution and compare it with your own work: the formulas for spreadsheet tasks, every debit and credit for journal entries. Then press New numbers and prove to yourself that you can do it alone.

The task panel of a depreciation exercise with two hints open, each more specific than the last.

Practice that never runs out.

Exercises are generated, not copied from a textbook. Every version is built from the same rules and checked the same way, so two students in the same class get different companies and amounts, held to the same standard. Keep drilling the parts you find hard, in a spreadsheet that works like the ones at work (no Microsoft® Excel® license needed) or a journal with live T-accounts.

A cash sale recorded in the journal: Cash debited and Service Revenue credited, marked correct, with both lines posted to T-accounts below.

One place for the whole job.
From the first entry to the dashboard.

A bank reconciliation in the spreadsheet, checked cell by cell.
Spreadsheet tasksFormulas run and are checked on their results.
A journal entry with its lines posted to T-accounts.
Journal entriesChecked line by line, posted to T-accounts.
A PivotTable summarizing a general ledger by account and month.
PivotTablesSummarize a ledger by account, month or department.
A column chart of revenue and expenses by month in the chart builder.
ChartsThe right chart, clean ranges, a title and alt text.
A timed MO-220 practice checkpoint with the clock counting down.
Timed testsCheckpoints and a mock exam against the clock.

Ready for the job, the interview and the exam.

Spreadsheet and bookkeeping skills show up in nearly every accounting, payroll and finance job, and employers increasingly test them. In one 2025 survey, 76% of employers said they use skills tests when hiring. Those tests look a lot like these exercises: a short task, a sheet or a ledger, and a clock.

The Excel-for-accounting lessons follow the MO-220 objectives: organizing data for a trial balance, analyzing financial statements with ratios, and routine work such as amortization, bank reconciliations, receivables and payables, payroll and depreciation.

Try a depreciation schedule

No sign-up necessary. An account is only needed later, to save progress across devices or unlock every lesson.

A timed checkpoint: an income statement to build from an adjusted trial balance, with 29:59 left on the clock.

How it works.

  1. Read the task.

    Each exercise describes a real situation and what's needed, like a manager or an exam would, without telling you which function to use.

  2. Do the work.

    Type formulas into the highlighted cells, or choose accounts and amounts in the journal.

  3. Check it.

    Right cells and lines turn green; wrong ones turn red, with a hint about why.

  4. Repeat.

    Use hints if you're stuck, compare with the solution, then try a fresh version until you get it right first time.

Three courses. One ledger.

Start with debits and credits, jump straight to the spreadsheet tasks your job or course needs, or work through payroll from hours to the journal entry. The first exercise of every lesson is open to everyone.

Excel for Accounting

5 modules · 39 lessons

Spreadsheet essentials for accountants6
Prepare accounting data for analysis9
Prepare a trial balance6
Prepare and analyze financial statements9
Perform routine accounting activities9

Start with Relative and absolute references

Bookkeeping

10 modules · 43 lessons

Foundations4
Recording transactions7
Ledger and trial balance4
Adjusting entries7
Financial statements4
Closing the books3
Cash, receivables and payables5
Inventory4
Long-term assets and liabilities4
Month-end practice1

Start with The accounting equation

Payroll

3 modules · 10 lessons

Gross pay3
Deductions and net pay4
Recording payroll3

Start with Hourly pay and overtime

The courses connect: the bank reconciliation and depreciation exercises share companies and numbers, so you build the schedule in the spreadsheet and record the entry in the journal. See all lessons

Made for people who need it to be true.

Students

Accounting and bookkeeping students who want to turn lectures and homework into skills they can use.

Career-changers

Career-changers moving into bookkeeping, payables, receivables or payroll, who need to show on day one that they can do the work.

Junior accountants

Junior accountants and analysts whose résumé says "proficient in Excel" and who would like that to be completely true before month-end close.

MO-220 candidates

Anyone preparing for MO-220 who wants realistic, hands-on tasks to practice on before booking the exam.

For instructors.

Teaching accounting, bookkeeping or an Excel-for-accounting course? Instructors get free access. Every student gets their own numbers, so answers can't be shared, and every answer is checked on submission, so there's nothing to grade by hand. The free exercises work in class tomorrow, with no accounts to set up.

Questions.

Is it really free?

The first exercise of every lesson is free, with no sign-up, in Excel for Accounting, Bookkeeping and Payroll. You can repeat it with new numbers as often as you like. Premium unlocks every exercise in every lesson; see pricing.

Do I need Microsoft® Excel® installed?

No. The exercises run in a spreadsheet inside your browser, on any recent computer. The formulas you learn are the same ones you'll use in Excel at work.

How are my answers checked?

By code, never by opinion. Your formulas run and every result is compared with a correct solution; journal entries are compared line by line and must balance. That's why feedback is instant and consistent.

Is this an official MO-220 course?

No. Accounting Exercises offers independent MO-220 practice built around the published exam objectives. It isn't affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Microsoft or Certiport, and it doesn't use real exam questions.

Are the payroll exercises based on real tax rules?

No. Payroll exercises use clearly labelled example rates or give you the amounts, so you practice the method. They are not tax advice and not current tax law.

Can I practice on my phone?

Yes. The bigger spreadsheet tasks are easier on a laptop or tablet.

I'm completely new to accounting. Where should I start?

Start with Debits and credits in the bookkeeping course. Each exercise has hints and a solution, and you can repeat any exercise with new numbers as often as you like.

Reconcile your first bank statement.

About ten minutes. Free. No account needed.

Start the free exercise