A Taste of Things to Come

Happy holidays!

I wanted to give a little preview of the things to come, and explain where I plan to take this blog in 2017. My current plan is to focus the blog posts on three areas, with the majority in #1 or #2:

1. Learning Python (aka Getting Started with Python4CPAs): Learning oriented posts focused on helping newcomers to Python get started. The examples will be geared toward accountants, however they will be applicable to anyone looking to learn Python. 


2. Using Python in Accounting: These posts will mostly explore the meat of where Python really shines, and where it will be the most awesome for CPAs, which are the modules. The quick and dirty: you can "import" various modules into your code, and add the ability to implement some incredibly powerful capabilities with just a few lines of code.  Python at its core comes with standard modules in its "standard library", which has tons of awesome things in it. Then there are the 3rd party modules, which can be easily downloaded from pypi, which currently has over 95,000 Python packages! We'll explore which modules from both the standard library and pypi are most useful and how to use them, and then how to link them together.


3. Everything Else: the other posts will be for posts that don't fit into the first two categories, like this post, or real life examples of Python in accounting, general observations, or other big picture topics.

What's comping up the pipeline?

Here's a sample of what we've got planned:

Learning python

• Python basics: lists, dictionaries, tuples, and functions
• Resources for Python learning outside the scope of this blog
• Installing and managing 3rd party packages

Using Python in Accounting

• Jupyter Notebook - Documenting code, analysis, and results, and how it can be used in an audit
• Pandas (aka the Excel killer) - Importing, analyzing, and viewing tabular data 
• Importing PDF files using regular expressions
• Pyautogui - Automating repetitive tasks to save time and sanity

As always, suggestions and questions are welcome. 

Follow me @python4cpas and @dtizzlenizzle!

Cheers!

Daniel