Joanne Kok, Finance Training Specialist

A finance professional first. A trainer because of it.

I spent over 35 years inside finance — as a management accountant, a finance manager, and eventually a Head of Finance — before I moved into training full-time. I teach Power BI, Excel, and AI, but what I actually teach is how to turn a finance team's numbers into something a business can act on.

FCCA · Fellow Former Head of Finance 500+ Workshops

I've sat where your finance team sits.

Before I ever stood in front of a training room, I closed the books. I built the budget. I sat across the table from a CFO who wanted answers, not a 40-slide deck. Over three decades in finance roles — culminating as Head of Finance — I lived every deadline, every messy GL export, every "can you just re-run this by tomorrow morning" request that finance teams know too well.

That is the difference between what I teach and what a generic software trainer teaches. When I show a team how to build a Power BI P&L dashboard, I am not demonstrating drag-and-drop features. I am building the exact report your CFO will open on Monday morning, because I have been the person waiting for that report to be ready.

I moved into training because I kept seeing the same gap: finance teams that were drowning in data but starved of a clear story to tell with it. Power BI, Excel, and now AI are just the tools. The real work — the work I actually teach — is turning a spreadsheet into a decision.

Verify, don't trust — especially with AI.

Understand the job, not just the tool

Every workshop I run connects the software back to real reporting, real analysis, and real decisions — because I have made those decisions myself, from the finance seat.

Verify, don't trust

AI tools are genuinely useful in finance work — and genuinely risky if you take their output at face value. I teach teams a practical habit of checking AI-generated formulas, numbers, and narrative before anything goes into a board pack.

Storytelling over slides

A report nobody reads is not a finished job. I teach teams to design for the reader's three minutes, not their own forty-page instinct — cutting a report down until every page earns its place.

Because I understand finance, I connect every tool back to real reporting, analysis, and decisions — not just features on a ribbon.

The qualifications behind the training.

  • FCCA — Fellow Chartered Certified Accountant

    Fellow-level membership of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the senior tier reserved for members with sustained, significant professional standing.

  • MSc Professional Accountancy

    University of London, 2021.

  • Google Data Analytics Certificate

    Formal training in the data analysis process, from cleaning to visualisation — the same foundation this site's Power BI and Excel workshops are built on.

  • HRD Corp Accredited Trainer

    Registered with HRD Corp (formerly HRDF), meaning eligible organisations can claim back the cost of in-house training delivered under this accreditation.

  • Train the Trainer Certified

    Formal certification in adult training methodology — not just subject expertise, but how to teach it so it sticks.

  • Certificate in Vocational Education & Training

    Further formal grounding in structured, outcomes-focused training design.

Over 35 years of finance experience, including as Head of Finance. 500+ workshops delivered.

Bring this experience to your team.

Every workshop is shaped by someone who has actually done the job — not just taught the software.

Enquire about in-house training