Course overview

Forecasting is irrelevant unless you can accurately measure your current business performance. Learn how to use Excel and its related tools to effectively analyse your business.

Beginning with the advent of Power Pivot in Excel 2010, we now have database-like computational power on our desktops, where we can summarise multi-dimensional PivotTables.

This course shows you how you may create bespoke calculations, charts, dashboards and reports using two of Microsoft’s premier tools: Power Pivot and Power BI. It will demonstrate how to create more powerful PivotTable reports and dissect / display data to produce detailed information for business reporting and forecasting purposes. Power Pivot takes PivotTables to the next level and Power BI allows you to design rich and interactive analytical, interrogative tools that look like they have spent weeks in development.

During the course, you will develop a sophisticated case study exploiting many of the powerful tools and functionalities from scratch. Using hands-on examples throughout, you will learn how to convert mountains of data into key business information efficiently and present it to influence strategy.

Learning outcomes:

• Refresher on manipulating Tables and PivotTables in Excel.
• Understand how Power Pivot builds on the functionality in Excel’s native tools, such as PivotTables, Slicers and key multiple criteria functions.
• Be able to import data from a variety of electronic sources and relate them quickly to deliver key information in minutes not weeks.
• Learn how to write powerful formulae in Power Pivot's Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) language.
• Convert your knowledge of Excel into powerful and intuitive dashboards by using Power BI to automate your reports.

Who should attend

Excel users, business analysts and financial / management accountants working with large amounts of data and wanting to prepare dashboards and reports more efficiently and effectively.

This is Part 2 of the Business intelligence series: We strongly recommend you attend part 1 first, unless you already have good experience of using Power Query

Business intelligence part 1: Power Query