How to Use Excel for Business Analysis

Excel is a program made by Microsoft that utilizes a spreadsheet to sort out numbers and information with formulas and functions. Excel analysis is pervasive throughout the planet and used by organizations, all things considered, to perform financial analysis.

In the business analyst field, advanced Excel is necessary to verify data quality. We need to check the data coming from the new system against the data from the database by applying appropriate formulas in excel. For example, if your system needs to report the value of C and the value of C is calculated by adding data from column A and Column B (A + B = C). 

This is an elementary example; we have catered to you. You compare C data from the system report against data you retrieve using SQL from the database (column A and Column B) and apply the formula manually in excel. Once you have both data, you can check if there is any variance in value, format, data, or more. This is to ensure the system is calculating and generating correct data.

Here is a business analysis certification course waiting to enhance your skills and knowledge regarding business analysis. 

How is MS Excel Essential for Business Analysis?

Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software has become integral to most business organizations worldwide. Some companies use this MS excel spreadsheet software for generating memos, tracking sales trends, and other business data. MS Excel is used for various business purposes established in many formats. 

Microsoft Excel spreadsheets come with millions of data rows and automate number order, but this popular spreadsheet software can do more than just one figure. MS Excel has a simple confluence that allows users or consumers to understand this software easily and perform basic activities.

Assigning work tasks to the team members is one of the most important jobs of managers. Managers must perform this task effectively so that the given project deadlines are met and the project is delivered successfully to the client. Managers take advantage of the MS Excel spreadsheet software Scheduling feature. 

These work schedules can be color-coded and are designed so that they get automatically updated if there is a change in the program of tasks and activities.

Small and mid-sized organizations use MS Excel spreadsheet software to carry out their accounting and practice activities. They can create a simple and basic accounting program or checkbook ledger that allows them to keep track of the organization’s financial transactions. 

To make it more unique, accountants can enter their deposits and expenditures onto each row, similar to what they do in their ledger books. By entering these data at this accurate pace, accountants also have the leverage to create more charts and graphs over time to calculate business income and expenditures.

MS Excel spreadsheet software allows business analysts’ users to track their product sales completely. By doing these, business analysts can effectively design plans to enhance their market sales. 

By maintaining a whole track of the product, business analysts get a clear picture of the progress business analysts has made over the specified time, and it also helps them to go through the high and low sales trends. 

According to one of the famous Microsoft officials, “By using these regression analyses, you can extend a trendline in your chart beyond the actual data to predict future values.”

Business analysts, establishments, and organizations use MS Excel spreadsheets for storing the vital contact information of every client and customer. This information acts as a perfect customer database for them, which in return helps them to grow sales and marketing, which eventually they can use to contact their customers. 

The advantage of storing this information in an MS Excel spreadsheet is that even though the sheet is updated or new fields have been added, it does not affect or change the content in other spreadsheet cells.

Which Excel Functions Must You Know for Business Analysis?

In most cases, any business analyst is about telling a story driven by numbers. And typical numbers calculations involve counting and summation and then converting into %age, ranks, or quartiles/deciles. You may achieve this by using functions like SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, AVERAGEIFS, QUARTILE, and RANK.

For model creation, you may want to exercise IF, AND, OR, VLOOKUP, MATCH, INDEX, INDIRECT, and LOOKUP.

Whenever possible, convert tables and numbers into graphical information using Charts and Sparklines (2013 onwards). Bar and Column graphs for comparison and Line graphs for depicting trends over some time.

The Data Analysis tool pack (Add-in) is always handy for statistical tests and inferences. Basic knowledge of statistics always helps in this context. For data cleaning and categorization: Removing Duplicates, Text to Columns, TEXT, LEFT, RIGHT, MID, DATE, EOMONTH, TIME

And last but not least – Pivots (Simple & Power Pivots) enables users to convert a large amount of data into useful information quickly.

Also, Read: Modern Tech Tools Every Entrepreneur Should Use

For excel skills, the typical items mentioned by many responding to the question are good skills. However, it will depend on where you work. In some work environments, one set of skills will be viewed more favorably than another, so take clues from your organization.

Mention One Skill from a Business Analyst’s Platform

The one specific recommendation we would make is monte-Carlo simulation; Simplilearn online learning offers a professional certificate program in business analysis; it can add a valuable dimension to your analysts’ skills under industry experts. 

This professional course will teach you how to tackle complex business problems using trending and demanding tools. Make the most of the use of this business analysis course offering a masterclass from IBM, EY, and Purdue University. 

This professional advanced certificate program brings unique techniques while working as a business analyst, like getting hands-on experience and learning the latest tools and frameworks from the agile team.

Summing Up

Using excel is very crucial in the business analyst field because it makes human life easier and simpler. Hence, we have a business analysis certification course wherein you will learn about every detail of business analysis. Hurry up to join the course from Simplilearn online learning.

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