Excel
The default tool the entire business world calculates in.
What it is
About Excel
Excel handles everything from simple lists to complex financial models, forecasting, pivot tables and macros. Its ubiquity means it's frequently the first tool used for demand forecasting, budgeting, scheduling and ad-hoc analysis before a purpose-built system takes over, and remains the common denominator that every stakeholder can open and understand.
What you can do with it
Capabilities
Build budgets, schedules and forecasts with formulas and functions
Summarise and slice data with PivotTables and PivotCharts
Automate repetitive tasks with macros and VBA
Create charts and dashboards for reporting
Model scenarios with What-If Analysis, Solver and Data Tables
How to learn it
Learning Resources
Microsoft's official Excel training on Microsoft Support and Learn
YouTube channels like ExcelIsFun and Leila Gharani for practical formula and dashboard skills
Practise building a budget or forecast model from a real dataset
Exceljet.net for quick formula reference
Pro Tip
Learn structured tables and named ranges before advanced formulas — they make formulas self-documenting and stop ranges silently breaking when rows are added or removed.
Skills that use this tool
Roles that use this tool