Microsoft Excel / Google Sheets
The universal, non-negotiable tool of business analysis — still how most financial models, budgets and datasets get built.
What it is
About Microsoft Excel / Google Sheets
Excel and Google Sheets let users organise data into rows and columns, apply formulas and functions, build pivot tables and charts, and automate tasks with macros (VBA in Excel, Apps Script in Sheets). Excel remains dominant for complex financial modelling and enterprise reporting, while Sheets is preferred for real-time collaboration and lightweight, cloud-native work. Between them they underpin budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis and general data-wrangling in nearly every office job.
What you can do with it
Capabilities
Build financial models, budgets and forecasts with formulas and functions
Summarise and analyse large datasets with pivot tables
Visualise data with built-in charting tools
Automate repetitive tasks with macros (VBA) or Apps Script
Collaborate in real time on shared workbooks (especially in Sheets)
How to learn it
Learning Resources
Microsoft Learn and Google Workspace Learning Centre (both free official resources)
YouTube channels like ExcelIsFun, Leila Gharani and Google Sheets tutorials
Practise sites like ExcelJet and Chandoo.org for formula and function drills
Building a real personal budget or dataset analysis end-to-end as practice
Pro Tip
Learn XLOOKUP and INDEX-MATCH and pivot tables before anything else — together they cover roughly 80% of what most business analysis actually needs a spreadsheet to do.
Skills that use this tool
Roles that use this tool