Excel has been a part of businesses for a very long time now. Without it, business owners will have a hard time organizing papers and generating important reports for their company. No one can deny how useful Excel is for the growth of every business.
Most people use Excel for basic mathematics operations. But business owners should understand that to remain competitive, they should adapt and progress. A more advanced knowledge like VLOOKUP, INDEX MATCH, and IF-OR functions can help you do more.
Excel has been developed a long time ago, and it is continuously growing alongside its use in business. In this article, we will discuss the ways advanced Excel knowledge benefits your business. In addition to that, we will also enumerate some of the advanced Excel features and how Excel is used in businesses.
Advanced Excel Knowledge That You Need to Know
Aside from storing data and creating tables, Excel has a variety of features every business owner and their employees should know. Once you have mastered these features, you’ll see how much easier your job would be. Here are some of the advanced features in Excel for your business.
1. Formulas
Formulas make up most of the tasks you do in Excel. They make accounting jobs easier. Without them, you won’t be able to analyze the data you need for your business.
If you have huge amounts of data, looking for specific information can be time-consuming. For this task, you can use the VLOOKUP formula in Excel to find the information easily. The formula will give you the value of the data you’re looking for.
Think of it as a phonebook and you want to search for someone’s phone number. It helps you find the value (the phone number) of the data (the person’s name) you’re searching for.
If you want to know more about VLOOKUP, there are plenty of resources on the internet for you to get started. Just type in, “VLOOKUP for beginners” on the search bar and you’ll get plenty of links to choose from.
There are basic and advanced formulas for you to learn. It’s important that you at least try to make yourself familiar with the basics. If not, then you’ll have a hard time understanding advanced formulas.
2. Tables and Power Query
Expert users should know how to gather, and arrange data. This will help you present your data in a visually appealing manner. To do this, you need to have a good grasp of different Excel features like Tables and Power Query.
- Power Query – it is a tool used to connect to a variety of data sources and pre-process your data. It is also useful in finalizing and publishing data to the source system. It’s like an SQL tool but in Excel.
- Tables – Much like in Word, tables are a series of rows and columns where you arrange your data into. It is an organization tool in Excel that helps you sort out your data in a way that makes sense to you.
3. Conditional Formatting
Excel’s conditional formatting is a strong tool that is frequently neglected. When you use this feature, you can highlight sections of your data that fulfill a specific condition. It’s useful if you want to emphasize the top ten consumers or workers that perform below average. Anybody can create basic conditional formatting rules. But, a more skilled user can do more.
4. Charting
If all of your analysis can’t be seen in a huge spreadsheet, it’s pointless. Advanced knowledge on how to use charts is useful in this aspect. Much like tables, charts help you make sense of your data.
5. VBA and Macros
Excel has its own programming language – VBA. This provides you the power to instruct Excel to complete tasks. If you’re well-versed in VBA, then you will be able to maximize the use of Excel. You can create macros that can automate your daily tasks. With this, you’ll be able to save time and money.
Benefits of Having Advanced Excel Knowledge
Knowing about advanced Excel functions can help you achieve your goals for your business. Aside from that, there are other ways advanced Excel knowledge benefits your company. We listed 6 below.
1. It Helps With Employee Productivity and Efficiency
No one can deny that Excel helps boost productivity and efficiency. It enables your employees to be more productive while working with large amounts of data. Marketing teams, for example, can keep track of business sales faster and more accurately.
If you’re more familiar with Excel, you can also navigate the system faster. For example, in Microsoft Excel, several shortcuts can help you work quicker.
Data in Excel can also be used in several apps. You don’t have to re-enter the data, which is counterproductive. The easier your job is, the more you’re going to enjoy it.
Even better, it can help you with time-consuming jobs like repetitive calculations. Having knowledge of advanced Excel tools allows you to work with more complex calculations. Once you’ve typed your formula and programmed your set command, the software will do the calculations. This saves up your time for other activities.
Just imagine how much more important work you can do with this function!
2. Produce More Valuable Employees
Employees often have the desire to learn new skills. And if this desire is not met, their work motivation will be negatively affected.
By providing them with training that provides them new skills, you’re actually producing more valuable employees. Both you and your employees win in this situation. You’ll be having more efficient employees on your part. And for your employees’ part, they will feel that they are a valuable asset in your company.
These opportunities for professional growth are what make talented employees stay. You’ll be having less turnover rate, and you’ll be working with high-skilled employees.
3. Your Data Organization Will Greatly Improve
Spreadsheets are a widely-used tool for gathering and organizing data. Since it is spreadsheet software, Excel allows you to meticulously arrange all of your data. You can do this while also sorting the same data in whatever way you choose.
With Excel’s advanced features, you’ll be able to better organize your data and do computations as needed. You can also sort the data so that it can be properly analyzed and exported to visual tools for easy viewing.
4. Helps You Maximize the Use of An Existing Asset
Your Excel software is considered an asset. If your employees don’t know how to make the most of them, they are underutilized. Advanced Excel training will help your employees use your Excel software to their full potential. And when they do so, it improves business operations.
To give you an idea, being able to organize and simplify computations better can enhance inventory management.
5. Helps in Business Growth
You can use your knowledge in advanced Excel tools to teach others. Excel can be hard to learn on your own. Even though it greatly benefits businesses worldwide, there aren’t a lot of people who are experts in Excel. Advanced skills in this program can help you venture into the world of tips and how-tos in Excel.
For example, you can publish blogs about advanced Excel skills in business. Or you can also start with tips for beginners like “VLOOKUP for dummies”.
Or you can offer your advanced skills to other businesses that need them. This can give you a great opportunity to expand your network.
6. More Advanced Functions Are Still Getting Developed
There are other spreadsheet software alternatives out there aside from Excel. But, Excel has proven its reliability for many decades now. Even with its first version, it has helped businesses thrive.
It is cost-effective and reliable software that, even to this day, businesses still use it. And most importantly, Excel is still developing. It is still discovering new methods to enhance itself and become an even better program.
You should understand that your current knowledge about Excel will not always be the best method. Having a mindset of learning new and more advanced features offers you a more competitive edge in the market. New methods and functions are being developed that can better help you with your business.
Conclusion
Excel is an important tool that every business owner and employee should know. If you want to keep your business on the top of the market, invest in advancing your skills in this tool.
It also helps your business to invest in advanced Excel training and programs for your employees. It helps them maximize their skills to perform better in their tasks. And, it keeps them motivated.
Having advanced knowledge in Excel is a huge step towards the success of your business. It does not only make you and your employees more proficient, but it also helps your business grow.