Week 1 · Excel & Google Sheets
Week 1: Spreadsheet Fundamentals for Business
Spreadsheets are where most business analysis begins. This week you learn to organize and clean datasets, use the formulas that answer everyday questions, and summarize data with pivot tables and simple charts, in both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets.
Learning objectives
- Understand how a well-structured dataset is organized
- Clean common data problems such as duplicates, text-numbers and inconsistent labels
- Use SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, IF, SUMIF and COUNTIF
- Use lookup functions to combine information
- Filter, sort and summarize with pivot tables
- Create basic charts that match the question
| Product | Units | Revenue | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ceramic Mug | 412 | $7,416 | 48% |
| Tote Bag | 298 | $5,364 | 52% |
| Notebook | 187 | $2,431 | 41% |
| Total | 897 | =SUM(C2:C4) | – |
Practical skills
- Organizing tables
- Cleaning basic data
- Spreadsheet formulas
- Lookup functions
- Filtering and sorting
- Pivot tables
- Basic charts
Business examples
Questions you will answer
- Which product category generated the most revenue last quarter?
- How many orders came from each region?
- What is the average order value, and how did it change month to month?
Practical business case
Analyze a small online store's sales. You will work with an order export containing products, categories, dates, quantities and prices to find top products, monthly trends and slow sellers.
Weekly assignment
Create a simple sales performance report: a clean data tab, a pivot summary, two charts and a short written summary of what you found.