Free online courseExcel Basics: Formulas, Functions, PivotTables and Power Query for Work

Course Description

Excel is one of the most practical workplace skills you can build, whether you manage budgets, track performance, clean lists, or turn raw data into clear reports. This free online course is designed to take you from everyday spreadsheet use to confident, job-ready productivity, focusing on the features that matter most in real workflows: solid formula habits, reliable references, smart formatting, powerful summaries, and modern data preparation.

You will start by creating cleaner, more readable sheets while learning how Excel thinks about calculations. You will practice writing formulas that copy correctly, using relative, absolute, and mixed references so your results stay accurate as your spreadsheet grows. Along the way, you will work with common functions and learn to troubleshoot typical errors that cost time at work, from numbers stored as text to results that look right but calculate incorrectly because of rounding and formatting behavior.

As you progress, you will move beyond manual totals and build interactive reports with PivotTables. You will learn how to prepare data so PivotTables work smoothly, how Excel summarizes different types of fields, and how to tailor layouts to match professional reporting expectations. You will also explore built-in tools that add analysis without extra formulas, such as options for showing changes over time, running totals, and percent differences, helping you explain trends with clarity.

To work faster, you will strengthen core productivity habits: customizing the Quick Access Toolbar, using time-saving keyboard shortcuts, setting defaults, and navigating Excel features efficiently. The course also covers working with dates and times for real business scenarios, plus function search tools that help you choose the right approach without guessing.

Finally, you will learn modern ways to manage and transform data. You will see when tables provide a stronger foundation than static ranges, why structured data matters for analysis, how relationships can replace lookups in large models, and how Power Query can streamline cleaning and combining data so your reports become easier to refresh and maintain.