Large corporations like IBM and Oracle are using Excel dashboards and reports as a Business Intelligence tool, and many other smaller businesses are looking to these tools in order to cut costs for budgetary reasons. An effective analyst not only has to have the technical skills to use Excel in a productive manner but must be able to synthesize data into a story, and then present that story in the most impactful way. Microsoft shows its recognition of this with Excel.  In Excel, there is a major focus on business intelligence and visualization.  Data Visualization with Excel Dashboards and Reports fills the gap between handling data and synthesizing data into meaningful reports.  This title will show readers how to think about their data in ways other than columns and rows.

Most Excel books do a nice job discussing the individual functions and tools that can be used to create an “Excel Report”.  Titles on Excel charts, Excel pivot tables, and other books that focus on “Tips and Tricks” are useful in their own right; however they don’t hit the mark for most data analysts.  The primary reason these titles miss the mark is they are too focused on the mechanical aspects of building a chart, creating a pivot table, or other functionality.  They don’t offer these topics in the broader picture by showing how to present and report data in the most effective way.

What are the most meaningful ways to show trending?  How do you show relationships in data?  When is showing variances more valuable than showing actual data values?   How do you deal with outliers?  How do you bucket data in the most meaningful way?  How do you show impossible amounts of data without inundating your audience?  In Data Visualization with Excel Reports and Dashboards, readers will get answers to all of these questions. Part technical manual, part analytical guidebook; this title will help Excel users go from reporting data with simple tables full of dull numbers, to creating hi-impact reports and dashboards that will wow management both visually and substantively. This book offers a comprehensive review of a wide array of technical and analytical concepts that will help users create meaningful reports and dashboards.

After reading this book, the reader will be able to:

• Analyze large amounts of data and report their data in a meaningful way
• Get better visibility into data from different perspectives
• Quickly slice data into various views on the fly
• Automate redundant reporting and analyses
• Create impressive dashboards and What-If analyses
• Understand the fundamentals of effective visualization
• Visualize performance comparisons
• Visualize changes and trends over time

Explore advanced skills in Excel and gain an amazing array of tricks and tools to increase your productivity. This book discusses new techniques such as power functions, chart tricks, and many more to master Excel.

Advanced Excel Success starts with a few useful data tools in Excel followed by advanced formulas that will help you increase productivity. Here, you will learn power functions that aggregate, return ranges, and much more. Further, you will look at custom formatting tricks along with advanced charting tricks. These include automatically changing the color of key metrics, dynamically sorting chart data, and building creative labels.

Next, you will understand the role of Power Query which is one of the most important upgrades in Excel. Power Query is the Microsoft Data Connectivity and Data Preparation technology that enables business users to seamlessly access data stored in hundreds of data sources and reshape it to fit their needs, with an easy–to-use, engaging, and no-code user experience. Finally, you will learn Power Pivot which is a distinct feature in Excel that goes beyond spreadsheets.

After reading this book, you will be well equipped to work on Excel with its advanced features.

What You Will Learn

• Work with the most useful data tools
• Understand formulas and the ten power functions
• Use advanced chart and formatting tricks and techniques for dynamic and effective visuals
• Work with power tools

Who This Book Is For

Excel users looking to take the next step to expert level.