"How are you with Excel?" – it’s the strangest question a business analyst can hear.
Business analytics implies working with a large array of data and calculations of the most vital corporate indicators. Analyzing it, one can formulate risks the company can run and develop solutions that will be useful.
Analysts can face the complexity of the work from the first steps. The necessary indicators are often estimated on information obtained from various business divisions. Good forecasting also requires taking into consideration corporate, industrial and economic indicators.
Advanced Excel skills are essential to efficiently process such arrays. The Spreadym team has formulated a list of Excel skills that are a must-have for every analyst.
Here we go! Let's start with the easiest...
PIVOT TABLES. It's the most beloved feature of Excel, which allows users to view data at the intersection of several indicators. But in order to receive the desired result, it is often necessary to do preliminary work: to create directories, add formulas for calculating indicators, look at possible data doubles, etc. Spreadym allows users to completely replace the Pivot tables – with just one click, the platform builds the correct table structure. The user only needs to select the necessary directories, and Spreadym will show the intersections between them.
VLOOKUP and INDEX. The functions allow you to return data from an array according to specified parameters. But there is a fly in the ointment - Excel limits the number of parameters for the function: in the case of VLOOKUP, you can use only one indicator. INDEX allows to set a single parameter per vertical and horizontal search. For every new search, the user needs to define a new formula. Using Spreadym, you can look for values for any indicator, and even using several parameters.
Another one, please…
CELL LOCKING. In order to protect cells from unnecessary changes, you must first select them manually, lock them, set a password, and only then send the file to a recipient. Spreadym allows to define access for a group of users, which is then automatically applied to the entire model. Users can read or adjust available spreadsheets or elements depending on permission to access them. A user is automatically assigned access when connecting to the platform.
It seems that you are good at these. Let's move on to the next level...
IMPORT EXTERNAL DATA. Collecting data from several colleagues into one spreadsheet seems to be nothing difficult until one starts doing it. The structure is different, the indicators are also variable, the user has to check every indicator manually. Spreadym helps to fully automate this process and make life a bit easier. The platform allows exchange data with a server from external sources via API. Spreadym lets you to insert external data into the required structure. Transactions are also provided: Spreadym automatically combines elements and sums of values.