Excel Essentials
How To Format Your Excel Spreadsheet: 10 Tips for Finance Professionals
Here are 10 ways to format your Excel spreadsheet when building financial reports, including guidelines and best practices for each one.
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Excel is the go-to software for finance teams. From simple budgeting calculations to complex financial modeling and data analysis, Excel’s familiar interface, flexibility and ease of use make the software appealing to beginners and advanced users alike.
However, not everyone knows how to use the tool proficiently.
To help you improve your Excel skills, we’ve curated a list of the best Excel courses for finance professionals. Whether you’re a new to Excel and looking to build a solid foundation or an experienced user hoping to learn more advanced features and functions, this list has you covered. For each course, we outline:
Who the Excel course is best for
How much it costs (flat rate or per annum)
How long it takes to complete the course
We also share tips on how to choose the best Excel course to invest in this year.
Let’s jump right in!
|
Excel Course |
Course Summary |
Target Audience |
Cost |
Duration |
|
On-demand, expert-led Excel courses covering a wide range of topics, including advanced Excel skills, financial modeling and data visualization |
Finance professionals looking to enhance their skills in Excel and other Microsoft 365 tools and earn free CPE/CPD credits |
Free |
35 minutes to an hour |
|
|
Covers everything from basic functions and formatting to advanced PivotTables, dashboards and Power Query |
Beginners who want to master Excel basics and some advanced techniques |
One-month free trial |
13 hours |
|
|
Includes two courses: Intermediate and Advanced Excel Analytics |
Finance professionals who want to advance their Excel skills for treasury and finance applications |
Free, but you must be an AFP member to access it |
Intermediate course: two 2.5-hour virtual sessions or one full day in person Advanced course: two 2-hour virtual sessions or one half-day in-person |
|
|
Johns Hopkins University (via Coursera): Business Analytics with Excel |
Learn how to use Excel for business analytics and get an introduction to analytical frameworks, like linear and integer optimization and risk modeling |
FP&A professionals with prior experience in Excel who want to improve their skills in business analytics |
Free, with financial aid available. |
23 hours |
|
Shares 75+ Excel spreadsheet formulas for data analysis and business intelligence |
Analysts, business intelligence professionals and anyone looking to enhance their data analysis skills using Excel |
US$14.99 (discounted) US$44.99 (full price) |
10 hours |
|
|
Focuses on aggregation, date functions and lookup functions |
Suitable for beginners, intermediate and advanced financial professionals |
Part of CFI’s paid programs |
3.5 hours |
|
|
Covers Excel skills such as data entry, formula use, data cleaning and pivot tables |
Ideal for beginners who want to gain practical skills in data manipulation and analysis using Excel |
Enrollment is free, with financial aid available |
11 hours |
|
|
Covers essential Excel functionalities, such as data sorting and filtering, creating dashboards and conditional formatting |
Best for finance professionals who want to learn Excel from scratch to improve their data analysis skills |
Free |
7 hours |
|
|
Provides foundational skills in Excel, such as data entry, data manipulation and data visualization |
Suitable for beginners who want to learn Excel from scratch and for those who need a refresher on basic Excel skills |
Free; certificate costs US$249 |
4 weeks, with an estimated 3–5 hours per week |
Vena Academy provides free, on-demand Excel courses you can take at your convenience. These courses are created by experts and cover a wide range of topics, including advanced Excel skills, cohort analysis, financial modeling and data visualization. With Vena Academy, you can elevate your Excel proficiency and stay ahead in your career while learning at your own pace.
Vena Academy Excel courses are suitable for both beginners and advanced users looking to enhance their skills in Excel and other Microsoft 365 tools. This includes directors, analysts, controllers, consultants and juniors.
Popular Excel courses on the platform (you might be interested in) include:
Modern Intelligent Forecasting in Excel (0.5 CPE/CPD)
Advanced Forecasting Techniques in Excel (1.0 CPE/CPD)
Mastering the Best of Excel for Finance: LET() and LAMBDA() Formulas (1.5 CPE/CPD)
Dynamic Arrays in Excel: Key Functions and Formulas for Finance Professionals (1.0 CPE/CPD)
They are free of charge, and you earn free CPE/CPD credits after completing them. You can also get access to other free resources, such as:
Live and on-demand webinars and events featuring finance, operations and business experts
Original video series covering FP&A, accounting and leadership
Detailed, expert-led content on the Vena blog
Free financial Excel templates
It takes anywhere from 35 minutes to an hour to complete Excel courses on Vena Academy. You also have access to a course for 365 days. Enroll here to get started for free.
LinkedIn Learning’s Master Microsoft Excel is one of the best Excel courses for finance professionals. It covers everything from basic functions and formatting to advanced PivotTables, dashboards and Power Query. Its goal is to help finance professionals learn the basics of Excel.
Enrolling in this course ensures you gain comprehensive Excel knowledge and a recognized certification to advance your career.
The course is best for beginners who want to master basic Excel features and functions to boost their productivity and analytical skills. Some modules from the course include:
Formulas and Functions
Dashboard for Beginners
Introduction to Formatting
PowerQuery for Beginners
Macros and VBAs for Beginners
To access LinkedIn Learning’s Excel course, you need an active LinkedIn Learning subscription. But there’s a one-month free trial to access this Excel training for finance professionals.
The entire learning path consists of 13 hours of content spread across 9 courses. Each course varies in length, with some taking less than an hour and others up to several hours to complete.
The Excel Mastery Series, offered by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), is designed to improve the analytical and data management skills of finance professionals. This Excel training for finance professionals includes two main courses:
Intermediate Excel: Analytical Tools for Treasury and Finance
Advanced Excel Analytics: VBA Programming
These courses are ideal for finance professionals who want to advance their Excel skills for treasury and finance applications. Both courses combined cover topics such as:
Functions, subroutines and programming language
Interactions with cells, ranges and worksheets
User interaction and data summarization
Data visualization and optimization
Data cleaning and automation
You must be an AFP member to access the Excel Mastery Series for free. The cost for both courses isn’t specified on the AFP website for non-members; consider contacting AFP directly.
The length to complete the series depends on which course you choose to take:
The intermediate course takes two 2.5-hour virtual sessions or one full day in person
The advanced course takes two 2-hour virtual sessions or one half-day in-person
Coursera's Business Analytics with Excel course, offered by Johns Hopkins University, is another Excel course with a certificate. This course teaches you how to use Excel for business analytics and introduces analytical frameworks used for decision-making, such as linear and Integer Optimization, Decision Analysis and Risk Modeling.
The course is suitable for beginner and intermediate-level learners who have some prior experience with Excel and want to improve their skills in business analytics. This includes managers, analysts and business professionals.
Popular modules from the course include:
What-If Analysis in Excel
Introduction to Excel: Basics and Best Practices
Decision Analysis Through Regression and NPV
Integer Programming and Nonlinear Programming
Enrollment is free.
The course takes approximately 23 hours to complete, typically spread over 3 weeks at 7 hours per week. The schedule is flexible, allowing you to study at your own pace.
Udemy's Excel For Analysts course shares advanced Excel formulas and functions to help you transform Excel from a basic spreadsheet program into a dynamic data analytics tool. You’ll learn 75+ Excel spreadsheet formulas for data analysis and business intelligence.
Plus, the course helps you master the tools needed to perform high-level data analysis and gain a competitive edge in your career.
This course is ideal for both beginners starting from scratch and experienced users who want to become Microsoft Excel power users. It is particularly beneficial for analysts, business intelligence professionals and anyone looking to enhance their data analysis skills using Excel.
Modules in the course include:
Writing powerful and dynamic Excel formulas
Advanced conditional, text, date, and lookup functions
Building dynamic tools and Excel dashboards
Creating formula-based Excel formatting rules
The Excel course costs between US$14.99 and US$44.99, depending on whether there’s a discount available when you want to register.
Udemy’s Excel For Analysts has 115 lectures, totaling 9 hours and 43 minutes. That’s approximately 10 hours to complete.
CFI's Excel Fundamentals – Formulas for Finance course teaches the essential Excel functions needed for statistical analysis in the finance industry. The course focuses on aggregation, date functions, and lookup functions, and is designed to help learners navigate and utilize the most useful features of Excel 365 for financial analysis.
This course is suitable for beginners, intermediate, and advanced financial professionals. It starts with basic functions and progresses to more advanced techniques, making it a great refresher for experienced users and a comprehensive introduction for newcomers.
Modules in the course include:
Overview of Excel layout and settings
Applying useful date functions for financial models
Comparison of NPV & IRR vs. XNPV & XIRR functions
This course is part of CFI’s paid programs, but you can start with a free preview and access some introductory content.
The course includes multiple lessons, multimedia resources, and interactive exercises, though the exact time commitment is flexible based on your pace. But it takes approximately 3.5 hours to complete.
IBM's Excel Basics for Data Analysis course on Coursera is designed to provide a foundational understanding of Excel and its application in data analysis. The course is beginner-friendly, requiring no prior experience with spreadsheets or coding. It covers essential Excel skills, including data entry, formula use, data cleaning and pivot tables.
This course is ideal for finance professionals who want to use Excel for data analysis in various domains. It is also suitable for beginners who want to gain practical skills in data manipulation and analysis using Excel.
Enrollment is free. The course is also included with Coursera Plus.
It takes approximately 11 hours to complete. The schedule is flexible, so you can learn at your own pace.
SimpliLearn's Introduction to MS Excel is a free online course designed for beginners to gain practical skills in using Microsoft Excel. The course covers Excel functionalities such as data sorting and filtering, creating dashboards, using formulas, conditional formatting, data validation and pivot tables.
This course is ideal for finance professionals who want to learn Excel from scratch to improve their data analysis skills. Some Excel skills you’ll learn from the course include:
Creating Dashboards
Essential Excel Functions
Conditional Formatting
Pivot Tables and Charts
Data Analysis in Excel
The course is free of charge.
It takes 7 hours to complete, and you have 90 days of access to the course.
DavidsonX's Excel for Beginners course on edX is designed for FP&A professionals with little to no prior experience with Excel. The course provides foundational skills in Excel, including data entry, data manipulation, and data visualization, so you can become familiar with the software.
By completing this course, you'll build a solid Excel foundation, enabling you to handle basic data tasks and advance in your FP&A career.
This course is ideal for beginners who want to learn Excel from scratch and for those who need a refresher on basic Excel skills. You’ll learn data manipulation and entry, data visualization, Excel basics and some advanced functions.
Enrolling in DavidsonX’s Excel for beginners course is free; however, you must pay US$249 to receive a verified certificate.
The course takes 4 weeks to complete, with an estimated 3–5 hours per week. However, the Excel course is self-paced, so you can progress at your own speed.
Choosing the best Excel course depends on the skill gaps you want to fill and your career goals. To choose the right course:
1. Assess your current skill level, then look for courses that match your needs
For example, if you’re just starting out, look for courses that cover the basics, such as data entry, basic formulas, and simple data manipulation.
If you already know the basics, seek courses that delve into more advanced functions, data analysis and visualization techniques. Courses that cover VBA, macros and complex data modeling are ideal for those looking to master Excel.
2. Consider your short-, mid-, and long-term career goals
If you want to advance your career, look for courses that offer certification from recognized institutions, as this will help boost your credibility in the industry.
But if you need to acquire a particular skill ASAP to complete a task or project, choose a course that focuses on the area of Excel you need. For example, if you need to learn Excel for financial modeling, look for courses tailored to finance professionals.
You should also:
Review the course syllabus and modules to ensure the course covers all the topics you need
Look at reviews and ratings from previous students to gauge the quality of the course
Choose a course that allows you to learn at your own pace if you want flexibility
Pick an Excel course that fits your budget. Some courses are free, while others might offer financial aid or have a cost associated.
Choose a course that offers certificates and CPE/CPD credits (if possible)
Proficiency in Excel is one of the top skills employers seek in FP&A professionals. It increases your chances of landing better job opportunities and commanding higher salaries.
Source: Teal.com
Excel will continue to be a valuable skill for years to come due to its versatility and widespread use in financial analysis, reporting and data management across various industries.
Plus, Excel skills are transferable—you can use them in other business functions such as marketing, operations and HR. That’s what makes Excel an indispensable tool for FP&A teams.
That’s why it makes sense to invest in Excel training for finance professionals. But, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on a single certification or course, especially if it’s above your budget right now. Instead, consider free Excel courses where you can also earn free CPE/CPD credits.
Vena Academy offers the best Excel training for finance professionals (like others on the list). And you get free CPE/CPD credits to fulfill the requirements necessary to keep your existing certification active (such as Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Certified Management Accountant (CMA) etc.) and avoid license suspensions.
You also get free access to helpful resources, like webinars, live events and podcasts, to keep you updated with the latest trends and best practices in the FP&A finance community. And you can access free financial Excel templates to level up your day-to-day operations.
Finance professionals need to invest in learning Excel because of its unparalleled popularity and robust functionality within finance teams. Due to its versatility, ease of use, and extensive features, Excel remains the go-to tool for financial modeling, data analysis and reporting. Its ability to handle complex calculations, create dynamic dashboards and integrate with various data sources makes it indispensable for finance operations.
The best Excel courses for finance professionals include:
Vena Academy: Free Excel Courses
LinkedIn Learning: Master Microsoft Excel
AFP: Excel Mastery Series
Coursera: Business Analytics with Excel
Udemy: Excel For Analysts
CFI: Excel Fundamentals
IBM: Excel Basics
SimpliLearn: Intro to MS Excel
DavidsonX: Excel for Beginners
The most important Excel skills for FP&A professionals include:
Basic Excel skills such as data entry and management, and proficiency in basic functions like SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX and COUNT.
Intermediate Excel skills such as knowledge of functions like VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, and nested IF statements, ability to use PivotTables, PivotCharts, and data filtering for analysis, conditional formatting, charts and graphs.
Advanced Excel skills such as building and understanding complex financial models, including forecasting and budgeting, using macros and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to automate repetitive tasks, scenario analysis and sensitivity analysis.
Enroll in beginner courses on platforms like Vena Academy, Udemy or Coursera
Use online resources (like free Excel templates) that offer practice exercises and real-world scenarios
Master formulas and functions specific to finance, such as NPV, IRR, PMT and XNPV
Enroll in advanced Excel and financial modeling courses
Learn to automate tasks using VBA and macros
Apply your skills to real or simulated projects to gain practical experience.
Learn tools and techniques specific to your industry such as Vena and Bloomberg Terminal for finance professionals.
Data Analysis such as creating pivot tables and pivot charts and proficiency in using VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX and MATCH
Financial modeling skills such as forecasting, budgeting and variance analysis
Advanced formulas like array formulas for complex calculations and logical functions like IF, AND, OR and nested functions
Data visualization skills such as charts and dashboards
Automation skills such as writing and using macros to automate repetitive tasks and developing custom Excel applications using VBA
Scenario (what-if analysis) and sensitivity analysis skills
Fast-track your finance career with free CPE-accredited Excel courses from Vena Academy
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