The course

13 tracks and 63 bite-sized lessons. Go in order or jump to whatever you need today.

Spreadsheet Basics

Cells, formulas, ranges and the references that make spreadsheets tick.

  1. Cells, values and your first formula: Find your way around the grid, type values, and write a formula that updates itself. (Beginner, 3 min)
  2. Arithmetic with cell references: Add, subtract, multiply and divide using values from other cells. (Beginner, 4 min)
  3. Order of operations: Use parentheses to control what Excel calculates first. (Beginner, 3 min)
  4. SUM and AutoSum: Total a whole range in one go, and learn the fastest shortcut in Excel. (Beginner, 4 min)
  5. AVERAGE, MIN and MAX: Summarise a list with its typical, smallest and largest values. (Beginner, 3 min)
  6. Counting cells: COUNT, COUNTA and COUNTBLANK: count numbers, filled cells and gaps. (Beginner, 4 min)
  7. Copying formulas with the fill handle: Write a formula once, then copy it down a whole column with relative references. (Beginner, 4 min)
  8. Absolute references with $: Lock a reference with dollar signs so it stays put when you copy a formula. (Beginner, 5 min)
  9. Mixed references: Lock just the row or just the column to build a grid from one formula. (Intermediate, 4 min)
  10. Percentages and number formats: Percent change, share of total, and formatting numbers so they read clearly. (Beginner, 5 min)

Logic & Decisions

Teach your formulas to decide: comparisons, IF, IFS, AND/OR/NOT and friendly error handling.

  1. Comparisons: TRUE or FALSE: Ask yes/no questions about your data with =, <>, <, >, <= and >=. (Beginner, 4 min)
  2. The IF function: Show one result when a test is TRUE and another when it is FALSE. (Beginner, 4 min)
  3. Nested IF and IFS: Sort values into three or more tiers with nested IFs or the tidier IFS function. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  4. AND, OR and NOT: Combine several conditions into one test, on their own or inside IF. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  5. IFERROR and IFNA: Replace #DIV/0! and #N/A with friendly results that keep a report readable. (Intermediate, 4 min)

Conditional Math

Count, sum and average only the rows that match your conditions.

  1. COUNTIF: Count only the cells that match a condition: text, numbers, wildcards and more. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  2. SUMIF and AVERAGEIF: Add up or average just the rows that meet a condition. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  3. COUNTIFS, SUMIFS and MAXIFS: Filter by several conditions at once, every one of which must be true. (Intermediate, 6 min)
  4. SUMPRODUCT: Multiply columns row by row and add the results, with or without conditions. (Advanced, 6 min)

Lookups

Pull matching data from other tables with VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH and XLOOKUP.

  1. VLOOKUP: exact matches: Turn a product code into its name, price and stock level, straight from a table. (Intermediate, 4 min)
  2. Approximate match for tiers and bands: Assign discount tiers from a sorted bracket table, and lock the table before copying down. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  3. INDEX and MATCH: Find a position with MATCH, fetch a value with INDEX, then combine them to look up in any direction. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  4. XLOOKUP: The modern lookup: exact match by default, any return column, and a friendly message when nothing matches. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  5. Two-way lookups: Find a price in a grid by both size and colour, using INDEX with two MATCHes. (Advanced, 6 min)

Working with Text

Join, split, clean and reformat text without retyping a thing.

  1. Joining text: Combine names and labels with &, CONCAT and TEXTJOIN. (Intermediate, 4 min)
  2. LEFT, RIGHT, MID and LEN: Cut region, year and number out of structured reference codes. (Intermediate, 4 min)
  3. Splitting text at a character: Split emails at the @ and "Last, First" names at the comma, with FIND or the newer TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER. (Intermediate, 6 min)
  4. Cleaning up messy text: Fix stray spaces, random capitals and inconsistent codes in imported data. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  5. Formatting numbers in text with TEXT: Build labels like "Total: $1,234.50" and "Due Mar 21, 2025" that keep their formatting. (Intermediate, 5 min)

Dates, Rounding & Money

Date arithmetic, working days, rounding rules and the maths behind loans and savings.

  1. How Excel stores dates: Dates are numbers in disguise. Build them with DATE, take them apart with YEAR, MONTH and DAY, and move them with plain arithmetic. (Beginner, 5 min)
  2. Date maths: gaps, renewals and month ends: Count the days between dates, jump whole months with EDATE and EOMONTH, and measure length of service with DATEDIF. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  3. Working days and due dates: Find the day of the week, count business days between dates while skipping holidays, and schedule deadlines with WORKDAY. (Intermediate, 4 min)
  4. Rounding values (not just how they look): ROUND, ROUNDUP, ROUNDDOWN and CEILING, and why formatting a number is not the same as rounding it. (Beginner, 5 min)
  5. Loan payments and savings growth: Use PMT to find a monthly loan payment, see what the loan really costs, and project a savings plan with FV. (Intermediate, 5 min)

Time & Schedules

Times as fractions of a day, timesheets and overnight shifts, overtime pay and date-based reports.

  1. How Excel stores times: Times are fractions of a day. Add minutes with TIME, take a time apart with HOUR and MINUTE, and make it readable with a time format. (Beginner, 4 min)
  2. Timesheets and hours worked: Subtract start from end, handle shifts that run past midnight with MOD, convert to decimal hours, and total a week without the clock wrapping round. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  3. Pay and overtime: Turn decimal hours into pay, split them into regular and overtime hours with MIN and MAX, and apply an overtime multiplier. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  4. Weeks, months and quarters in reports: Label each row with its week number, month and quarter, then count and total the rows between two dates typed into cells. (Intermediate, 6 min)

Statistics & Ranking

Rank results, pick out the top and bottom, and describe what is typical and how spread out your numbers are.

  1. RANK, LARGE and SMALL: Rank a list either way round, build a top-three table, and put a name to each place. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  2. Mean, median and mode: Find the typical value, and spot when one extreme number is dragging the average. (Intermediate, 4 min)
  3. Percentiles and quartiles: Find the time most deliveries beat, measure the middle half of your data, and flag the slow ones. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  4. Standard deviation and z-scores: Measure how spread out a sample is, then use z-scores to spot the values that really stand out. (Advanced, 6 min)

Clean & Check Data

Spot problems, flag duplicates, decode codes and repair messy imported values.

  1. Spotting problems with IS functions: Flag missing values, numbers stored as text and broken formulas in an imported stock count. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  2. Finding duplicates: Flag repeated sign-ups, tell first entries from repeats, and count how many different people you really have. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  3. Mapping codes with CHOOSE and SWITCH: Turn priority numbers, channel codes and dates into readable labels without a lookup table. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  4. Text surgery with nested formulas: Cut out the text between brackets, count characters, find the last word and draw in-cell bar charts. (Advanced, 6 min)
  5. Repairing numbers and names: Turn text into real numbers, strip units like kg, and learn when capital letters matter and when they don't. (Intermediate, 6 min)

Money & Finance

How long debts take to clear, what loans really charge, where each payment goes, and which investment is worth more.

  1. Payoff time, true rates and savings targets: Find how long a card balance takes to clear with NPER, the real rate behind a payment plan with RATE, and plan a savings goal with PV and FV. (Intermediate, 6 min)
  2. Build a loan amortization schedule: Split every payment into interest and principal with IPMT and PPMT, track the balance month by month, and prove the schedule adds up. (Advanced, 7 min)
  3. Compare investments with NPV and IRR: Discount future cash flows with NPV, find each project's own return with IRR, and let IF pick the better buy. (Advanced, 6 min)

Modern Excel

Dynamic arrays that spill: one formula, a whole list of answers. UNIQUE, SORT, FILTER and friends.

  1. Spilling arrays: UNIQUE and SORT: Write one formula that fills a whole list, remove duplicates with UNIQUE, sort with SORT, and refer to the results with D2#. (Intermediate, 5 min)
  2. FILTER: rows that match: Pull out matching rows with one formula, take the condition from a cell, combine tests with * and +, and handle "no results" gracefully. (Intermediate, 6 min)
  3. SORTBY, SEQUENCE and LET: Rank a league table with SORTBY, number it with SEQUENCE, and name the parts of a formula with LET. (Advanced, 5 min)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Fly around a spreadsheet, edit and format it without touching the mouse.

  1. Moving and selecting at speed: Jump to the edges of your data, back to the top, and select whole columns and rows in a keystroke. (Beginner, 6 min)
  2. Editing without the mouse: Fix formulas in place, lock references, fill down and right, and undo mistakes from the keyboard. (Beginner, 6 min)
  3. Formatting and finishing touches: Bold headers, quick totals, currency and percent formats, a date stamp and a formula check, all from the keyboard. (Beginner, 5 min)

Challenges

Real-world projects that combine everything you have learned, with less hand-holding.

  1. Challenge: the class gradebook: Turn raw marks into averages, letter grades, a class ranking and a pass rate. (Intermediate, 8 min)
  2. Challenge: quarterly sales summary: Summarise a deal log by region and month, work out shares, and let formulas name the winners. (Advanced, 10 min)
  3. Challenge: stock room reorder list: Flag low stock, value the shelves, find each supplier from the SKU, and size up the reorder. (Intermediate, 8 min)
  4. Challenge: travel budget vs actual: Convert foreign spending with a locked exchange rate, compare it with the plan and flag the overspends. (Intermediate, 9 min)
  5. Challenge: the league table: Turn a season of results into points, goal difference and final positions, with a proper tie-break and a champion. (Advanced, 9 min)
  6. Challenge: weekly payroll: Turn shift times into hours, pay overtime above a limit, then work out gross pay, tax, take-home pay and department totals. (Advanced, 10 min)
  7. Challenge: customer survey results: Score each survey statement, measure the share of happy customers, label the results and name the best and worst areas. (Intermediate, 7 min)