FAQs

The course is predominantly aimed at Accounting & Finance professionals with monthly financial reporting duties.

However, anyone from around a business with regular reporting duties will benefit, particularly where they must manually clean data, have data from a variety of sources they want to bring together, or if they compare actuals against set budgets or forecasts.

Participants will generally be interested in how to leverage multiple data sets to create number-focused reports and/or automate their monthly processes.

No prior knowledge of Power Query or Power Pivot is required.

Some experience of the fundamentals of creating Excel formula would be helpful in the final section of the course, when the Profit & Loss and Sales Dashboard are created.

The course is suitable for both Beginner and Intermediate users of Power Query and/or Power Pivot that are looking to learn a variety of relevant techniques and best practices for producing and automating their regular reporting.

The course covers all the fundamentals of Power Query and Power Pivot whilst applying the knowledge to produce relevant reports and outputs.

The course is designed by accountants, for accountants.

Almost all Power Query / Power Pivot courses are aimed at a general audience, deal only with the reporting of actuals, and utilise generic data sets – this is not sufficient for a Finance professional.

This course covers techniques to report actuals, forecasts and variances together, utilises data sets recognised by accountants (e.g. account codes, costs centres, budget, forecasts, Period / QTD / YTD etc.) and frames all the learning in how the solutions can be applied to solve typical reporting problems and processes.

Topics and theory are explained throughout the course first and foremost via short video lectures, based around a comprehensive, downloadable course slide deck.

Theory is then demonstrated in Power Query and Power Pivot, with the knowledge applied to import data, create the data model, produce financial calculations with DAX and then create financial reports. The participant is invited to create all these elements as they go along.

Regular quizzes throughout the course help test knowledge and consolidate the learning.

The course is for any business user looking to merge, transform, clean, analyse or visualise data, including big data, within Excel.

No prior knowledge of Python or Excel is required.

The course is suitable for Beginners and those with a relatively limited knowledge of Python who are looking to build a strong foundational, working knowledge of Python and how it can be utilised within Excel.

The course covers all the fundamentals of Power Query and Power Pivot whilst applying the knowledge to produce relevant reports and outputs.

Firstly, very few courses on Python in Excel currently exist. As at May 2024, when this course has been created, it is only accessible in the Microsoft Office 365 Beta Channel, rather than the Current Channel which most users have access to.

Secondly, Python courses in general tend to go into a LOT of detail, to the point where many learners, unless they are very motivated, can switch off or abandon the course. This course tries to teach the 80% that you really need to know and leave out the 20% that is overly detailed or niche learning. If the 20% if really needed, then there are plenty of resources online where this is covered. The result is that the learner is much more likely to complete the course and develop a wide working knowledge. This is particularly advantageous given that Microsoft Copilot will be able to produce Python code when prompted by the user, and so a detailed knowledge of Python is potentially not necessary, but a working knowledge recommended.

Lastly, the course is structured to begin with initial data sets that are then merged, transformed, analysed and visualised in an end-to-end process, covering many topics along the way and seeing how the techniques can work together. This is as opposed to teaching Python concepts and techniques in isolation.

Topics and theory are taught and demonstrated entirely through short video lessons. The participant is invited to follow along, using the data provided in the course resources.

Regular quizzes throughout the course help test knowledge and consolidate the learning.

The course is aimed at anyone wanting to create Excel-based models. Often this will be Analysts, Accounting & Finance professionals, Consultants and Strategists, but it can include other functions of a business too such as Operations, HR, Project Managers etc.

There are certainly some Finance and commercial elements to the course, but the participant doesn’t need to be a specialist in any of these areas.

The typical Excel financial modelling course is aimed at building a very specific type of model – for instance a Project Finance Model. They don’t cater to the fact that models come in all sorts of varieties, whether it be forecast models, budget files, business cases, pricing models etc. Nor that the same person has need to create several of these.

Excel Modeller is an Excel modeling course aimed at being generic, in that it can be applied to pretty much any model being built, as the course has been developed around generally accepted best practice approaches and techniques.

So, the aim is that the learner doesn’t become an expert in creating one particular model, but rather an expert at approaching any type of model that they wish to develop.

The course covers the core principles of model design, approaches and techniques to creating each element of a model, tips for testing it, and a variety of ways it can then be used including Excel tools and techniques applied in its use.

The course is wide-ranging and thorough, so please refer to the Course Overview above to give a better breakdown and understanding of the course.

Topics and theory are explained throughout the course first and foremost via short video lectures. Often, where appropriate, these are supported by Excel-based demo videos.

Additionally there is a large model build practical element staged over several parts of the course.

All exercises and practical work are fully supported by downloadable instructions and solution files.

Finally, there are regular quizzes throughout that will help check your learning.

Whilst VBA does have a place in some models, in the vast majority it is not necessary.

Good modellers will actively avoid it where possible as it adds a whole new dimension of complexity...and models are often complex enough as they are!

Furthermore, it is a very large topic and so is not appropriate to this course.

It’s particularly aimed at Analysts, Accounting & Finance professionals, Consultants & Strategists, but has and will benefit many others from around an organisation.

All materials are set in a variety of commercial contexts.

It’s been created by someone who has worked across all the above roles - Accountant, Analyst, Consultant, Strategy - including many years supporting senior management in their decision-making.

In contrast, many Excel courses are produced by people with a big passion for Excel, but without the wide-ranging commercial experience.

The result is often that the course is either watered-down, not set in a commercial context, or teaches knowledge which is not necessarily relevant.

Four sections, covering: working fast in Excel, functions/formula, data & decision analysis tools, and the presentation of work.

This is a holistic course aimed at truly transforming the participant’s ability, rather than one that focuses at a very detailed-level on a very narrow topic.

Modules start with a short video lecture explaining the topic.

For the vast majority of modules this is followed by a video Excel demo and downloadable Excel exercises.

Supporting each set of exercises is a downloadable solution file and a video running through and explaining the solution.

There are quizzes throughout the course to check your knowledge.

The learning is very thorough!

I’m afraid there is none. VBA (a.k.a macros) is a very, very big topic and requires its own course, if not several, and so is not appropriate here.

It’s also, for the vast majority of people, absolutely not necessary.

For some work roles, particularly administrative, data processing, or roles featuring very repetitive work, it can be extremely useful. Commercially-focussed roles, however, often don’t feature the aforementioned types of work.

What’s more, including even the simplest piece of VBA into your work introduces a step change in its complexity – from other users not familiar with VBA having no idea what’s going on or how to edit it, to system administrator security issues with macro-enabled workbooks!

My advice - avoid it wherever possible!

Anyone from any part of an organisation with at least a basic understanding of Excel.

Materials are set in a variety of commercial contexts making it particularly relevant to working professionals.

A Claritix mini-course is known as a Class. The Class is split into Lessons.

Each Lesson is a video between 5-9 minutes beginning with a brief introduction of the topic and what will be taught. The remainder of the video then explains and demonstrates the learning in Excel, ending in a brief recap.

There is a Project to complete as the participant progresses through the course. This consists of sets of Excel exercises covering the majority of the taught topics. The Project is set in a downloadable Excel file with a solution file to accompany it.

Additionally there are several quizzes to test the participant's understanding and retention of the Lessons.