Tips & tricks For Microsoft Excel, Power BI, SQL and more

In this guide, we explain variance as a measure of how widely data points deviate from the mean and shows why understanding this spread is useful for deeper insight and risk assessment. It walks readers through calculating variance in Excel, distinguishing between the VAR.S function for a sample and VAR.P for an entire population, then demonstrates each with a car-sales case study.

This blog explains how Excel’s LOOKUP functions—particularly XLOOKUP and VLOOKUP—can retrieve data based on multiple criteria. It walks through a step-by-step example of finding an employee’s sales in a specific region, showing both an XLOOKUP formula and a VLOOKUP alternative that uses a helper column.

This free, printable Excel Skills Self-Assessment helps you quickly gauge your level and pick the right next step in your learning path. It contains 15 multiple-choice questions spanning navigation, formulas, lookups, tables, PivotTables, charts, dynamic arrays, Power Query, and more. You’ll score yourself and interpret the result to see whether you’re Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced - then follow tailored course recommendations based on your score.

The article explains what a Copilot prompt is and why clarity and specificity dramatically improve results. It shows how adding audience, tone, length, and format turns vague requests into accurate outputs, contrasting weak vs. strong prompts. It lists common mistakes - being vague, bundling too many tasks, omitting context or target audience, and failing to critically review AI output. It emphasises prompting as a valuable workplace skill; beginners should start small, reuse and adapt prompts, and remember AI can err, so human judgment remains essential.

The article explains why you might remove time from Excel dates - to simplify datasets, avoid clutter in reports, and prevent calculation errors. It outlines multiple methods: duplicating a column and using INT or TRUNC, changing cell formats to Short/Long Date, and using DATEVALUE when the original entry is text. Troubleshooting focuses on correcting cell formats and double-checking formula syntax and references.

Microsoft 365 Copilot can super-charge Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Teams, but IT managers must align licensing, data governance, and clear business goals before launch. In this article, we discuss how engaging stakeholders early, piloting with a small cross-functional group, and phasing the rollout lets teams refine guidance and measure real productivity gains. Role-specific, hands-on training - prompt-engineering tips, quick-start resources, and “Copilot champions” - converts into confident daily use while resolving emerging user challenges.

The blog explains how to evaluate Microsoft 365 Copilot (and Copilot Pro) using a clear ROI formula and data from Forrester’s Oct-2024 TEI study. It outlines three benefit areas - go-to-market (potential revenue lift up to 6%), operational efficiency (cost reduction up to 0.85%), and people/culture (attrition down up to 20% and onboarding faster up to 25%) - plus hard-to-quantify gains like compliance and security. A five-step method and example calculation (~205% three-year ROI) show how to model low/mid/high scenarios and decide whether to adopt based on workflow fit, readiness, and budget.

In this guide, we look at how Excel’s AGGREGATE function turns messy, multi-source data into reliable, actionable reports by performing sums, counts, averages, percentiles, and other calculations while automatically ignoring specified errors or hidden rows. Best practices include labelling outputs clearly, testing formulas on small samples, combining AGGREGATE with pivot tables or filters, and using Excel’s error-checking tools to troubleshoot formulas for maximum accuracy and efficiency.

Mаnу businesses need first and last names in separate Excel columns for easier sorting, searching, and personalised communications. Excel’s Text to Columns feature lets you split names fast by selecting a space delimiter, while LEFT/RIGHT formulas achieve the same result with flexible cell references. Dragging these formulas down fills the entire list automatically, saving hours over manual copying.