What is Excel?

Excel is a spreadsheet program from Microsoft and a component of its

Office product group for business applications. Microsoft Excel enables
users to format, organize and calculate data in a spreadsheet.
By organizing data using software like Excel, data analysts and other
users can make information easier to view as data is added or changed.
Excel contains a large number of boxes called cells that are ordered in
rows and columns. Data is placed in these cells.
Excel is a part of the Microsoft Office and Office 365 suites and is
compatible with other applications in the Office suite. The spreadsheet
software is available for Windows, macros, Android and iOS platforms.

Common Excel use cases

Excel is most commonly used in business settings. For example, it is
used in business analysis, human resource management, operations
management and performance reporting. Excel uses a large collection
of cells formatted to organize and manipulate data and solve
mathematical functions. Users can arrange data in the spreadsheet
using graphing tools, pivot tables and formulas. The spreadsheet
application also has a macro programming language called Visual Basic
for Applications.

Organizations use Microsoft Excel for the following:

collection and verification of business data;
business analysis;
*data entry and storage;
*data analysis;
*performance reporting;
*strategic analysis;
*accounting and budgeting;
*administrative and managerial management;
*account management;
*project management;
*office administration.

Pivot Table
A Pivot Table is one of the basic data analysis tools. Pivot Tables can
quickly answer many important business questions.
One of the reasons we build Pivot Tables is to pass information. We
would like to support our story with data that is easy to understand,
easy to see.
Although Pivot Tables are only tables and thus missing real visuals, they
can still be considered as a mean of Visual Storytelling.
Create a Pivot Table in Excel
1.Select the cells you want to create a Pivot Table from.
2.Select Insert > Pivot Table
3.This will create a Pivot Table based on an existing table or range.

4.Choose where you want the Pivot Table report to be placed.

Select New Worksheet to place the Pivot Table in a new worksheet
or Existing Worksheet and select where you want the new PivotTable to
appear.
5.Click OK

Analysing data using goal seck an solver.

Goal Seek in Excel, as the name suggests, helps you in achieving a value
(the goal) by altering a dependent value.
For example, I have the data (as shown below), where I calculate the
Monthly payment outflow with the given Loan Amount, Interest Rate
and Number of Payments.
I use the following PMT formula in cell B4 to calculate the Monthly
payment:
=PMT(B2/12,B3,B1)
Now, I want to calculate the loan amount so that my monthly payment
is $1,000. I can try and use some trial and error by putting random
values in Loan amount, but there is a better way to do this – using Goal
Seek in Excel

Using Goal Seek in Excel

1.Go to Data –> Data Tools –> What-If Analysis –> Goal Seek
2.In the Goal Seek Dialogue Box, use the following details:
*Set Cell: B4 (this is the cell with the goal/target).
*To Value: -1,000 (this is the goal value. Its negative here as it is an
outflow).
*By Changing Cell: B1 (this is the loan amount that we want to change
to achieve the goal value)

3.Click OK. This will open the Goal Seek Status dialogue box.
*Goal Seek Status dialogue box will inform you when a solution is
found. If you wish to accept the solution, click on the OK button, and it
will change the cell values. If you do not want to accept the solution,
click on Cancel.
*It may happen that the Goal Seek is not able to find a solution. It will
show you the relevant prompt in that case.

4.Once you accept the solution, it will be reflected in the cells.

Scenarios creat named scenarios.

Scenarios in Excel, you can store multiple versions of data, in the

same cells. For example, when preparing a budget, the Marketing and
Finance departments may have different forecasts for sales. You can
store each forecast as a Scenario, print them separately, or compare
them side-by-side.

Set up the Excel Scenarios Worksheet

Although Excel scenarios can be complex, a simple example is used

here.

1.Delete all sheets except Sheet1

2.Rename Sheet1 as Budget
3.On the Budget sheet, enter the Marketing budget, as shown below
4.Name the following cells (there are Naming instructions here: Name
a Range). Naming the cells is not required, but will make it easier to
manage the scenarios, and read the reports:

*Name cell B1 as Dept

*Name cell B3 as Sales
*Name cell B4 as Expenses
*Name cell B6 as Profit
5.In cell B6, enter the following formula:
=Sales – Expense

Create the First Excel Scenario

1.On the Ribbon's Data tab, click What If Analysis

2.Click Scenario Manager

3.In the Scenario Manager, click the Add button

4.Type name for the Scenario. For this example, use Marketing
5.Press the Tab key, to move to the Changing cells box
6.On the worksheet, select cells B1
7.Hold the Ctrl key, and select cells B3:B4
Note: There is a limit of 32 changing cells
8.Press the Tab key, to move to the Comment box
9.(optional) Enter a comment that describes the scenario.
10.Click the OK button

11.The Scenario Values dialog box opens, with a box for each changing
cell.
12.You could modify these values, but in this example they contain the
values currently on the worksheet, and don't need to be changed.
13.Click the OK button, to return to the Scenario Manager.
14.Click the Close button, to return to the worksheet
Create the Second Excel Scenario

1.To prepare for the Finance scenario, change the values in cells B1, B3
and B4, as shown below

2.On the Ribbon's Data tab, click What If Analysis, then click Scenario
Manager.
In the Scenario Manager, click the Add button
3.Type name for the second Scenario. For this example, use Finance.
4.The Changing cells box should show the previous selection -- B1,B3:B4
-- so leave that as is.
5.Press the Tab key, to move to the Comment box
6.(optional) Enter a comment that describes the scenario.
7.Click the OK button
8.The Scenario Values dialog box opens, with a box for each changing
cell.
9.Click the OK button, to return to the Scenario Manager.
10.Click the Close button, to return to the worksheet.

Show an Excel Scenario

Once you have created Scenarios, you can show them. In this example,
the Finance scenario is currently visible. To change to a different
scenario:

1.On the Ribbon's Data tab, click What If Analysis, then click Scenario
Manager.
2.In the list of Scenarios, select Marketing
3.Click the Show button
4.Click the Close button.
Add Scenario to Excel Ribbon

An easier way to switch between Scenarios, is to add a command to the

Ribbon. Follow these steps, to add a Custom Group, and put the
Scenario command in that group.

1.Right-click on the Ribbon, and click Customize the Ribbon

2.From the drop down list at the top left, select All Commands
3.In the list of commands that are currently on the Ribbon, click the
plus sign for Data, then click Data Tools. That group contains the
Scenario Manager, so we'll add the new group beside it.
4.Below the list, click the New Group button.
5.Then, click the Rename button, type Scenario as the name for the
group, and click OK.
6.At the left, in the list of All Commands, scroll down to find Scenarios
7.Make sure that the new Scenario group is still selected in the list at
the right.
8.Click on Scenarios, then click Add, to put Scenarios in the Scenario
group

9.Click OK, to close the window, then click the Data tab, and select a
Scenario to view.