Microsoft Excel is a versatile software program that provides users with spreadsheets to organize data and numbers using various functions and formulas. Excel is hugely popular around the world and is used by businesses of all sizes and kinds to perform analytics tasks. If you are unsure whether learning Excel is right for you, consider reading on to find out more about the myriad uses of Excel tools and techniques. Not only will learning Excel open up a number of new career opportunities, but it also has many potential personal uses. 

What is Excel?

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application created by Microsoft in 1985. Excel is a powerful and valuable resource for organizing data and numbers using functions and formulas. It also comes with graphing tools to help visualize data findings, a programming language known as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) used to create macros, and advanced calculation capabilities. Excel works on both Mac and Windows operating systems. 

The cells within an Excel spreadsheet each contain data, like formulas, numbers, or text, which can be organized and analyzed. Excel is a useful tool for performing various calculations on spreadsheets. It can calculate statistics, perform repeated and advanced calculations, analyze data, and create graphical representations of the data, such as graphs, charts, and PivotTables. 

Read more about what Excel is and why you should learn it. 

Professional Uses for Excel

Microsoft Excel plays an integral role in helping many businesses handle important information and data. From finance to business to project management and beyond, this industry-standard spreadsheet application is commonly used for tasks like data entry and management, time and task management, financial analytics and modeling, and data visualization. This is why Excel skills are in demand in nearly every job, regardless of industry. The following sections briefly explore some of the ways Excel is used in specific professions.

Project Management

Project Managers are tasked with ensuring that progress on a given project remains on schedule. This entails overseeing employees, corresponding with third-party vendors, creating documents, and apportioning resources. It’s imperative for Project Managers to manage and organize all necessary information so that deadlines are met. Many project management tools are available to manage complex projects, such as Microsoft Power BI. For tasks involving smaller projects or businesses, Excel is an excellent option. It allows Project Managers to perform a range of relevant tasks, such as managing financial records, creating reports, designing Gantt charts, streamlining operations, and compiling vendor lists.

Financial Analytics

One of the core tools a Financial Analyst uses is Excel. They’re expected to be well-versed in this spreadsheet application and use it to reach conclusions pertaining to financial data. They then provide recommendations to stakeholders for investing, reducing debt, or other financial tasks. Financial Analysts also work with Excel for consolidating and analyzing data. Their spreadsheet skills have applications for illustrating figures like sales, annual spending revenues, and direct costs. Excel is even used by Wall Street Analysts for making informed investment decisions.

Retail

Retail Store Managers oversee the daily operations of a store. This involves managing staff, articulating store policies, keeping track of inventory, and ensuring that profits are maximized. These professionals also perform tasks like reviewing sales trends, scheduling expenditures, and creating budgets. Excel is the go-to for most Retail Managers to keep track of spending, scheduling, supply and demand, and inventory.

Business Analytics

Business Analysts are employed by an organization to perform various tasks, from assessing operational performance, documenting systems and processes, pinpointing underperforming areas or departments, and proposing solutions to increase revenue. To do so, these individuals work with vast amounts of data. They perform data analysis on this information and often use spreadsheets to do so. 

Data Journalism

Before a Data Journalist can write a story, they must sift through vast amounts of data to find which is the most useful and credible. Before they turn to larger database tools, Data Journalists often begin with Excel for data analysis. These professionals use spreadsheets to organize and analyze the information they collect to decide which can be used in their stories.

Accounting

In addition to using QuickBooks and other accounting-specific software, most Accountants also have advanced Excel training to perform daily tasks. Accountants use this spreadsheet tool for formatting data, auditing, and filtering out various sums and values. Excel provides a way to analyze these numbers and ensure they add up.

Other Uses for Excel

In addition to its range of applications across professions, Excel also is used outside of the context of a job. Most people studied Excel in high school or college and have at least a basic understanding of how to create spreadsheets or perform core tasks like adding numbers or finding averages. This popular application can help you manage your time better, budget more effectively, and perform a range of basic calculations in mere seconds. 

Performing Common Calculations

Performing basic mathematical functions, like adding, subtracting, and dividing, are skills we all acquired in elementary school. While some people choose to do so manually or with the help of a calculator, it can be tedious to work with long lists of numbers. Instead of risking errors when calculating your next mortgage installment, you can instead use the functions in an Excel worksheet or workbook to perform the necessary calculations. Best of all, it will only take seconds to sum large sets, and you’ll know the result is error-free. 

Managing Time

One of the lesser-known uses of Excel is to design time or productivity tracerks. This spreadsheet tool has various time-specific functions that have applications for managing time. You can use Excel for tasks such as daily planning and tracking how you’re progressing on a project. Excel even allows you to create a Pomodoro Tracker, which is a widget that scientifically manages time cycles. This tool ensures that you find a balance between your professional tasks and break time and is a great way to manage time more effectively.

Budgeting

In addition to its range of professional accounting uses, Excel is also a powerful tool for personal financial tasks. You can use Excel at home to record how much you spend in a day. An Excel spreadsheet can illustrate your available monthly income, as well as both large and small expenses, so you have a better sense at all times of how you stand financially. Excel’s auto-calculation features and formulas are helpful for determining your residual income, as well as how much you can spend each month. Instead of relying on an expensive accounting tracker, use Excel for budgeting.

Academic Activities

Beyond professional and personal uses, Excel is also can perform a range of useful tasks for those working in education, as well as students. With the help of data visualizations like charts and tables, teachers can more effectively communicate ideas to their students in a visual and accessible way. In addition, students who use Excel can keep track of assignments and due dates, organize sources for research projects, and perform logical and mathematical tasks.

Creating Calendars

If you need to help your family plan for the week, month, or year, Excel can help. This application can function as a daily planner, keeping track of appointments or meetings. It also helps you schedule bill payments, sporting practice or events, and other recurring tasks. Excel’s many features and functions make it easy to filter information or search for specific dates or events, as well as to organize all of this information in one place.

Learn Excel Skills with Noble Desktop

Are you looking to learn how to use Microsoft Excel, the industry-standard spreadsheet application? If so, Noble Desktop currently offers a variety of Excel courses in NYC and live online. Classes are available for those new to Excel and for learners who regularly work with this spreadsheet application and wish to improve their skills. In addition, in-person and live online Excel courses are available through Noble Desktop or one of its affiliate schools. A variety of course options are offered, ranging in duration from three hours to two days and costing between $229 and $1,099. 

Noble Desktop’s Excel Bootcamp provides an excellent option for those who want to master core Excel concepts, such as working with PivotTables and What-If Analysis. Students who enroll in this rigorous, 21-hour course can elect to study in person in Manhattan or learn in the live online environment. This small class comes with the option of a free retake and covers a variety of Excel concepts applicable to the business world.

Key Takeaways

• Microsoft Excel is the industry-standard spreadsheet application for organizing, analyzing, and visualizing information.
• Excel is used by professionals in many fields and industries, such as financial and business analytics, retail, data journalism, accounting, and project management,
• In addition to its range of professional uses, Excel can aid with many personal projects, like budgeting, managing time, performing basic calculations, creating calculators, and organizing academic information.
• If you’d like to learn more about how you can use Excel professionally or for personal tasks, Noble Desktop provides comprehensive Excel training in the in-person and online formats.