Author Archive

For every column chart that is done right, there are a dozen that get messed up. That is why lets talk about 5 simple rules for making awesome column charts.

Tip: Same rules apply for bar charts too.

Time for another Excel formula / Power Query challenge. This is based on a common business data analysis problem. Say you have two tables – calls log and office hours. Call log tells when each call is received. Office hours tell us working hours for seven days of the week. We want to know how many calls are outside office hours.

Recently, Microsoft Power BI introduced a very useful visualization, called key influencers visualization. As the name suggests, this is a chart of key parameters that effect a measure or outcome.

For example, you have customer satisfaction rating as a measure. Now you want to know which aspects of your data impact the ratings most? You can create the key influencer visual and Power BI finds all the top ranking influencers (using rules and machine learning).

But can we make it in Excel?

Let’s see…

Imagine you are in a life sustaining planet named Pearth, in another galaxy. One day you got to work, fired up Excel (hey, what else would you use? Excel is the best data software in any galaxy 🙂 ) and started working.

You came across a dataset that need sorting, but left to right – horizontally.

Now what? Do you turn your monitor sideways?

Its Easter time. At Chandoo.org, I have tradition of publishing Easter Egg hunts since 2009. This is the first time our Easter egg hunt is on Power BI. Changing times, eh?

We all know that VLOOKUP can find first match and return the results. But what if you want all the matches? Use this simple trick instead.

Let’s say you manage a fund or charity. You get money from various places and you use that money for various reasons. How do you tell the story of source vs. uses of funds? In this post, let’s review 14 charting options. Source vs. Use of funds – Sample Data for this problem Let’s say […]

Excel has hundreds of formulas. But as a new learner or user, you may want to just focus on top 10 formulas to get the most out of it. Assuming you already know the basics (check out Beginner Excel page if you are complete newbie), here is a list of top 10 Excel formulas for you.

If you want to tell the story of how your business / project / charity / thing is going on, then making a dashboard is the best way to go about it. Dashboards can combine heaps of data, insights and messages in to one concise format that fits on to a desktop or table or mobile screen.

But let’s be honest. Creating them in Excel is a lot of work. Even after spending hours on them, they might still look meh. So, let me share a trick to make your dashboards look snazzy (without compromising on insights per inch).

Create dashboard tiles, something like above.

Hiya folks… just a quick update on whats keeping me busy this year, with a bonus Excel tip at the end. Take a sip of your favorite brew and read on.

Work in HR and use Power BI? You are going to love this extensive, powerful and useful Employee Turnover Dashboard. In this detailed article, learn how to create your own attrition dashboard system with Power BI. Full example workbook, video and sample data included.

So you have built that excel report your boss wanted. And you were all eager to use the spreadsheet in your presentation. But in the last minute, your boss asked you to change average sales to total sales figures. You also want to grab an espresso before rushing to the meeting. Now what?

We all change minds. Heck, I just did it with the leading line. I thought something else, but went with what you just read. So why must Excel charts be set in stone? Let’s say you made some charts and want to quickly second guess your selection. How to change Excel chart easily? Sure, you […]

The other day while I was in lift (elevator), it made an alarm like sound and won’t close the doors. Turns out there are one too many people in the lift for it to operate safely. As soon as a couple of people volunteered and stepped out, it started fighting gravity and took us upstairs. […]

Just a quick tip to revive the blog from a month long silence. I am alive and kicking. I have been occupied with a quest to rescue princess & maidens on video game console. Recently we bought SNES classic console from Nintendo and I have been playing Legend of Zelda – a link to past regularly. As it is almost summer, I am also enjoying the beautiful outdoors in Wellington. All this means, little time for blogging. I will try to post a few more times before the end of year.

Make a list of numbers in a jiffy with Power Query:

We know that in Excel, you can type a few numbers and use the fill handle to fill down (or up etc.) numbers as you want.

But what if you need some numbers in Power Query?