So you have decided to up your game with Excel and / or Power BI this year and now ravenously looking for books to read. You have come to the right place. Here is my list of recommended best Excel books, and books on Power BI, visualization, dashboards, VBA, Macros and analytics.
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Best Excel Books
Excel 2016 Bible by John Walkenbach
If you are new to Excel or have used it for a while, you can’t go wrong with John’s tome. This 1,100 page tome covers everything from getting started with Excel to some nifty advanced use cases. It is a good reference book to have on your desk or in the team library. Despite its size, this is an easy read.
Excel 2016 by John Walkenbach on Amazon
Microsoft Excel Data Analysis & Business Modeling by Wayne Winston
I bought Wayne’s book in 2013 (same book, for Excel 2013) to learn all about how to apply business modeling, analytics and statistical analysis techniques in Excel. This is a very practical and insightful book and a must have for anyone working in advanced analytics, reporting, modeling or optimization space.
Microsoft Excel Data Analysis & Business Modeling on Amazon
Data Smart by John Foreman
Data Smart teaches all about data science, machine learning, statistical analysis and business optimization and then shows you how to implement fancy algorigthms using Excel. I recommend this book to anyone in the space of analytics or reporting. John has excellent penmanship and wicked sense of humor. You will find it hard to put down this book. I read and re-read this book several times.
Best books on data & visualization
Storytelling with Data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
This book is on my to-read list. Many of us are in the profession of story telling and communication. Working with data and coming up with effective storytelling is vital for our success. Storytelling with Data gives you that guidance and makes you a better professional.
Storytelling with Data on Amazon
Information Dashboard Design by Stephen Few
Stephen Few’s classic book on dashboard design is what helped me become an expert in making awesome dashboards. I have the previous edition of his book and refer to it every now and then when I need some inspiration or smack on the back for going with a stupid design. Read it cover to cover and implement as much as you can.
Information Dashboard Design on Amazon
Best Power BI Books
Now things get tricky. Power BI is a rapidly evolving software. So any book on it, is bound to be outdated in a month’s time. I learned all my Power BI by experimenting, reading blogs and watching YouTube videos. That said, Power BI is not one software. It is a combination of three different tools:
- Power Query to process and clean data
- Power Pivot for modeling & analyzing data
- Power BI Visuals for creating outputs
I think parts 1 & 2 of Power BI puzzle (Power Query & Power Pivot) are the hardest things to learn. This is where books can help you tremendously. Since you will be learning the technique and language more than screen features, a book on Power Query or Power Pivot tends to have longer shelf life. So keep this in mind where reading my book recommendations.
Beginning Power BI by Dan Clark
Power BI is a new & rapidly changing technology. Hence, getting a reliable book on it is hard. Someone recommended this to me and I find the topics quite relevant and useful for a new Power BI user.
Power Pivot and Power BI by Rob Collie & Avi Singh
Rob & Avi do a good job of explaining Power BI & Power Pivot for traditional Excel users. If you are coming from Excel background and want to learn Power BI, pick up this book. Get the kindle copy as this uses eTextbook format which works very well on your tablet or PC.
Power Pivot and Power BI on Amazon
Learn to write DAX by Matt Allington
DAX can be very daunting and gnarly when you are getting started. I find Matt’s book approachable and elegant. This will help you overcome your fear for DAX and make useful calculations out of your data. Use it to take your reporting to next level.
M is for (Data) Monkey by Ken Puls & Miguel Escobar
This cheekily named guide will help you navigate the murky, unexplained waters of Power Query. That said, the book is 3 years old, so it is WAY behind times when it comes to what is new & better in Power Query. Microsoft has rapidly changed what & how of Power Query in the last 18 months and some of the techniques in the book feel outdated. Nevertheless, a good book to have. Get the kindle version, that way if Ken decides to upgrade the book, you will have new content for free.
M is for (Data) Monkey on Amazon
The Definitive Guide to DAX by Marco Russo & Alberto Ferrari
The Italians book is gold standard when it comes to writing ninja level DAX. Unfortunately, this book is not what you need if you are a beginner. Start with either Matt’s book or Rob’s book and graduate to this one. It will help you understand inner workings of DAX and make it your genie to pull of awesome magic from your data.
The Definitive Guide to DAX on Amazon
Best Excel VBA & Macros books
Excel VBA Programming for Dummies by John Walkenbach
John’s book is the must have if you want to learn VBA programming in a comprehensive, clear way. It comes with many practical exercises, tips & best practices. I have the 2010 version of this and it helped me immensely when I was learning VBA programming.
Excel VBA Programming for Dummies on Amazon
Excel 2016 Power programming by Mike Alexander & Richard Kusleika
Mike & Dick are known for their generosity and creativity in Excel space, naturally this become reflects that. It is a treasure trove of good tips, examples and code base.
Excel 2016 Power programming on Amazon
My *own* books
Hey, I am an author too. I like to toot my horn once in a while. So if you are looking for books to polish your skills, consider these two.
PS: I am in the middle of writing my first Power BI book. This will be a beginner’s guide to everything Power BI. Watch out for an announcement about this.
The VLOOKUP Book by Chandoo
Learn everything from simple vlookup to complex INDEX, MATCH combinations in one book. Don’t be fooled by the name. This one goes beyond VLOOKUP and teaches you many powerful formula techniques when it comes to looking up data.
Excel Dashboards Book by Chandoo & Jordan Goldmeir
Create powerful, insightful and effective business dashboards using this handy guide. Learn all about charting best practices, VBA driven automation and more in this book. Also learn how Power Query and Power Pivot can revolutionize your workbook’s calculation engine.
Excel Dashboards Book on Amazon
What is your favorite Excel or Power BI Book?
Of course this list won’t be complete without your recommendation. So tell me dear reader, what is your favorite Excel or Power BI book? Post your answers in the comments section.
Note about the links in this page:
I am using my Amazon affiliate links in this post when recommending the books. That means, if you click on the links and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission from Amazon. This has no impact on my recommendation. I have personally read most of the books and recommend them even if there is no commission involved.
13 Responses to “Using pivot tables to find out non performing customers”
To avoid the helper column and the macro, I would transpose the data into the format shown above (Name, Year, Sales). Now I can show more than one year, I can summarize - I can do many more things with it. ASAP Utilities (http://www.asap-utilities.com) has a new experimental feature that can easily transpose the table into the correct format. Much easier in my opinion.
David
Of course with alternative data structure, we can easily setup a slicer based solution so that everything works like clockwork with even less work.
David, I was just about to post the same!
In Contextures site, I remember there's a post on how to do that. Clearly, the way data is layed out on the very beginning is critical to get the best results, and even you may thinkg the original layout is the best way, it is clearly not. And that kind of mistakes are the ones I love ! because it teaches and trains you to avoid them, and how to think on the data structure the next time.
Eventually, you get to that place when you "see" the structure on the moment the client tells you the request, and then, you realized you had an ephiphany, that glorious moment when data is no longer a mistery to you!!!
Rgds,
Chandoo,
If the goal is to see the list of customers who have not business from yearX, I would change the helper column formula to :
=IF(selYear="all",sum(C4:M4),sum(offset(C4:M4,,selyear-2002,1,columns(C4:M4)-selyear+2002)))This formula will sum the sales from Selected Year to 2012.
JMarc
If you are already using a helper column and the combox box runs a macro after it changes, why not just adjust the macro and filter the source data?
Regards
I gotta say, it seems like you are giving 10 answers to 10 questions when your client REALLY wants to know is: "What is the last year "this" customer row had a non-zero Sales QTY?... You're missing the forest for the trees...
Change the helper column to:
=IFERROR(INDEX(tblSales[[#Headers],[Customer name]:[Sales 2012]],0,MATCH(9.99999999999999E+307,tblSales[[#This Row],[Customer name]:[Sales 2012]],1)),"NO SALES")
And yes, since I'm matching off of them for value, I would change the headers to straight "2002" instead of "Sales 2002" but you sort the table on the helper column and then and there you can answer all of your questions.
Hi thanks for this. Just can't figure out how you get the combo box to control the pivot table. Can you please advise?
Cheers
@Kevin.. You are welcome. To insert a combo box, go to Developer ribbon > Insert > form controls > combo box.
For more on various form controls and how to use them, please read this: http://chandoo.org/wp/2011/03/30/form-controls/
Thanks Chandoo. But I know how to insert a combobox, I was more referring to how does in control the year in the pivot table? Or is this obvious? I note that if I select the Selected Year from the PivotTable Field List it says "the field has no itens" whereas this would normally allow you to change the year??
Thanks again
worked it out thanks...
when =data!Q2 changes it changes the value in column N:N and then when you do a refreshall the pivottable vlaues get updated
Still not sure why PivotTable Field List says “the field has no itens"?? I created my own pivot table and could not repeat that.
Hi, I put the sales data in range(F5:P19) and added a column D with the title 'Last sales in year'. After that, in column D for each customer, the simple formula
=2000+MATCH(1000000,E5:P5)
will provide the last year in which that particular customer had any sales, which can than easily be managed by autofilter.
Somewhat longer but perhaps a bit more solid (with the column titles in row 4):
=RIGHT(INDEX($F$4:$P$19,1,MATCH(1000000,F5:P5)),4)
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