A day’s Excel training in Cardiff

Photo of the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay on a sunny day. (Image for decorative purposes only)

Last week I delivered a day’s Excel training in Cardiff for a medium-sized charity. 

I designed this bespoke course for a group of finance and data folk who had already done my half day Introduction to power query course and had good Excel knowledge to begin with.

I always love training people who work together, because I know that there’s an increased chance that the learning will continue after the course.

What we covered

I’ve posted before that I don’t have a standard “intermediate” or “advanced” Excel course. This is because clients have different needs, and different starting points. I don’t want to waste time showing you stuff you already know, or are never going to need.

But as an example of what could be included in a day’s bespoke Excel training, let’s look at last week’s Cardiff session. I had previously circulated a questionnaire to the delegates to understand what they already knew and what they wanted to find out more about.

We revised key building blocks like Tables, and concepts such as number vs text. We then went onto some upgrades. For example, we went through XLOOKUP and the many ways it’s better than VLOOKUP.

And we also covered lots and lots of new Excel content.

Some of this we did via brief examples – such as REGEX, Checkboxes and TRANSLATE. (It was interesting to see how it copes with Welsh!)

Dynamic arrays were completely new to everyone, so we spent a bit of time looking at FILTER, UNIQUE and GROUPBY, and also discussing what made dynamic arrays different.

We then finished with a session on dynamic charts, including some data visualisation tips.

Throughout the day I shared examples of useful shortcuts and navigation tools to make everyday work in Excel a little bit more efficient.

Book me for Excel training in Cardiff (or Newport)

I can design and deliver a day of bespoke Excel training in Cardiff (or Newport) for £875 (£825 for not for profits).  I’m based in Bristol so Cardiff is a really easy trip for me and I always enjoy spending time in Wales.

Please get in touch via my Contact page to discuss your needs in more detail.

Does Groupby replace pivot tables?

Example of GROUPBY to pivot data

Does GROUPBY replace pivot tables?

The new functions GROUPBY and PIVOTBY are now available in the current channel of Microsoft Excel, and I’ve been playing with them to try to answer this question.

My conclusion is that it isn’t a simple yes/no answer. What is more useful to think about is “when” or “how” GROUPBY should be used instead of a pivot table – and vice versa.

Continue reading “Does Groupby replace pivot tables?”

“The key didn’t match any rows in the table” error in Power Query

“The key didn’t match any rows in the table” is one of the most common errors in Power Query.

The way it’s always explained is that it is caused when the original data changes format or name, or has been deleted.

However, there is a third, related option, which I’m writing about here because it stumped me for a while.

Continue reading ““The key didn’t match any rows in the table” error in Power Query”

New standalone power query course

I’m pleased to announce that in 2025 I’m now offering a standalone Power Query course that individuals can sign up to.

Up to this point, I’ve mostly created and delivered bespoke Excel training courses for teams. And sometimes I cover a brief introduction to Power Query within these courses.

This is because I know from experience that Power Query is an enormous time saver in a range of roles. If you find yourself doing repetitive processes in Excel (copying, pasting, updating formulas etc), you will benefit from some Power Query training.

However, I know that lots of people who would benefit the most from Power Query might not work in a team. Perhaps you are a consultant, or you’re the only finance or data person in an organisation.

You might even have tried to learn Power Query yourself but got stuck. Or perhaps you just prefer in person training.

Continue reading “New standalone power query course”