“Jess delivered a full day of Excel training to our team who have hugely varied experience and skill levels. The training was very well organised and perfectly paced.
People who have been using Excel for decades learned better, more efficient ways of working, and people with little experience learned how to use it correctly from the off.
Team members were so engaged, people who had only signed up for the morning session ended up staying for the whole day.
For a small investment in training, we will now be able to work more efficiently and effectively in Excel, which ultimately will save time and money for our small charity.
I’d recommend the Happy Finance Team for any organisation who wants to make better use of Excel.”
Jessica Hodge, Chief Executive, Emmaus Bristol
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“I did a 1-1 introduction to Power Query course with Jess and what I’ve learned will change my professional life! As an interim project delivery manager, I deal with lots of situations where data quality isn’t great, and in an intensive four hour training course I’ve learned lots of techniques which will save me so much time in the future. Jess taught by using practical examples to illustrate a range of transformations for extracting, cleaning and combining data and was also happy to explore specific questions I had about ways to approach different problems.
The course was well prepared with multiple materials readily at hand to illustrate different elements of the software and Jess paced it perfectly. Excellent value for money and I am really excited to start using what I have learned.”
Natasha Bowen – Project Delivery Manager
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“Jess designed and delivered an Excel course for our newest audit trainees. She worked with one of our audit managers to tailor the course exactly to our needs, and included newer formulas and navigation techniques where relevant. She also incorporated material that was specifically relevant to auditors such as formula auditing and error checking.
Our trainees got lots out of the course, and it was good to bring everyone up to the same standard as part of their initial training.”
Alison Godfrey – Godfrey Wilson LLP
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“Artspace Lifespace uses Google Sheets for collaboration and communication within teams. Our team grew quickly in 2023 when Sparks Bristol started and most of our team are self-taught in gsheets and excel. We wanted to have additional training so that all team leads were able to effectively collaborate on spreadsheets and share information.
The Happy Finance team provided customised training that catered to the varying skill levels of our staff, ensuring that everyone felt supported and empowered. Jessica skillfully broke down the training material, making it both easily digestible and directly applicable to our work.
The training sessions not only equipped our staff with essential skills and knowledge but also helped to build confidence, irrespective of individual abilities. Even team members with advanced knowledge found the training valuable, as they discovered useful tips and shortcuts that enhanced their efficiency. We highly recommend the Happy Finance team for their tailored, friendly, and effective in-house training.”
Kathryn Chiswell Jones, Company Manager – Artspace Lifespace
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“I commissioned Jess to provide a day’s Excel training for our finance team, including an introduction to Power Query.
She drew on her experiences of managing finance teams to select examples that were relevant to us, and gave practical uses throughout the day for the formulas and functions that she covered.
Her style of training was ideally suited to our team and pitched at the right level, and has encouraged us to start thinking about how we can improve the way we perform current finance tasks”
Rob Jesson, Finance Director, Fair Ways
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“Jess delivered a half day Introduction to Power Query to our finance team, which covered basic navigation and included a range of useful transformations.
She used exercises that were relevant to typical finance team problems and the principles were clearly explained. It gave us a good grounding in the potential of Power Query to automate processes and save time. We have since commissioned Jess to deliver Excel training and also some follow up work with Power Query”
Leon Bond, Group Financial Controller, Retirement Villages
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‘Jess stepped in at very short notice when we really needed help to cover our head of finance role on an interim part-time basis. Working between 2-4 days a month over five months she was quickly able to identify what needed to be covered urgently and was calm, conscientious and extremely capable.
She provided additional support with reporting and governance to our Finance Committee and board, and she also made some improvements to speed up our quarterly reporting process. Her work was exemplary and I couldn’t recommend her more highly. ”
Catharine Des Forges, Independent Cinema Office
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“As an interim director of finance at an international charity, I commissioned Jess to build a management accounts model to replace the existing manual process that took 10 hours to run. She fully explored what we wanted the model to do and then designed and built an automated model in 2.5 days.
Jess’s model means that putting management accounts together now takes 1-2 hours a month. It also gives us up-to-date reserves reporting against budget, which we didn’t have before, and I am more confident in the accuracy of the reports as there is no manual data entry”
Interim finance director who commissioned Jess in early 2024.