Microsoft Excel has become the industry standard program for data management in businesses of all sizes and across all industries. The adoption of Excel in the workplace knows no bounds, as science and engineering professionals use Excel to calculate statistical formulas and graphs; business and sales professionals use the program to develop invoice and revenue reports; administrative professionals use Excel to track expense reports, payroll, and contact lists; and accountants use it to calculate budgets, forecasts, and financial results.
A working knowledge of Excel is vital for most office-based professions today. A study by Burning Glass Technologies, a labor-market analysis firm, reports that 82 percent of middle-skill jobs require digital skills like Microsoft Excel. Individuals with strong Excel skills are attractive to businesses and can open the door to promotion and leadership opportunities.
The power of Excel lies in its ability to quickly and efficiently perform data calculations, analysis, and more. Some of the common uses of Excel include storing database records, managing budgets and timeframes, maintaining staff and customer records, conducting financial planning, identifying trends and forecasting the future, and analyzing business intelligence, sales, and marketing data.
The benefits of Excel can be seen in the following four areas:
1. Graphing
Excel can produce a variety of different charts--including bar, graph, pie, scatter, and line charts. Charts and graphs provide an easy-to-understand visualization of complex numerical data. With Excel, you can create a chart or graph to represent almost any kind of quantitative data.
2. Data Organization
From managing a household budget to tracking revenue reports, Excel is a helpful tool to organize information in a logical, systematic way. You can organize data alphabetically, numerically, by color, or with another filter. When done correctly, Excel can streamline the data entry process and present data more logically and consistently.
3. Data Calculations
Excel has over 300 commands and a large database of mathematical functions, formulas, and add-ons. Excel can perform the simplest or most complex mathematical calculations with little input from the user.
4. Data Sorting
It is easy to become overwhelmed when working with hundreds of rows of data in a single spreadsheet. However, Excel provides a handful of sorting options to organize and re-order data, as well as filter through information that is not important.
By learning the basics of the Excel program, you can make immediate improvements to your workplace operations and carry forth an important skill to future professional opportunities.
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