{"id":3826,"date":"2023-03-01T12:49:15","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T07:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/?p=3826"},"modified":"2023-03-06T12:47:11","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T07:47:11","slug":"excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Excel in your career with 4 easy-to-use Excel features that help you solve any business problem!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you been keeping a business problem in your mind that you want to solve?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This article is an inspiration for professionals who want to use Excel to solve business problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We present 4 Excel features that are friendly and powerful in use. These features will help you set a base on how to do your analytics objectives.<\/span><\/p>\n

So let\u2019s dive-in into the top 4 Excel features for business analytics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Functions<\/span><\/h1>\n

Excel functions help to put in place any sort of business mathematics. It has a vast function set, nearly 500 functions, that offer analysts to implement any business scenario.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, if a business analyst wants to see how much a customer contributes to the total sales, they would calculate sales per order as follows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>sales per order = (revenue – profit) <\/span>total orders<\/span><\/p>\n

To implement this formula in Excel, the analyst would use a SUM function in combination with COUNT and division operator (forward slash \u2018\/\u2019) as follows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>sales per order =<\/span> SUM(A:A, – B:B)\/COUNT(C:C)<\/span><\/p>\n

As a second example, consider a business analyst who wants to categorize customers based on their sales. The logic would be as follows:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

IF current sale > average of sales, then high value customer; ELSE low value customer<\/span><\/p>\n

To do the above in Excel, the analyst would use the IF function to categorize data as follows.<\/span><\/p>\n

IF(D:D > AVERAGE(D:D), \u201cHigh value customer\u201d, \u201cLow value customer\u201d)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Pivot table<\/span><\/h1>\n

A pivot table in Excel is a one-click feature that lets you analyze your data without the hassle of entering functions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It helps to pack your data into a compact table that views a summary of the whole data. Additionally, you can also create custom formulas as per your business problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

A pivot table makes the work easy for you. As an example, you don\u2019t need to use IF function to categorize data, a Pivot table automatically detects categories in data.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the image below an example dataset of cars is presented with car name and its features such as MPG, cylinders and displacement etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When we create the pivot table, our data automatically gets categorized as shown in the image below.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pivot: to turn, as the name suggests also offers you the <\/span>flexibility<\/b> to view data as per your choice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It does this with its toolbar (positioned at the right side of the screen) that lets you drag and drop table fields and set data across rows and columns of your pivot table.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Also, another useful feature of the Pivot table is that it allows you to view <\/span>summary <\/b>of data<\/span> without having to apply functions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can view 11 summaries including sum, average, min, max, product and standard deviation by dragging fields on the \u2018Values\u2019 area. Then, in the drop down of a field, \u2018set the value of the field\u2019 as the summary of your choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides summaries, you can create your own <\/span>custom formulas<\/b> to analyze and explore your data in a pivot table.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Pivot chart<\/span><\/h1>\n

Pivot chart is another amazing tool that lets you visualize your data in a single click. Simply stating, a pivot chart is a graphical extension to the pivot tables. All benefits of the pivot table are retained, just that we now get a visual view of the data.<\/span><\/p>\n

One can visualize data summaries just like in the Pivot table, as well as create custom formulas to deeply explore and analyze business data.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how a pivot chart looks like for our cars dataset. You simply select the data in your table and <\/span>Insert<\/b> a Pivot chart. You choose the fields of your choice in the options just as you would do for a Pivot table.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. \u2018Analyze Data\u2019<\/span><\/h1>\n

One incredible feature in Excel, even further than Pivot table and pivot chart, is the \u2018Analyze Data\u2019 feature. It lets you write human friendly queries and returns analytics as a result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Take a look at the example of how we can use prompts to quickly get insights from data. At the analyze data tab (on the right corner of the screen), we ask Excel to output \u2018maximum\u2019 of the \u2018displacement\u2019 in \u2018US\u2019. Excel shows the highest value of Displacement for Origin US and returns a value of 455.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2018Analyze data\u2019 provides suggestions as well. It can self build a pivot table and pivot charts which you can also update in the options. This makes your business analytics work extremely simple and easy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you been keeping a business problem in your mind that you want to solve?\u00a0 This article is an inspiration for professionals who want to use Excel to solve business problems.\u00a0 We present 4 Excel features that are friendly and powerful in use. These features will help you set a base on how to do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[126,187],"class_list":{"0":"post-3826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-data-analytics","8":"category-data-science","9":"tag-business-analytics","10":"tag-data-analytics-with-excel"},"yoast_head":"\nExcel in your career with 4 easy-to-use Excel features that help you solve any business problem! - Dicecamp Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you been keeping a business problem in your mind that you want to solve?\u00a0This article is an inspiration for professionals who want to use Excel to solve business problems.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Excel in your career with 4 easy-to-use Excel features that help you solve any business problem! - Dicecamp Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you been keeping a business problem in your mind that you want to solve?\u00a0This article is an inspiration for professionals who want to use Excel to solve business problems.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dicecamp Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-01T07:49:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-06T07:47:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/pexels-rodnae-productions-7947999-scaled.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ayesha\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ayesha\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/\",\"name\":\"Excel in your career with 4 easy-to-use Excel features that help you solve any business problem! - Dicecamp Insights\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-01T07:49:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-06T07:47:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/1b7d4bef40ac58bbedfa718df21e2463\"},\"description\":\"Have you been keeping a business problem in your mind that you want to solve?\u00a0This article is an inspiration for professionals who want to use Excel to solve business problems.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Excel in your career with 4 easy-to-use Excel features that help you solve any business problem!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/\",\"name\":\"Dicecamp Insights\",\"description\":\"All Things Tech!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/1b7d4bef40ac58bbedfa718df21e2463\",\"name\":\"Ayesha\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc0617698baa4b6b794771cffa4c63de5ee5febb87eef29e53208d83b8be582e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc0617698baa4b6b794771cffa4c63de5ee5febb87eef29e53208d83b8be582e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ayesha\"},\"description\":\"I engineer the content and acquaint the science of analytics to empower rookies and professionals.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ayesha-saeed-13as96\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/author\/ayesha\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Excel in your career with 4 easy-to-use Excel features that help you solve any business problem! - Dicecamp Insights","description":"Have you been keeping a business problem in your mind that you want to solve?\u00a0This article is an inspiration for professionals who want to use Excel to solve business problems.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Excel in your career with 4 easy-to-use Excel features that help you solve any business problem! - Dicecamp Insights","og_description":"Have you been keeping a business problem in your mind that you want to solve?\u00a0This article is an inspiration for professionals who want to use Excel to solve business problems.","og_url":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/","og_site_name":"Dicecamp Insights","article_published_time":"2023-03-01T07:49:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-06T07:47:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/pexels-rodnae-productions-7947999-scaled.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Ayesha","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ayesha","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/","url":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/","name":"Excel in your career with 4 easy-to-use Excel features that help you solve any business problem! - Dicecamp Insights","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-03-01T07:49:15+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-06T07:47:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/1b7d4bef40ac58bbedfa718df21e2463"},"description":"Have you been keeping a business problem in your mind that you want to solve?\u00a0This article is an inspiration for professionals who want to use Excel to solve business problems.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/excel-features-to-solve-any-business-problem\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Excel in your career with 4 easy-to-use Excel features that help you solve any business problem!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/","name":"Dicecamp Insights","description":"All Things Tech!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/1b7d4bef40ac58bbedfa718df21e2463","name":"Ayesha","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc0617698baa4b6b794771cffa4c63de5ee5febb87eef29e53208d83b8be582e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc0617698baa4b6b794771cffa4c63de5ee5febb87eef29e53208d83b8be582e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Ayesha"},"description":"I engineer the content and acquaint the science of analytics to empower rookies and professionals.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ayesha-saeed-13as96\/"],"url":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/author\/ayesha\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3826"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3837,"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826\/revisions\/3837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dicecamp.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}