Description

Most project managers run their projects in Excel, whether or not the organisation has bought a project tool. Plans, RAID logs, budgets, resource trackers, and status reports all end up in a spreadsheet, usually built under time pressure by someone who was never trained to build them. This course teaches you to construct project documents that stay accurate as the project moves.

Who This Course Is For

Project managers, project coordinators, PMO analysts, delivery leads and anyone running work packages, budgets or schedules.

What You Will Learn

Beginner module, included and skippable

Start here if you want to, or go straight past it if you already use Excel every day.

  • Getting started with Excel
  • Formatting
  • Formulas
  • Tables
  • Printing, which matters more than it should when a plan has to go on a wall
  • Shortcuts and time-saving habits
  • Charts
  • Graphics and illustrations

Intermediate module

Building a tracker that behaves itself as the project grows.

  • Creating and managing tables so formulas extend as tasks are added
  • Presenting and sorting data in a table
  • Automatic calculations and filtering
  • Blank cells and duplicates, which quietly break a total
  • Advanced filtering with a criteria range, to pull out one workstream or owner
  • Copying filtered rows out for a report
  • Validation criteria, so status, owner and priority are chosen rather than typed
  • Conditional and custom formats, so slipped tasks and approaching milestones colour themselves
  • Absolute references in formulas
  • Copying values, copying with a link, and transposing for summary sheets
  • Moving, copying and hiding sheets
  • Summarising a plan with an outline, to collapse it to phase level
  • Attaching comments to cells to record why a date changed
  • Creating and managing sparklines
  • Creating and customising charts

Advanced module

Reporting, modelling and keeping the file intact.

  • PivotTables and PivotCharts for progress by phase, owner or status
  • Lookup functions for pulling owners, rates or costs from another sheet
  • Date functions for deadlines, durations and slippage
  • IF statements with AND and OR for at-risk flags
  • Nested, array and conditional formulas
  • Scenarios and Goal Seek, for what happens if we cut this or add that
  • Auditing and error checking, so you find a wrong total before the steering group does
  • Templates and themes, so the next project starts from a working document
  • Protecting workbooks, so collaborators cannot break your formulas
  • Sharing workbooks

How the Course Is Delivered

The course is delivered online through our interactive learning system. It demonstrates each technique, then asks you to do it yourself in a live version of Excel. Your work is marked as you go and corrected straight away if you make a mistake. That function is called the virtual tutor, and it is part of the software rather than a person, so you can work through the course whenever your schedule allows.

You do not need Excel installed on your computer. Everything runs inside the training system.

Your CPD Certificate

The course is accredited by the CPD Standards Institute. Complete the training, pass the assessment, and you receive a CPD certificate in Excel for Project Managers. The assessment and the certificate are included in the price.

Course Details

Start whenever you like, study at your own pace and keep access for twelve months. No prior Excel experience is assumed. If you are arranging training for a project team, ask us about group discounts and invoicing.