This is how I ACTUALLY analyze data using Excel
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Moan, a data and analytics analyst, shares his Excel data analysis workflow, focusing on solving business problems rather than creating aesthetic dashboards. He demonstrates how to analyze a fictitious gym equipment sales dataset, identifying top suppliers and brands, examining year-on-year growth, market shares, and calculating year-to-date and moving annual total profit figures. Moan emphasizes practical data analysis techniques, using pivot tables, conditional formatting, and data manipulation to extract actionable insights.
Takeaways
- π The video is focused on practical Excel data analysis for solving business problems rather than creating aesthetically pleasing but non-functional dashboards.
- πΌ Moan, a data and analytics analyst in the financial services industry, uses Excel as his primary tool for quick, ad hoc analysis of data sets.
- π Excel is particularly useful for answering business-critical questions involving large data sets, such as up to a million rows.
- 𧩠The video provides a hands-on example of analyzing a fictitious gym equipment sales data set to identify top suppliers, brands, and categories.
- π The analysis includes year-on-year growth, market share calculations, and profit figures such as year-to-date and moving annual total.
- π A quick tip is shared for organizing data sets where columns are misaligned: click on the top left, double-click, and then double-click again to align columns neatly.
- π Converting data into an Excel table is recommended for easier manipulation and updating when using pivot tables and charts.
- π’ Pivot tables are used to quickly count the number of suppliers, brands, and categories within the data set.
- π Conditional formatting is applied to highlight increases and decreases in year-on-year growth with color scales for quick visual insights.
- π The video demonstrates how to create charts to visualize market share changes over time using slicers for interactive filtering.
- π The script includes a step-by-step guide on calculating year-to-date and moving annual total profits using Excel functions like SUMIFS.
Q & A
What is the primary focus of the video script?
-The primary focus of the video script is to demonstrate a practical Excel data analysis workflow for solving business problems, rather than creating visually appealing but non-functional dashboards.
Who is the speaker in the video script?
-The speaker in the video script is Moan, who works as a data and analytics analyst in the financial services industry.
What is Moan's preferred tool for quick ad hoc analysis?
-Moan's preferred tool for quick ad hoc analysis is Microsoft Excel, which he uses for any analysis up to a million rows when he needs quick answers to business critical problems.
What is the purpose of using tables in Excel as per the script?
-Using tables in Excel simplifies the process of working with pivot tables and pivot charts, as everything automatically updates when changes are made to the table.
How does Moan suggest adjusting columns in Excel for better readability?
-Moan suggests clicking on the top left cell and then double-clicking to automatically adjust all the columns for better readability, which also works for rows.
What is the significance of the fictitious gym equipment profit data set used in the script?
-The fictitious gym equipment profit data set is used to demonstrate a hands-on practical example of how to identify top suppliers and brands, analyze year-on-year growth, market shares, and calculate year-to-date and moving annual total profit figures.
What is the shortcut Moan uses to create a pivot table in Excel?
-Moan uses the shortcut 'Alt + VT' to quickly create a pivot table in Excel.
How does Moan approach analyzing year-on-year growth in the script?
-Moan analyzes year-on-year growth by creating a pivot table, setting the year in the columns, and using the 'Show values as' feature to calculate the percent difference from the previous year.
What is the purpose of using conditional formatting in the pivot table as described in the script?
-Conditional formatting is used to quickly visualize data by applying color scales to the pivot table, where darker colors represent larger increases or decreases in values.
How does Moan calculate market share in the pivot table?
-Moan calculates market share by setting the year on the rows, brand on the columns, and using the 'Show values as' feature to display the percent of row total in the pivot table.
What is the significance of duplicating worksheets in Excel as mentioned in the script?
-Duplicating worksheets in Excel is significant for creating multiple analyses that utilize the same pivot table, which updates dynamically across all copies when the original data changes.
Outlines
π Introduction to Excel Data Analysis Workflow
The speaker, Moan, introduces his Excel data analysis workflow, emphasizing its practicality for solving business problems rather than creating aesthetically pleasing but functionally limited dashboards. Moan, a data and analytics analyst in the financial services industry, uses Excel for quick ad hoc analysis on large datasets. He presents a hands-on example analyzing a fictitious gym equipment sales dataset to identify top suppliers and brands, examine year-on-year growth, market shares, and calculate profit figures. Moan shares a tip for organizing datasets in Excel by using the 'double-click' trick to align columns and rows neatly.
π Analyzing Data with Pivot Tables and Charts
Moan demonstrates how to use pivot tables to analyze data, starting with counting the number of suppliers and brands. He explains the process of creating a pivot table quickly using the shortcut 'Alt + VT' and adjusting its design for clarity. The video then shifts to analyzing year-on-year growth by setting up a pivot table to show the percentage difference in profits between consecutive years. Moan uses conditional formatting to visually represent the data, highlighting increases and decreases in profits. He also discusses the importance of removing partial data sets, like the year 2024 with only five months of data, to ensure accurate year-on-year comparisons.
π Examining Market Share with Slicers and Charts
Continuing the analysis, Moan focuses on calculating market share by creating another pivot table that shows the percentage of total profits for each brand. He uses slicers to filter the data by category, allowing for a dynamic view of market share changes across different types of gym equipment. Moan adjusts the chart layout and color scheme for better visualization and interprets the chart to identify trends in market share, such as the rise of Apex Athletics and the decline of Titan Training in the airbikes category.
πΉ Calculating Year-to-Date and Moving Annual Total Profits
Moan introduces the calculation of year-to-date (YTD) profits, explaining the SUMIFS function to sum profits from the beginning of the year to the current month. He performs sense checks to ensure the calculations are accurate. Next, he tackles the calculation of moving annual total profits, which involve summing profits from the last 12 months regardless of the current month. He demonstrates the SUMIFS function again, this time including logic to account for months from the previous year when necessary. Moan also promotes his website and resources for learning practical data analysis and job application skills.
π Final Analysis and Conclusion
In the final part, Moan revisits the pivot table to include the newly calculated year-to-date and moving annual total profit figures. He refines the pivot table to display only the moving annual total profit for the last month of available data, formatting the numbers for clarity. Moan concludes the video by summarizing the analysis and encourages viewers to subscribe for more content. He also points out a minor mistake in his analysis to emphasize the importance of careful data examination and the iterative nature of the data analysis process.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Data Analysis
π‘Microsoft Excel
π‘Pivot Tables
π‘Year-on-Year Growth
π‘Market Share
π‘Conditional Formatting
π‘Slicers
π‘Year-to-Date (YTD)
π‘Moving Annual Total (MAT)
π‘Data Visualization
Highlights
Introduction to a practical Excel data analysis workflow for business problem-solving.
Excel as a go-to tool for quick ad hoc analysis up to a million rows.
Demonstration of a hands-on example analyzing fictitious gym equipment sales data.
Technique to quickly organize a messy dataset in Excel by adjusting columns.
Advantages of using Excel tables for easier management of pivot tables and charts.
Step-by-step guide to creating a pivot table for basic data analysis.
Method to identify the number of suppliers, brands, and categories in a dataset.
How to calculate year-on-year growth in profits using pivot table value settings.
Use of conditional formatting to visually represent data changes.
Analysis of market share using pivot tables and slicers.
Explanation of year-to-date profit calculations with practical examples.
Tutorial on calculating moving annual total profit figures.
Importance of sense checks in data analysis to ensure accuracy.
Real-time demonstration of updating pivot tables with new calculations.
Final thoughts on the simplicity and effectiveness of the presented Excel analysis techniques.
Call to action for viewers to subscribe for more valuable content.
Transcripts
it's been 6 years now since the first
time I analyzed a bunch of data at work
using Microsoft Excel and today I want
to show you my Excel data analysis
workflow that covers 99% of the types of
analysis I do using the tool this is not
going to be a video about building
beautiful but nevertheless useless and
random dashboards this is going to be a
video about how I solve business
problems using Excel how I analyze data
and get insights and next steps using
Excel for those of you who are new here
my name is moan and I work as a data and
analytics analyst in the financial
services industry Excel is my go-to tool
for any quick ad hoc analysis up to say
a million rows anytime when I want quick
answers to some business critical
problems I use Excel let me show you how
by walking you through a Hands-On
practical example where I'll identify
the top suppliers and Brands across very
ious categories in my fictitious gym
equipment sales data set look at
year-on-year growth to see how sales
have changed over time analyze market
shares and even calculate year-to-date
and moving annual total profit figures I
think that's enough of an overview for
now let's dive into the
analysis all right cool so this is going
to be a pure data analysis exercise this
is like I said not going to be one of
those YouTube videos where I'm going to
create a bunch of the shiny stuff that
is completely useless and random I'm
going to show you what I use Excel for
which is quick ad hoc data analysis to
get the answers to whatever business
critical problems that I have and then I
just move on so this is our data set
it's a fictitious uh sales oh no it's a
fictitious profit data set sorry it's a
fictitious gym equipment profit data set
and a super quick tip for you if you get
a data set and the columns are all over
the place you can click in the top left
and then double click and and then you
can see that all of the columns are
beautifully adjusted obviously this
works for rows as well so let me just
mess up my data set just a little bit
you can see that I'll mess this column
up as well and this one and this one
click on the top left double click and
then you can double click again and you
have a neat and tidy data set so first
things first let's understand the
columns we have only six again it's a
simple fictitious data set so I try to
filter out all of the noise and we'll
just focus on these col col s category
suppliers Brands year month and the
monthly profit so that's the data that
we have before we even jump in the one
thing I like to do is you can see that
this is what's called a range and I like
using tables because it's just so much
easier to use tables when you have a
bunch of pivot tables and pivot charts
and then everything automatically
updates I won't go into too much detail
about you know this in this video but uh
I guess yeah if you want to learn more
about Excel or SQL actually or Tableau
or python then course careers have a
super data analytics course they've been
a well yeah they've been a partner of
mine for quite a while now so yeah
they're good check out their course if
you want to but anyway um yeah so let's
turn this into a table and the easiest
way to turn this into a table is to
press control and then T I'm a man of
shortcuts you hit okay and there you go
what's the big difference now if you go
to the top here you can see table design
which you didn't have before let me just
undo this you see at the top now you
don't have table design so contrl T hit
okay and then this is a bit too much for
me this design so I'm going to tone it
down just a little bit I think this
looks about right so the first thing I
really want to know is how many
suppliers do I have how many brands do I
have for each supplier and how many
categories of gym equipment uh well
profit data do I have here so a really
simple way to do it is to insert a pivot
table and start doing some analysis so
I'm going to do that I'll show you two
ways to do it I'll show you the shortcut
way which is just going to be alt and VT
hit enter and then that's a pivot table
it took me probably 2 seconds to do it
but I'll uh delete this sheet for now
and I'll show you the point and click
way as well so you go to the top insert
pivot table from table hit okay there
you go you have your pivot table and
then let's see how many suppliers do we
have three three suppliers okay
fantastic easy and if you're not sure
about the count or the sum or any kind
of summary figures that Excel would show
you you can always go to the bottom
right right here and then you'll see the
numbers all right so we have three
suppliers how many brands do we have we
have nine Brands and what I like to do
is go to Design Within design change the
report layout to show in tabular form
remove the
totals and then it's just an easier way
to look at all of the brands and then
I'll drag in the categories as well so
how many categories do I have I have
three categories airbikes rowing
machines and treadmills super simple all
right so now I answered some super basic
questions so we have three suppliers
nine Brands and then we have three
categories just click into the filter
and you'll know next thing I want to
know is the year- on-year growth for
each of these brands in terms of profits
so what I will do is I'll go to my
worksheet on the bottom here hold down
control and then duplicate the the
worksheet yeah so this is good because
you're duplicating the the uh pivot
table as well which is going to come in
really handy when you're starting to use
uh slicers and timeline filters across
all of your pivot tables and pivot
charts in a dynamic dashboard so yeah
it's going to be great for that I'm not
going to go into much detail in this
video on that kind of stuff if you you
know really want to learn more you can
get get some certifications and you can
do some courses online uh yeah they'll
teach you a lot about it yeah and I
guess on on that note you could you know
say for example go to data Camp they
have a bunch of good courses not just on
Excel but you know a bunch of other data
stuff as well I learned a bunch of
Tableau skills on data Camp because they
have a like a skills track a
certifications track they have case
studies they have various tutorials so
yeah they're pretty good and I recently
started partnering with them as well
because yeah they're genuinely good but
anyway um yeah second question year
on-year growth how am I going to solve
that problem so not that difficult let
me remove the category for now drop in
the monthly profit and then let me grab
the year and move it onto the columns so
now these numbers here these are the
total profit numbers but what I'm
looking for is the year-on-year
difference so basically I want to see
what's the difference between 2019 and
201 18 2020 and 2019 so on and so forth
so I go to
values value field settings show values
as and then all I have to do is Select
percent difference from and then the
base field is obviously year and then
the base item is previous yep and then I
hit okay and there you go it looks yeah
pretty good I think there you go some
quick calculations 2024 is straight away
I can see off the chart charts now why
is that we can go into the data and we
can have a look quickly so let me go
2024 select a couple here there you go
2024 is off the charts because we only
have 5 months worth of data up to and
including May that's why the numbers are
off the charts because you're comparing
five months of profits to 12 months of
profits in 2023 so let me just remove
2024 because it's not a full year and
then the numbers look much better I
think all right so these numbers
obviously it's it's you know quite hard
to spot which one's good which one's bad
what I like to do is this is honestly so
simple go to conditional formatting and
then choose some color scales so
whatever you want you can choose your
own rules I don't care too much cuz I'm
really just after some numbers so I'll
go with the let me go with this one I
think blue is good red is bad yeah there
we go so the darker the blue the larger
the increase and the darker the red the
larger the decrease so that's some quick
insights for you right there biggest
growth
6.91% right here biggest decrease what
was it
7.7 right here yeah that's it quick
insights all right so I answered year-
on-year growth now the next thing I
probably want to look into is market
share so let me again duplicate my sheet
hold down control drag and drop the
sheet and then I have a new sheet now so
all I'm going to do differently this
time is I'm going to move the year onto
the rows I'll move probably suppliers
onto the columns let me move that away
and then oh actually yeah I want to move
the brand probably onto the columns yeah
that makes a lot more sense and this
time let's change the calculation so go
to Value field settings show values as
and it's not a difference from all I
want to see really is the row total the
percent of row total hit okay and now I
want to add back 2024 because we're
comparing like like and what I want to
do now is remove the conditional
formatting so you go to conditional
formatting manage rules and then you
just delete the rule hit apply hit okay
done so now What's Happening Here is
that each of these rows should add up to
100 and if you go to the bottom right
here you can see that the sum is indeed
100 you can check this one as well is
indeed 100 or you can just do a sum
function so it's going to be sum B5 to
what is it J five there we go and then
you can drag it down and there you go
everything's 100% fantastic okay so the
market share cannot be more than 100%
right because that's that's all of the
profits in the market so that's the
entire market so all I'm going to do
here is insert a line chart I'll pick
this one and then it looks obviously not
great right now because we didn't
actually select in which category do we
want to look at the market share so so I
go to pivot table analyze and then
insert slicer and I want the category
hit okay and now we have a pretty decent
slicer all right so airbikes cool let me
look at that there we go make it a bit
bigger and yeah there you go I have
three different categories you can click
through and you can see how the market
shares change over time if you don't
like the layout of this chart you can
quickly change you know the layout into
something else let me pick something
that looks well not ugly so yeah maybe
this one I think this one looks all
right and then you can change the colors
as well
so people like dark stuff oh that is
very glowy um maybe this
one yeah all right okay this is not too
bad so I'll go with this one and let me
just interpret the charts for you really
quickly so let's pick airbikes for
example what can I see straight away so
the thing I can see straight away is
that Apex Athletics they started
increasing their market share and their
profits uh you know they yeah it's it's
at 17. 97% fantastic and then what's
that Spartan Sports they're the worst as
of 2024 rowing machines I can see that
is this Elevate Fitness yes Elevate
Fitness improved over time which is
fantastic and then the purple one Titan
training they yeah they definitely
didn't improve over time they're
actually at the bottom of the list now
and if we're looking at treadmills it's
going to be Spartan Sports who have uh I
wouldn't say dominated the market share
but obviously you know they increased
their market share over time and then
Hercules gear did the exact opposite
simple analysis that's it let's move on
so the next thing we're going to do is I
did tell you that we were going to do
some calculations so we're going to do
some year-to-date calculations and we're
going to do some moving annual total
profit calculations all right super
quick break and don't worry this is not
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program so year to date essentially is
let me pick an example say if we're in
um 2018 may I want all of the profit to
be summed up from January to May that's
it and then if we're in August then I
want all of these profits so the 8
months worth of profits to be summed up
but if we're in 2019 July then I want
obviously the first s months of profits
to be summed up so let me call this uh
new column profit year to date because
well it is the profit year to date and
it's going to be super simple so nothing
to worry about a bunch of sum
ifs so first of all it's asking for the
sum range so I'm just going to use my
keyboard to navigate around if you're on
a Windows it's just the arrow keys and
the control key and then if you're on a
Mac it's going to be the arrow keys and
the command key super simple so okay so
the sum range for me and I'm going to
hold down control right now and press uh
space and then I select the entire
column fantastic okay the first criteria
range is going to be the
category and then the category obviously
has to be equal to the to the category
of the current row so yeah treadmill in
this case and then criteria range two
supplier again it has to be the supplier
that occupies that row of data so in
this case Peak Performance gear criteria
range three it's going to have to be the
brand that's in the current row and then
year it has to be the current year so
again in this case 2018 and then
month and this is where it's going to
get a little bit tricky not too tricky
but because we want the year-to-date um
profits to be summed up we want all of
the months up to and including the
current month so it's just a simple math
calculation less than or equal to m%c
sign and then you pass in the current
month and then if this doesn't work now
then I'm going to look like a fool but
it did work fantastic okay so let me
just do some formatting because we're
talking about uh profit figures here
currency and you can see that it's uh
British pound here because I live in the
United Kingdom so yeah it's not US
Dollars this time I won't change it to
dollars because yeah whatever it can be
pounds this time for a change
so let's do some sense check so for the
first year uh these profits right let's
just do some sense checks so let's pick
2018 May and then the 65 476 this number
should be equal to the sum of these 5
months and you can go to the bottom and
check 65 476 yes it is fantastic all
right we can move on and obviously we
can do the first 12 months there you go
profit year to date it's going to be 152
585 and on the bottom here you can see
that it's 152 585 indeed so the profit
year-to date numbers are legit fantastic
let's just pick another one just in case
this one right here let's add up the
profits for the first three months right
here so this 41 036
41036 okay I did a sense check
everything works cool next thing I'm
going to do is we're going to calculate
the profit um what should I call it
total moving annual total yeah I think
that sounds good because essentially
what we're going to do now is let me
explain really simply we're always going
to look at a 12-month period so I want
the profit figures summed up for the
last 12 months no matter where I am so
if I pick uh
2019 May for example I want the profits
for this year so this is the
year-to-date profit and on top of that I
would also like seven months from the
year before so all of these months so
seven months from the year before 5
months from the current year so that's 7
plus 5 12 months and that would be the
profit for the last 12 months but if I
pick another month for example 2020 uh
October so I have 10 months in this year
I want all of these profits and then I
would like two more months from the last
year so to calculate the profit moving
annual
total we need to first of all um well
yeah pick the profit year to date and on
top of that we just add on whatever
months we want to make it a full
12-month period from the previous year
so this is going to be profit year to
date plus again it's going to be Su ifs
I bet it's boring by now but the sum
range is going to be the profit month
and then the category again it has to be
equal to the category of the current row
and then second criteria supplier has to
be equal to the supplier in the current
row and then we have brand has to be
obviously equal to the brand of the
current row and then we have year
and it gets a little bit tricky here
because I want
obviously the year but I want the
previous year so take away one because
you already included the profit year to
date so you already have the profits
from the current year what you're trying
to do is onto the current Year's profit
you want to add on last year's profit
however many months you need to make it
a full 12 month period so that's why the
minus one to get to the previous year
and then in terms of months again simple
math calculation so the month has to be
greater than whatever current month
you're in in this year so greater than
and then m per sign and then the current
month and then hit enter and again if
it's not going to work I'm going to look
like a fool but it did work so good oh
by the way the only thing I would like
to add as well if you want to learn this
type of thinking how to actually solve
problems using data and how to like you
know actually approach
job applications and and how to do stuff
in the real world then I would honestly
I would I would urge you to go onto my
websites and look around there and check
out the resources because yeah you know
like all the stuff I created really the
ultimate data portfolio the ultimate
data road map and like the six other
bonuses that come with it the job Seeker
Academy the ultimate project Builder
they they focus on implementation they
focus on Hands-On stuff they focus on
practical stuff they focus on relevant
stuff so I've I've done so much learning
and sometimes you know you're in this
forever cycle of not implementing things
so make sure you actually Implement
things like this for
example okay let's compare the numbers
for the first 12 months they should be
the same because there was no previous
year makes sense all of these numbers
are the same now if we look at row 14 my
profit moving annual total is 152 423 so
this should be the profit in 20 19 uh
January plus the 11 months before so if
I select these 12 months I can see if I
go to the bottom right that I have 152
423 okay great let's pick something
randomly I'll pick row 86 so I'm in
August which means this profit right
here this
9555 2 this should be the year-to date
profit um
plus the the four months from before so
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and then oh sorry yeah
actually I picked the wrong one uh
because obviously I'm in 2018 here
there's no prior year apologies so let
me pick another one 2019 August for
example it just goes to show you know
with data analysis trial and error and
I'm pretty certain I'm going to leave
this piece in as well I'm not going to
cut it out just to show you that you
know not everything has to be perfect
first time clearly I didn't pay
attention here and I should have lesson
learned so 2019 August
um the moving annual total profit is 152
337 so this number should be these 8
months in the current year so this is
the year to date and then the four
months from the previous year so 1 2 3 4
and what's the number 152 337 on the
bottom right here fantastic The Profit
moving annual total numbers are correct
as well and just to do some I guess you
know pivot table data analysis
manipulation with it let me go back to
this sheet right here
and let me duplicate it so holding down
control dragging and dropping the sheet
I'll remove this chart because I don't
need it I'll remove the slicer as well
click into the table and this time let's
do something different so first of all
go to pivot table analyze and then you
go refresh refresh all and then now all
of a sudden you see that our two new
calculations the two new columns they
appeared right here okay so I'm going to
remove the monthly profit figures
because I don't need them and then the
next thing I'm going to do put year on
the filters I'll put month on the
filters I'll put brand on the rows and
then I'll put suppliers on the rows as
well and now the only thing I really
want to see is the moving annual total
profit for a specific month obviously
these figures now are large very very
large because my year and my month I'm
selecting all which I shouldn't I just
want the moving annual total profit for
the last month of data that I have so
I'll pick 2024 for 2024 I think May was
the last month probably yeah let me just
go back and see
2024 and yes may is the last month okay
so I'm back here let me just uh format
this oh yeah this is another thing you
can do you don't always have to go to
values right here on the right and then
go to Value field settings you can just
double click and it gets you to the same
place so I'll do some quick formatting
number format number yeah thousand
separator okay it's just easier to look
at the number and there there you go
this is the this is the moving annual
total profit for these brands for these
suppliers which means that over the last
12 months up to an including 2024 May
iron strength equipment Co for the forge
Fitness brand sold well made this much
profit and you can obviously add in the
category as well if you want to and then
you'll see a different kind of breakdown
and that if you select everything then
you would see the total across all of
the brands all of the categories and all
of the suppliers so yeah I think pretty
simple stuff that's about it all right
that's all from me for now if you
enjoyed this video then please subscribe
to the channel as there's definitely a
lot more value ad content like this one
coming and you should probably also
check out these videos right here thank
you so much for taking just a little
time out of your day to watch this and I
shall see you in the next one
a
[Music]
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