Best Excel Courses for Financial Teams (2024)

“What experience do you have with Excel?” is undoubtedly a question that will be asked in some variation during the job interview process. While the degree of proficiency will vary depending on the job description, knowledge of Excel will always add more value to your work and save time for you and the company.

Whether your experience is logging simple sales charts or you’re a senior FP&A team leader using advanced functions, there is always more to add to your Excel repertoire. Not only are these courses beneficial for those trying to land a job, but this list will help any finance team leader trying to encourage their employers to upgrade their Excel experience and add more value to their teams.

Here are 8 online courses, across all experience levels, that will take your Excel knowledge to the next level:

Top 4 Intermediate Excel Courses

1) Udemy- Excel Course

Although the Udemy Excel Beginner Course is advertised for beginners, it does that only because it starts with the basics. It is one of the most in-depth and professional courses for the intermediate level on the market, and by the end users will be prepared to move on to an experienced level course. There are 70 training videos to go along with practice lessons, which will help you create formulas with speed and confidence by the end of the program.

With a cheap price and many discounts and deals available depending on the size of the team, this course is perfect for anyone trying to well verse themselves in Excel, along with team leaders looking to upskill their employees and save themselves time in the long run.

Price: $69.90

What does the course include:

  • 3 hours on-demand video
  • Access on mobile and TV
  • Full lifetime access
  • Certificate of completion
  • 70 training videos

2) Rice University- Intro to Data Analysis using Excel

The Intro to Data Analysis course from Rice University offers an academic oriented Excel course and consistently ranks very high. This is more advanced than many intermediate courses, due to the fact that it focuses on the basics of data analysis and causes you to think differently about numbers.

However, it is perfect for those trying to grasp a basic understanding of analysis, which will cause any individual or team’s Excel expertise to be worth far more. Broken down into weekly studies and a more studious environment, this course is meant for those who need structure and are under time constraints.

Many team leaders prefer this type of course for their employees as the academic structure is more befitting of the work atmosphere. For individuals trying to study on their own, getting a certificate from Rice University has the added benefit of the university name and will stand out more on the job application.

Price: Subscription only

What does the course include:

  • 4 week duration
  • Self paced
  • 1-3 workload hours per week

3) Swinburne University of Technology- Microsoft Excel Intermediate

This course offered by Swinburne is the perfect intermediate course. Shortcuts, complex functions, and relative and absolute formulas are some of the subjects that are focused on. What makes this course unique and more attractive for many people is that it is an intense one day live online learning session.

For those who struggle to make time throughout the workweek, or employers who prefer to take one full day to provide the team with a training upgrade, then the Swinburne intermediate course could be perfect. Other than completing the learning in one day, the benefits of a live online course include direct communication with the teacher and networking with fellow peers. In addition, the university provides pathways and workbooks to use as follow up material for future independent or group learning.

Price: $450

What does the course include:

  • 1 day course
  • Face-to-face or live online option

4) Macquarie University- Excel for Business Specialization

Macquarie University’s Excel course (through Coursera) ranks one of the highest for Intermediate users, specifically those with a business oriented mindset. The university certificate gives it a more academic aspect and the focus on Excel for business makes it popular among employers and employees alike.

Although the course begins at more of a beginner level, the goal is to encourage students to analyze and dissect data on their own and be able to design sophisticated spreadsheets and dashboards by the end. For a finance team leader, this course is perfect for taking the team to the next level, as teaching employees how to analyze and understand data on their own will help everyone grasp the bigger picture and create a more professional environment.

Price: Free

What does the course include:

  • Flexible schedule
  • 3 months at 10 hours per week

Top 4 Advanced Excel Courses

1) Linkedin

In addition to becoming the go-to social media platform for professionals, LinkedIn also offers a variety of courses in anything from how to prepare for a job interview to in-depth coding and leadership courses.

One of the most attractive aspects of LinkedIn’s Excel courses is that it’s easy to buy the package for the entire team. Team leaders or executives of any size can implement Excel courses for their whole team and follow and track their progress with ease. Another advantage is being able to buy the entire LinkedIn Learning package.

For those who want to improve in other areas, such as hard or soft skills or general knowledge, LinkedIn learning can go beyond the Excel course and add even more value to your work. If you are looking to improve Excel on your own then LinkedIn gives you the advantage of being able to post the completed course directly to your account, right where you want it to be. In the world of crash courses and proven skills, LinkedIn takes it to the next level.

Price: $66.99 per month

What does the course include:

  • Unlimited Access
  • Expert Instructors
  • On your own schedule

2) New Skills Academy- Complete Microsoft Excel Course

As the name suggests, the Complete Excel Course covers everything from A to Z. With a combination of tutorials, tests, and individual assignments, anyone who completes all 40 hours of the course will have a very comprehensive understanding of Excel. New Skills offers beginner and intermediate courses as well, but their advanced course is what they are most famous for.

In addition to 24/7 student support, once you sign up you have full lifetime access, making it attractive to both individuals and employed teams alike. Instead of wasting time elsewhere, they can easily look back on the learning material whenever it’s needed.

Price: 180 GBP

What does the course include:

  • Lessons broken down into a few minutes each.
  • 40 hour duration
  • Lifetime access

3) Udemy- Advanced Excel Formulas & Functions

As the only course platform on the list twice, it’s hard to argue with Udemy’s success. Built as one of the best online learning tools, Udemy has individualized online learning down pat. The Advanced Excel Formulas & Functions course will leave you writing robust and elegant formulas and functions from scratch for actions such as pulling real time data from APIs and creating your own formula based Excel formatting rules.

Anyone completing this course will be a huge asset to their team, and any employee who implements this will create far more efficient work output in a short time period. Companies such as Netflix and Apple have adopted this course for their employees and you can’t beat the price and professionalism.

Price: $99

What does the course include:

  • 9.5 hours on-demand video
  • 12 articles
  • 4 downloadable resources
  • Certificate of Completion

4) PWC- Data Visualization with Advanced Excel

Similar to Udemy, this course is built for those with advanced experience in Excel who are looking to take their skills to the next level. Here too, the focus is on building databases and data models. The second half of the course focuses on visualizing data, telling a story, and exploring data through core principles. The course offers peer feedback on assignments and instructor feedback on quizzes, a huge plus for anyone who thrives in a more interactive way.

The course from PWC is a great way for financial teams to branch out and learn the broader picture of their company and other similar job descriptions. Data visualization is a huge additional asset for any job, and this condensed, interactive course is perfect for anyone trying to achieve this. Lastly, the full certificate is shareable on LinkedIn, a nice bonus to top it all off.

Price: Free

What does the course include:

  • 15 hours
  • Flexible schedule

Bonus Excel Enhancers

1) ASAP Utilities

For those individuals or companies who spend a significant amount of time using Excel and want to improve their efficiency, ASAP Utilities is one of the most popular add-ons. The tools from the platform allow users to speed up their work by adding a huge variety of functions that are easy to use and worth implementing for advanced Excel users.

Advanced sorting, selecting cells based on content, exporting worksheets as separate files, and protecting multiple sheets at once are only a few of the 300+ features in ASAP Utilities. With 10 language options and a free business trial, ASAP is the perfect fit for financial teams or individuals who want to take their Excel efficiency to the next level.

2) Datarails

Datarails is one of the best Excel enhancers out there, due to the fact that instead of focusing on upgrading manual functions (which saves time but not enough), it implements robust consolidation and forecasting solutions on all fronts. Datarails solves the technology gap by providing finance leaders with the ability to perform a multitude of tasks with Excel instead of replacing it.

This is beneficial for two reasons at the same time: To begin with, consolidating and automating reports along with creating dashboards, saves a tremendous amount of precious time on manual data entries. The second advantage is that it is integrated into Excel instead of differing from it.

The implementation time is short and the financial team can continue to use Excel as they always have, with the additional benefit of implementing forecasting, budgeting, and a host of other automation solutions when necessary. Datarails is the perfect solution for those trying to upgrade their team’s Excel efficiency without spending loads of time on training or trying to change to a different software altogether.

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