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Using Data Analysis and Business Intelligence

Tools
While working in complex worksheets, you may need to use some of Excel’s data analysis
and business intelligence tools. Some of these tools are covered in the following sections.
These include tools for consolidating data, using the Goal Seek and Scenario Manager
what-if analysis tools, using financial functions, getting data into Excel from a variety of
external data sources, and using Cube functions with the Power Pivot add-in in Excel.

Consolidating Data
Many times you may have various worksheets where you want to roll up the numbers
into one summary worksheet. Excel offers a built-in tool to help you do that very quickly
and easily: Consolidate Data.
Excel offers two basic ways to perform a data consolidation. One is based on the
position—for example, cell B4 on every worksheet you specify gets added and the total is
placed in cell B4 on the summary worksheet. This is fine if you are 100% sure that cell B4
contains the exact same data on every worksheet.
But we cannot be sure that every worksheet’s cells are going to line up like that. In fact,
they often don’t line up like that. Therefore, the following exercise will walk through
performing a consolidation using the second method Excel offers, which is based on
labels. Excel will attempt to match row and/or column labels and then sum based on
those labels that match in various worksheets.
One key thing has been done to prepare our workbook for this exercise: the range of
cells to be consolidated has been named and the name on every sheet is the same—the
names are scoped to the worksheet. This makes it easier to perform the consolidation,
because we are not required to manually select every consolidation range as we are
building the consolidation. It also makes troubleshooting easier.

STEP BY STEP Consolidate Data

GET READY. LAUNCH Excel if it is not already open.
1. OPEN the 03 Consolidate.xlsx workbook from the data files for this lesson.
2. SAVE the workbook as 03 Consolidate Solution.xlsx in the lesson folder on your
lash drive.
Take a look at each quarterly worksheet. Note that while the data always starts in B5,
sometimes the data runs through row 11 and sometimes it runs down to row 12.
Sometimes our totals are in column H, sometimes G, sometimes F. Due to these
differences in our layout from one quarter to the next, we cannot consolidate the
data based on position.
3. Select the Consol Data Final worksheet. Select cell B5.
4. Click the Data tab, and then in the Data Tools group, click the Consolidate button.
5. In the Function list, select Sum if necessary.
6. Click in the Reference box. Click the Collapse Dialog button (the button with the
black arrow at the end of the Reference box) and then click the Consol Data Q1
worksheet tab. The text box displays ’Consol Data Q1’!.
7. Press the F3 key and select rgn.DataToConsolidate from the Paste Name dialog
box and then click OK.
8. Click the Expand Dialog button on the right end of the Reference box.
9. Click the Add button in the Consolidate dialog box.
10. Click in the Reference control again and then press F2. (If you fail to press F2, your
results will probably be frustrating.)
11. Hold down the left arrow key until the cursor is just after the “1” and then press
Backspace and type 2. Your reference should read ’Consol Data Q2’!rgn.
DataToConsolidate. Click the Add button.

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12. Repeat steps 10 and 11 two more times, adding these two named ranges:
’Consol Data Q3’!rgn.DataToConsolidate
’Consol Data Q4’!rgn.DataToConsolidate
13. Select the check boxes for Top row and Left column. The Consolidate dialog box
should look as shown in Figure 3-23.

Figure 3-23: The Consolidate dialog box

14. If everything looks good, click OK in the Consolidate dialog box.
15. SAVE the workbook.
16. With the Consol Data Final worksheet active, click the Home tab, click the Format
as Table button, and then click Light Blue, Table Style Light 2. Confirm that the
range =$B$5:$H$12 is displayed, the My table has headers check box is selected,
and then click OK.
17. On the Table Tools Design tab, clear the Filter Button check box. Click cell B5 and
type Territory / State. Press Ctrl+Home and compare your worksheet with Figure
3-24.

Figure 3-24: The results of the consolidation

18. SAVE the 03 Consolidate Solution.xlsx workbook and then CLOSE the workbook.
PAUSE. LEAVE Excel open for the next exercise.

Using What-If Analysis Tools

On the Data tab, in the Forecast group, Excel has a button named What-If Analysis. In this
section, we are going to explore two of the what-if analysis tools on the What-If Analysis
menu: Goal Seek and Scenario Manager.
Goal Seek is a simple tool that allows us to drive one cell towards a specific value based
on inputs into one other cell. In other words, it can find the answer to “how many
gadgets would I have to sell to make $1,000,000 dollars?” You might guess one amount
that’s too low so you guess higher and that’s too high, and so on until you close in on the
magic number of gadgets you need to sell.
The second what-if tool we will use is Scenario Manager. This allows us to set some key
inputs to specific values and take a picture of the results. Then you can change those key

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inputs to review what would happen if we increase here or decrease there and take
another picture (define a scenario). The process continues until we have defined all of the
scenarios we want to examine. We can then flip between scenarios quickly or even create
a summary report that shows key inputs and outputs for each scenario we defined.

STEP BY STEP Use Goal Seek and Scenario Manager

GET READY. LAUNCH Excel if it is not already open.
1. OPEN the 03 Analysis.xlsx workbook from the data files for this lesson.
2. SAVE the workbook as 03 Analysis Solution.xlsx in the lesson folder on your lash
drive.
For our first Goal Seek, we want to find out what it would take to have Net Income
Before Taxes (NIBT) of $2,000,000 in FY + 5. For example, (a) if our revenue growth is
6%, what is the maximum growth rate our expenses could be and we still hit $2MM?
And (b) if our expenses grow by 3% a year, what’s the minimum growth rate we
need in revenues to hit our target?
3. Change the value of cell C15 to 6%.
4. Click cell G21.
5. Click the Data tab, and then in the Forecast group, click the What-If Analysis
button and select Goal Seek.
6. The Set cell entry should already be G21. If it isn’t, change it to G21.
7. In the To value text box, type 2000000.
8. In the By changing cell box, press F3. Select ptr.Growth.Exp in the Paste name list
and then click OK. Click OK in the Goal Seek dialog box. Click OK to accept the
solution.
9. In cell B4 enter the value that Goal Seek placed in cell C16 (2.41%).
10. Change the value of C16 to 3%. Click cell G21 again.
11. On the Data tab, click the What-If Analysis button, and select Goal Seek.
12. The Set cell entry should be G21. In the To value text box, type 2000000. In the By
changing cell box, press F3 and select ptr.Growth.Rev; click OK three times to close
all dialog boxes.
13. Record the result of cell C15 in B6 (6.51%). Compare your Goal Seek results with
Figure 3-25.
14. SAVE the workbook.
15. Change C15 to 8%. Change C16 to 4%.
16. On the Data tab, click the What-If Analysis button, and select Scenario Manager.
17. Click the Add button.
18. In the Scenario name text box, type Best Case.

Figure 3-25: Results of using Goal Seek

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19. In the Changing cells box, type C15:C16.

20. Click OK. In the Scenario Values dialog box, leave the entries as they are, and then
click the Add button.
21. In the Scenario name box, type Expected and then click OK.
22. Change the value for ptr.Growth.Rev to 0.05 and change the value for
ptr.Growth.Exp to 0.03. Click the Add button.
23. In the Scenario name box, type Worst Case and then click OK.
24. Change the value for ptr.Growth.Rev to 0.02 and change the value for
ptr.Growth.Exp to 0.04. Click OK.
25. In the Scenario Manager dialog box, select the Expected scenario and then click the
Show button.
26. Select the Worst Case scenario and then click Show.
27. Select the Best Case scenario and then click Show (Figure 3-26).

Figure 3-26: Using the Scenario Manager

28. Click the Summary button.
29. Leave the Scenario summary option selected, but change the Result cells entry to
G21 and then click OK. Excel creates the Scenario Summary report on a new
worksheet that shows all of our scenarios, their key input values, and any key output
values we choose to show. Notice that our Result Cells shows only the cell address.
We want to change this to something more meaningful.
30. Go back to the Goal Seek and Scenario Mgr worksheet and then click cell G21. In
the Name Box give the cell the name ptr.NIBT.FY5.
31. On the Data tab, click the What-If Analysis button and then click Scenario
Manager. In the Scenario Manager dialog box, click the Summary button and then
click OK.
Notice that in this new report, the name we gave cell G21 is provided in cell C9,
making our results much easier to read (Figure 3-27).

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Figure 3-27: The revised Scenario Summary report

32. SAVE the 03 Analysis Solution.xlsx workbook and then CLOSE the workbook.
PAUSE. LEAVE Excel open for the next exercise.

Using Financial Functions

Given its pedigree, it is to be expected that Excel would contain a substantial library of
financial functions. Excel 2016 offers fifty-five financial functions that fall into three major
categories: calculating investments, calculating depreciation, and analyzing securities. It is
beyond the scope of this book to go over each Excel financial function in detail. Our
objective is to point out the major things to keep in mind when using Excel’s financial
functions and the most common abbreviations you will find when using them.
Key Points:
Make sure the interest rate and the number of periods are in the same unit of time. In
other words, if you are calculating a payment based on X number of months, then the
interest rate needs to be expressed in months, not years.
Generally an inflow is positive and an outflow is negative. This means that if you are
calculating a payment and you show the loan amount as positive, Excel considers the
loan to be an inflow, therefore it will return a negative payment—the payment is
assumed to be an outflow. If you want to consider the payment as an inflow, then make
the loan amount negative. Or, you can just place a “-” sign in front of the function you’re
using to reverse the sign.
Common arguments in financial functions include:

Term Description
fv Future value
pv Present value
rate Interest (or discount) rate—must be in the same terms as nper (refer to
next term)
nper Number of periods (usually months or years); this needs to match rate
type Payment is at the end of period (default) or beginning of period (1)
per A specific period number (used in the PPMT and IPMT functions)
values Cells that contain numbers (used in the IRR and MIRR functions)
guess You can begin the RATE and IRR functions with an initial guess for the rate
to shorten the calculation time or if you are sure the rate will be
substantially different than 10%. If you omit the guess, Excel will use 10%
as a default guess.
finance_rate What you’re paying on borrowed money (used in the MIRR function)

reinvest_rat What you’re receiving on invested money (used in the MIRR function)
e
For most other financial functions, the arguments are fairly self-explanatory and you can
guess their meaning from their name. However, here are a handful that might benefit
from some additional comments.

Term Description
factor Used by DDB and VDB—assumed to be 2 (= double declining balance). If you
were to use 3, you would be tripling the straight-line depreciation.
no_switc Used by VDB only—if FALSE or omitted, then once straight-line depreciation
h becomes favorable, Excel will switch to straight-line calculation basis. If TRUE,
then the DDB method is used throughout.

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month Used by DB. It is an optional argument allowing you to specify the number of
months in the first year. If month is omitted, it is assumed to be 12.
basis Number of days in a year for securities calculations. As you type the formula,
Excel displays the available options.
frequenc Used by some of the security analysis functions, this is the number of coupon
y payments per year, but not as a number per se, as an option. In other words,
“4” is the option for quarterly payments, but you cannot enter a frequency of
“12” since that is not a recognized industry standard for coupon payment
frequency. Only annual (1), semiannual (2), and quarterly (4) are acceptable
values for this argument.
Some common financial functions in Excel that use some of the arguments listed and
described above include the following:

Functio Description
n
PMT The payment for a loan based on constant payments and interest rate.
PV The present value of a loan or investment.
FV The future value of an investment that is based on a constant interest rate.
NPER The number of periods for an investment or the number of loan payments,
based on constant payments and interest rate.
IRR The internal rate of return for a series of cash flows (specified in values),
occurring at regular intervals.

STEP BY STEP Use Financial Functions

GET READY. LAUNCH Excel if it is not already open.
1. OPEN the 03 Financial.xlsx workbook from the data files for this lesson.
2. SAVE the workbook as 03 Financial Solution.xlsx in the lesson folder on your lash
drive.
3. Select cell C18 and begin typing =PMT(
4. Click cell C7 and then type /12,
5. Click cell C8 and add a comma.
6. Click cell C6, add a closing parenthesis ), and then press Enter.
7. Enter the following formula in cell C19 (note the minus sign that precedes the
function name):
=-PPMT(C7/12,7,C8,C6)
8. Enter the following formula in cell C20:
=IPMT(C7/12,11,C8,-C6)
9. Select E6:F8.
10. Click the Formulas tab, and then in the Defined Names group, click the Create
from Selection button. Ensure that only the Left column check box is selected and
then click OK.
11. Select cell F14 and begin typing: =SLN(Cos
12. Select Cost from the popup menu, press Tab, type a comma and then type sa and
select Salvage from the popup menu (or just press Tab).
13. Type a comma and then type li and select Life from the menu (or press Tab). Type a
closing parenthesis ) and then press Enter.
14. Use the same process to enter the following formula into cell F15:
=DB(Cost,Salvage,Life,3,3)
15. Select cell I15.
16. On the Formulas tab, in the Function Library group, click the Financial button, and
select DURATION from the list. Use the Function Arguments dialog box to fill in the

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values, based on the entries in the range I6:I11. Notice the scroll bar to the right in
the dialog box—be sure to scroll down so you can fill in the Basis field (Figure 3-28).
Click OK.

Figure 3-28: Inserting the DURATION financial function

17. Use the same process of clicking the Financial button to insert the following
formula into cell I26:
=YIELD(I6,I7,I8,I21,I22,I10,I11)
18. Use the same method to enter the following formula in cell I36:
=PRICE(I6,I7,I8,I32,I22,I10,I11)
19. Enter the following formula in cell C22:
=PV(C7/12,C8,C18)
20. Enter the following formula in cell C23:
=FV(C7/12,C8,C18)
21. Enter the following formula in cell C24:
=NPER(C7/12,C18,C6)
22. Enter the following formula in cell C25:
=IRR(C10:C13,C14)
Select cell C25 and compare your results with Figure 3-29.

Figure 3-29: The completed Financial Functions worksheet

23. SAVE the 03 Financial Solution.xlsx workbook and then CLOSE the workbook.
PAUSE. LEAVE Excel open for the next exercise.

Using the Get & Transform Data Options

Excel 2016 provides several data analysis tools in the Get & Transform Data group on the
Data tab of the Ribbon. To use the Get & Transform Data commands, you create a new
query in Excel that enables you to connect to, preview, and transform (modify) data from
a variety of available data sources, such as a web site or an Access database.

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You can use the Query Editor to query data and modify or transform the external data.
The actions you take in the Query Editor don’t change the original source data. You also
can combine data from multiple sources and then manipulate and shape the data as
needed. After transforming the data, you can import it into an Excel table or into the
Power Pivot data model and refresh the data later. When your query is complete, you can
save and share it, or use it to prepare reports.

STEP BY STEP Use the Get & Transform Data Options

GET READY. LAUNCH Excel if it is not already open and OPEN a new blank workbook.
a variety of available data sources, such as a web site or an Access database.
1. SAVE the workbook as 03 Transform Solution.xlsx in the lesson folder on your
lash drive.
2. Click the Data tab, and then in the Get & Transform Data group, click Get Data.
Point to the commands on the Get Data menu to display what options are available
on the resulting menus. (Keep in mind that some data sources are available only in
the Professional and Professional Plus versions.)
3. On the Get Data menu, point to From Database and then select From Microsoft
Access Database. The Import Data dialog box opens.
4. Navigate to the data files for this lesson, select 03 Customers.accdb and then click
Import. The Navigator window opens.
5. In the Navigator window, under 03 Customers.accdb, click the Invoices table and
then the Product Inventory table to preview them in the right pane.
6. Click the Customers table to display the preview in the right pane (Figure 3-30) and
then click the Edit button. The Query Editor window opens.

Figure 3-30: Previewing an Access table in the Navigator window

7. Look at the commands available on the different Ribbon tabs in the Query Editor to
get an idea of what types of transformations you can make to the data source. Click
State/ Province to select the field in the table (scroll to the right in the window, if
necessary to display it).
8. In the Query Editor, click the Transform tab in the Ribbon and then in the Text
Column group, click the Format button, and select UPPERCASE.
Notice that all entries in this field now appear in uppercase letters, and the Query
Settings pane displays this action under APPLIED STEPS.

Take Note The transformations you apply to the data source collectively form
your query. The Query Editor tracks all of your actions in the APPLIED STEPS area of
the Query Settings pane.

9. Click ZIP to select the field in the table. Click the Home tab in the Query Editor and

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then in the Manage Columns group, point to the Remove Columns button (Figure
3-31) and click the top portion of the Remove Columns button. The field is
removed from the table and the action is added to the APPLIED STEPS area of the
Query Settings pane.

Figure 3-31: Transforming data in the Query Editor

10. On the Home tab of the Query Editor, in the Close group, click the top portion of
the Close & Load button. The transformed data is now imported as an Excel table
into a new worksheet in the workbook.
11. Click the Query Tools Query tab and notice the commands that are available for
the new query. For example, you can edit, delete, refresh, duplicate, merge, and
append the query data.
12. Click the Data tab, and then in the Get & Transform Data group, click Get Data,
point to From File, and select From Workbook.
13. In the Import Data dialog box, navigate to your data files, select 03 Items.xlsx, and
then click Import.
14. Select the Consolidated table in the left pane and then click Load. The data is
imported as another Excel table into a new worksheet.
15. Delete Sheet1 (which should be blank), then rename Sheet2 as Customers, and
Sheet3 as Consolidated. Move the Customers sheet to appear to the left of the
Consolidated sheet, if necessary.
16. Click the Customers sheet and then press Ctrl+Home. Notice that the Queries &
Connections pane displays both queries (Figure 3-32).
You can display the Queries & Connections pane at any time to view all queries in a
workbook. To do so, click the Queries & Connections button in the Queries &
Connections group on the Data tab in Excel.

Figure 3-32: The Excel workbook now contains two queries

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17. SAVE the 03 Transform Solution.xlsx workbook and then CLOSE the workbook.
PAUSE. LEAVE Excel open for the next exercise.

Using Cube Functions with Power Pivot

Excel provides OLAP (online analytical processing) tools that enable you to work with a
PivotTable that is connected to OLAP data sources. You can connect to OLAP cubes—
multidimensional data arrays—to query data and create detailed report pages.

Take Note Power Pivot is built-in to the very structure of Excel 2016. However, it is
treated as an add-in, which must be enabled before the Power Pivot tab will appear in the
Excel Ribbon. This study guide assumes that your instructor has already configured the
machine you are using to have the Power Pivot add-in enabled. For more details on using
the Power Pivot add-in, refer to Lesson 4.

In this exercise, you’ll use OLAP tools in Excel to convert an existing PivotTable to
formulas, so that you can examine the underlying Cube functions of the data model,
including the CUBEMEMBER and CUBEVALUE functions. Additional Cube functions are
also available in Excel—on the Formulas tab, click More Functions and then point to the
Cube category.

STEP BY STEP Use Cube Functions with Power Pivot

GET READY. LAUNCH Excel if it is not already open.
1. OPEN the 03 Cube Functions.xlsx workbook from the data files for this lesson.
2. SAVE the workbook as 03 Cube Functions Solution.xlsx in the lesson folder on
your flash drive.
3. Add the Power Pivot tab to the Ribbon if it is not already displayed.
4. On the PivotTable worksheet, click cell B6. CLOSE the PivotTable Fields pane, if
necessary.
5. Click the PivotTable Tools Analyze tab, and then in the Calculations group, click the
OLAP Tools button, and select Convert to Formulas.
6. With cell B6 selected, notice the CUBEMEMBER function that displays in the formula
bar (Figure 3-33):
=CUBEMEMBER(“ThisWorkbookDataModel”,”[tblSalesData].[State Abbr].&[AK]”)

Figure 3-33: The CUBEMEMBER function displays in the formula bar

7. Click cell D10 and view the CUBEVALUE function that displays in the formula bar:
=CUBEVALUE(“ThisWorkbookDataModel”,$B10,D$5)
8. Select other cells in the data model and check the formula bar to have a better
understanding of the underlying structure of the model. Then press Ctrl+Home to
return to the beginning of the worksheet.
9. SAVE the 03 Cube Functions Solution.xlsx workbook and then CLOSE the
workbook.

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STOP. CLOSE Excel.

Troubleshooting If you wish to practice using Power Pivot outside the classroom, on
your own personal computer or tablet, please be aware that Microsoft has segmented
the Office 365 (Office 2016) market. Power Pivot is only included in business versions of
Office 365/2016. If you have a Home or Personal version of Office 365, you will not have
the Power Pivot add-in listed among your available add-ins. You would need to purchase
a business version of Office 365 to have access to Power Pivot on your own computer.
Note that Power Pivot is a COM add-in, so if you do have a version of Excel that offers
Power Pivot, you need to look for it in the COM Add-ins list in the Excel Options dialog
box, not the regular Add-ins list.

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