What are the best practices for organizing data in Excel for analysis?

Before you analyze your data in Excel, you should make sure that it is accurate, consistent, and complete. You can use various tools and function in Excel such as the font, color, alignment, number format, and date format to clean the data.

In data analysis, clean and organized data isn’t just a preference—it’s essential. It ensures accurate insights by eliminating errors, duplicates, and inconsistencies, saving time and enhancing decision-making quality. Well-structured data in Excel facilitates efficient analysis, improves collaboration, and supports reliable updates for ongoing projects. Organizing data unlocks its full potential for impactful analysis and informed decision-making. #DataAnalysis #ExcelTips #CleanData #DecisionMaking

This step also includes being sure there are unique identifiers, especially in regard to EE data. If each row does not have a unique identifier, a good practice is to create a separate column that may concatenate two or three columns together that would make each line its own unique item. Only if you have to drill down to that level of detail of course.

If you will be sharing your Excel workbooks with others, it is definitely a good idea to insert a tab at the beginning of the workbook on how to use the workbook and point out/highlight key cells that they can update that will flow into the rest of the workbooks' charts and tables. This is a good practice to use if the workbook will be used for modeling different scenarios, and amongst colleagues, etc. I would also hide any backend calculations that are unnecessary for another user to be aware of - they just add more confusion for those less familiar with the ins and outs of Excel. Make your workbooks as easy as possible for someone that has never seen it before to understand if they have to jump in last minute to make unforeseen changes.

Utilize built-in functions instead of custom formulas to save time and reduce errors. Additionally, familiarize yourself with hot keys to enhance efficiency: accuracy and a less is more approach gets the best results in my experience

If you are creating a survey for people to fill out via Excel, the list function in data validation is the best. You can have a separate hidden spreadsheet in the workbook for all of your list references and they are unable to add anything additional. Good for being able to aggregate data pretty quickly. I always include a blank space at the top of the list and in the range, so it defaults to blank always for when they open and for if they do not answer the specific question.

Tables are easier because once you completed it, it's easier to looked back and find what you need because everything it's there and organized. As a result it saves people time which means they get more work done

Naming your data ranges is also very helpful. It makes things easier to tie together and trace where information is coming from in a workbook. You can simply highlight your data and in the top left of the Excel spreadsheet under the Paste section, add your named range and press enter. It can them be used in formulas throughout the workbook for reference. I find it very helpful. You can find all of the named ranges within a workbook in the Formulas tab under "Name Manager"

Get familiar with as many Excel keyboard shortcuts as possible. Knowing these will improve your productivity and decrease the time you spend on a particular task.

Yes, and please please please, if you need to use a mouse, use a wireless mouse, not the laptop pad... it slows you down. I can't tell you how many times I have watched people trying to navigate with the laptop pad and it is excruciatingly time consuming and hard to watch. Shortcuts and external mouse if using laptop are a must :)