Cimentar Futuro Foundation

Learning Objectives

Use formulas like VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, SUMIFS, and pivot tables
Clean messy data with text and date functions
Build a simple dashboard with conditional formatting and charts

Despite the rise of Python and SQL, Excel and Google Sheets remain the first tool most analysts touch every day, especially in small and mid-sized organizations across Nigeria and the diaspora where a full data warehouse may not exist yet. This module covers lookup formulas (VLOOKUP and the more flexible XLOOKUP), aggregation with SUMIFS and COUNTIFS, and pivot tables for summarizing thousands of rows into a readable table in seconds. You will also practice cleaning real-world messy data: trimming extra spaces, splitting combined name fields, and converting inconsistent date formats, before building a one-page dashboard that updates automatically as new rows are added.

Module Quiz

1. Compared to VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP's main advantage is that it:

Cannot be used with named rangesIs slower but more accurateOnly works on numbersCan look both left and right of the search column and defaults to exact matches

2. A pivot table is best used to:

Convert text to a chart automatically with no setupEncrypt a spreadsheetSummarize and group large datasets into readable tablesPermanently delete duplicate rows

3. SUMIFS differs from a plain SUM formula because it:

Only sums negative numbersRounds the result to the nearest whole numberAdds values that meet one or more specified conditionsSums every sheet in the workbook at once

Module 2: Excel & Spreadsheets for Analysis