Organize a finance workbook around clean actuals, explicit budget calculations and control totals. Follow a worked revenue and cost comparison, then check that the operating profit variance reconciles.
Oct 25, 20265 min readRetail customer analytics connects customer IDs with purchase frequency, basket categories and net spend. Work through a transaction export, rebuild the customer totals in Excel, and check that returns and receipt counts reconcile.
Oct 25, 20265 min readSales funnel analysis follows qualified opportunities through proposal, close, and open-stage aging. Use a worked CRM export to compare teams, reconcile opportunity value, and distinguish cohort conversion from closed-deal win rate.
Oct 25, 20266 min readCompare stores within transparent format, location and size groups. Build sales, gross margin and selling-area measures from exports, then reconcile segment totals before choosing a store-level action.
Oct 25, 20266 min readCompare supplied social audience segments with engagement, leads and recorded first orders. Work from exported files, keep denominators consistent and reconcile matched revenue before making a business decision.
Oct 24, 20265 min readBuild a burndown chart from task estimates and planned and actual finish dates. Use exact Google Sheets formulas, reconcile the remaining work, and compare completion with recorded effort.
Oct 24, 20265 min readLoyalty segmentation groups customers using explicit purchasing rules. Build statuses from an order export, compare repeat purchases and contribution, and reconcile the results before choosing customer actions.
Oct 24, 20265 min readMarketing analytics compares campaign spending with recorded conversions, customers and realized revenue. Work through a reconciled example and learn which definitions, files and checks make the comparison useful.
Oct 24, 20265 min readMarketing funnel analysis compares the prospects who reach each stage from first recorded contact to qualified lead. Use campaign and lead exports to find losses by channel, reconcile the counts, and choose what to investigate.
Oct 24, 20265 min readPrepare order, shipment and inventory exports before presenting a Tableau supply chain dashboard. Define file relationships, work through duplicated values and reconcile service measures under the same filters.
Oct 24, 20265 min readCheck Amplitude retention reports against a prepared membership and activity export. Match event definitions, retention methods, time settings, and observation windows before comparing cohorts.
Oct 23, 20265 min readBuild a Power BI retention matrix from a checked customer-age summary. Validate fixed membership, completed periods, distinct return counts, and totals before interpreting cohort differences.
Oct 23, 20265 min readMeasure loyalty program customer value after rewards, fulfillment and administration costs. Compare equal-age member and nonmember cohorts, reconcile contribution to source exports, and separate observed differences from evidence of program-caused lift.
Oct 23, 20266 min readRetail marketing ROI compares campaign contribution with marketing cost after discounts, returns and fulfillment. Work from store and online order exports, reconcile campaign credit, and calculate a return that reflects the margin actually retained.
Oct 23, 20266 min readCalculate social media marketing ROI from campaign contribution and media, creator and production costs. Follow a spreadsheet workflow that removes cross-platform overlap and includes the labor behind organic social activity.
Oct 23, 20264 min readThe sales life cycle connects qualification, selling, close and customer handoff. Map the evidence required at each stage, then measure conversion, aging and acceptance delays from CRM histories.
Oct 23, 20266 min readRead a Google Analytics cohort report using fixed membership, return events, and complete observation periods. Work the exported user counts and revenue in a spreadsheet, then check the totals before comparing acquisition periods.
Oct 22, 20265 min readAnalyze a large sales export by keeping a controlled detail table and building a smaller regional summary. Use exact formulas and checks to prove that every transaction is included.
Oct 22, 20265 min readCalculate influencer marketing ROI from matched orders, creator costs and customer contribution. Reconcile code and link overlap, include gifted products at cost, and distinguish attributed results from incremental sales.
Oct 22, 20265 min readAnalyze revenue, costs, and customer segments from a clean Excel export. Follow a worked summary, exact formulas, and reconciliation checks that prove the result.
Oct 22, 20265 min readCompare telecom account exits and line losses from prepared customer summaries. Use a worked business-account example, exact spreadsheet formulas, and checks by plan, tenure, and region.
Oct 22, 20266 min readCompare offline campaign spending with recorded responses and orders across regions and periods. Use explicit response mappings, consistent observation windows and reconciled exports without treating geography as evidence of individual exposure.
Oct 21, 20266 min readStart a shared monthly sales analysis with agreed definitions, named owners and exports that reconcile. This guide shows a pilot layout, spreadsheet checks and adoption measures that distinguish useful answers from activity.
Oct 21, 20265 min readCompetitor audience analysis compares supplied aggregate audience research with your own customer segment results. This workflow shows the spreadsheet calculations, denominator checks, and limits on the conclusions you can draw.
Oct 19, 20265 min readThese construction analytics examples compare project costs, verified progress and labor hours with an approved budget. Follow one worked US project, change one progress input and reconcile the effects before assigning action.
Oct 19, 20265 min readChoose a chart by the business question: trend, comparison, distribution or contribution. Work through reconciled revenue and margin figures to see which display makes each answer clear.
Oct 18, 20266 min readCompare customer lifetime value across industries only after aligning the customer unit, margin, observation horizon and retention assumptions. Work through an illustrative cohort comparison and the checks needed before using an outside reference.
Oct 18, 20265 min readSMS marketing analytics connects message delivery and clicks with matched orders and contribution. Use a worked US retail example to compare campaigns, reconcile their exports and assign follow-up work.
Oct 18, 20266 min readRank products by sales value from a Shopify export, then compare gross profit by tier. Build a reproducible spreadsheet check with explicit cutoffs and reconciled totals.
Oct 17, 20265 min readConstruction analytics connects project costs, approved progress and labor hours. Work through a contractor's monthly export, reconcile the totals and assign each finding to the person who can act.
Oct 17, 20265 min readCustomer survival analysis compares retention at the same customer age. Build an observed retention table from dated account exports, handle unfinished observation windows, and check every denominator.
Oct 17, 20265 min readData analysis answers a specific question; data analytics is often the broader practice that makes those answers repeatable. A worked finance example shows the difference, the decisions a business owner must make, and how to start from existing exports without choosing a platform first.
Oct 17, 20265 min readMarket segments separate an addressable market into groups with different needs and economics. Compare a supplied account list with observed revenue and contribution, then check which groups deserve further research.
Oct 17, 20264 min readCompare first-touch, last-touch, linear, time-decay and position-based marketing attribution models on one checked customer journey. A business owner's guide to what can be measured from CRM and ad exports, how credits reconcile to revenue, and why attribution does not prove incremental return.
Oct 17, 20266 min readCustomer success analytics connects account adoption and service effort with renewal and expansion outcomes. Build a comparable account table from your exports, calculate the measures in Excel, and reconcile the results before assigning action.
Oct 15, 20265 min readSummarize exported business survey responses by department, month, and response category. Work through response counts, valid numeric scores, and checks that tie the summary back to the workbook.
Oct 15, 20265 min readPay per lead marketing buys defined inquiries rather than paying customers. Compare billed leads, accepted leads, credits, selling costs, wins, and customer contribution using one reconciled cohort.
Oct 15, 20266 min readCustomer effort analytics compares recorded survey scores across journey stages and service outcomes. Calculate response coverage, score distributions and stage comparisons from an export, with Excel formulas and checks that keep missing responses visible.
Oct 13, 20265 min readCalculate trade marketing ROI from consumer sales, an agreed baseline and manufacturer contribution. Follow the spreadsheet steps to include allowances and retailer funding once, then reconcile the result.
Oct 13, 20265 min readGrowth marketing analytics compares acquisition cohorts through activation, repeat use and retained revenue. Build a consistent customer file, calculate lifecycle outcomes and reconcile the results before changing spending.
Oct 12, 20264 min readCalculate referral program returns from referred orders, refunds, delivery costs and reward obligations. Reconcile earned rewards with payments and compare cohorts on a consistent observation window before deciding where to spend.
Oct 12, 20265 min readCalculate customer profitability in Google Sheets from sales, product costs and service activity. Allocate documented cost pools, rank customers and reconcile the totals before making decisions.
Oct 11, 20264 min readCustomer relationship management analytics compares account activity, opportunity outcomes, and recorded revenue. Work through a dated opportunity cohort and reconcile customer results to CRM and finance exports.
Oct 11, 20266 min readReview aligned channel spend and sales histories alongside supplied marketing mix estimates. Check the totals, assumptions, uncertainty, and business meaning before using an analysis in a spending discussion.
Oct 11, 20265 min readMeasure postcard campaign returns from mailing invoices, response codes and matched orders. Work from net sales to customer contribution, include print and postage, and check the result before deciding whether to mail again.
Oct 11, 20265 min readBuild a reconciled customer workbook before presenting it in Power BI. Compare revenue, contribution, and retained customers using explicit period rules and totals that tie back to the export.
Oct 10, 20265 min readCompare Google Analytics channel revenue credit with marketing costs and recorded sales. Work through a spreadsheet comparison, reconcile the totals, and separate attribution changes from business growth.
Oct 10, 20265 min readMeasure nonprofit marketing ROI from campaign receipts, refunds and direct fundraising costs while preserving donor restrictions. Work through a spreadsheet example, reconcile the cash totals and report mission outcomes alongside the financial result.
Oct 10, 20266 min readSMS marketing ROI compares the contribution from matched sales with the full campaign cost. Build the comparison from messaging, order, refund, and cost exports, using a stated observation window and a check against finance totals.
Oct 10, 20265 min readCompare inventory and delivery performance by site, supplier and product without multiplying your records. Build matching summaries in Excel, calculate the measures, and prove the totals before acting on an exception.
Oct 10, 20265 min readCompare telecom account usage, product holdings and net revenue from prepared billing and activity exports. Use a small worked example, exact spreadsheet formulas and checks that keep accounts, seats and revenue distinct.
Oct 10, 20265 min readInsurance marketing analytics follows campaign lead cohorts into quotes and bound policies. Reconcile acquisition sources, policy outcomes and agency income before comparing campaign costs.
Oct 9, 20265 min readCalculate SaaS marketing ROI using acquisition costs and realized subscription contribution. Compare equally mature cohorts, find the observed payback month, and keep projected lifetime returns separate.
Oct 9, 20266 min readCalculate marketing ROI for lawyers using collected matter fees, refunds, delivery costs and campaign spending. Follow the export-to-spreadsheet method and reconcile collection lag before comparing campaigns.
Oct 8, 20265 min readRetention analysis compares customer behavior at the same tenure across cohorts and segments. Use customer and transaction exports to calculate return flags, reconcile the counts and identify the next investigation.
Oct 8, 20265 min readCompare customer contribution, purchase cadence and acquisition cohorts before choosing a ranking method. A worked B2B example shows why different questions produce different account priorities.
Oct 8, 20266 min readSales promotions change price, quantity, rewards or channel incentives to encourage a purchase. Compare the main types, the records each needs, and a worked example showing why higher sales can leave less contribution.
Oct 8, 20266 min readBuild a Tableau churn report from a fixed opening customer list and dated losses. Work through customer counts, lost recurring revenue, spreadsheet checks, and the filters that can change the denominator.
Oct 7, 20266 min readThe objectives of market segmentation are better targeting, stronger customer economics and more relevant service. Use conversion, contribution and retention to test whether your groups improve a real commercial decision.
Oct 7, 20265 min readUse public Walmart evidence to frame the inventory and service questions a business should measure. Rebuild turnover, aging, and fill rate in a worked US distributor example, then test a change to ending inventory.
Oct 7, 20266 min readSpecify the sample, revenue basis, hierarchy, scenario checks and reviewer tasks for a bounded sales-planning analytics pilot. Separate data acceptance from business usefulness and broader readiness.
Oct 6, 20264 min readAnalyze influencer audience fit using supplied aggregate summaries and campaign results. Compare a clearly defined target segment, consistent engagement ratios, and observed qualified leads without inferring missing audience evidence.
Oct 6, 20264 min readCustomer analytics connects recorded purchases to revenue, purchase frequency, and product mix. Work through an order export, rebuild the customer totals, and check the figures before deciding which accounts need attention.
Oct 6, 20265 min readBuild an opening-to-closing customer roster from account snapshots and sales exports. Separate losses, new customers and reactivations, then reconcile counts and compare the revenue associated with lost accounts.
Oct 6, 20264 min readDirect marketing analytics compares recipient cohorts with responses, first orders, and campaign cost. This guide shows the export layout, spreadsheet formulas, reconciliation checks, and limits of an uncontrolled campaign comparison.
Oct 6, 20265 min readFind external market inputs through Census economic statistics, trade data and BEA industry accounts. Check sector, product, geography, value basis and release vintage before calculating a share.
Oct 6, 20263 min readCompare shared-platform and private-environment requirements by data, access and agreed controls. Separate tenant isolation from anonymity.
Oct 6, 20263 min readSummarize business call records into monthly team and destination totals. Use Excel formulas to compare call counts, billed minutes and usage charges, then reconcile the result to the billing export.
Oct 5, 20265 min readCRM marketing analytics follows recorded campaign cohorts into opportunities and wins. Build a reconciled cohort table from CRM exports, compare equal observation windows, and separate recorded outcomes from marketing credit.
Oct 5, 20265 min readCompare campaign responses with customer revenue using prepared first-party exports. Follow a worked account table, spreadsheet formulas, and reconciliation checks that keep missing records visible.
Oct 5, 20265 min readCompare dealership lead sources using completed sales and vehicle gross profit. Build a matched lead cohort, calculate conversion in a spreadsheet, and reconcile the result to dealer exports.
Oct 4, 20265 min readInbound marketing analytics follows source cohorts from new leads to qualification, opportunities and recorded revenue. Build a checked comparison from lead, opportunity, revenue and campaign cost exports with exact spreadsheet formulas.
Oct 4, 20267 min readTelecom marketing analytics compares acquisition spending with activations, early cancellations and realized contribution. Use equally mature customer cohorts to see which channels produce durable results.
Oct 4, 20266 min readA W-shaped attribution model assigns credit to first contact, lead creation, and opportunity creation. Follow a dated CRM journey, reconcile its allocation to deal value, and keep missing milestones visible.
Oct 4, 20266 min readConnect campaign accounts to qualified pipeline, won contracts, and earned revenue. Use CRM and finance exports to compare equally mature cohorts without multiplying opportunities across buying-group contacts.
Oct 3, 20266 min readCustomer complaint analytics compares complaint frequency, resolution time and recorded handling cost. Use existing issue codes, a matching activity denominator and Excel checks to find the customer and product groups that need investigation.
Oct 2, 20265 min readPrepare a useful agency analytics sample with stable replacement IDs, synthetic labels and the fields needed for one question.
Sep 30, 20263 min readCustomer acquisition turns prospects into first-time customers. Learn how to define the qualifying event, connect CRM wins to revenue, and compare the early commercial results by source.
Sep 29, 20265 min readTest one agency question with reconciled data, a reviewed view and explicit limits. Define success without promising ROI or automatic coverage.
Sep 29, 20263 min readCompare automated workflows using entrants, opportunities, won customers and recorded revenue. Build an account-level report from campaign and CRM exports, then reconcile its counts and costs before changing a workflow.
Sep 28, 20265 min readPrepare a reviewed book inventory, income history and ID mapping for an agency data handover. Flag scope and missing records.
Sep 28, 20263 min readSpecify an agency dashboard by user, decision, fields and acceptance checks. Start with standard views and document needed customization.
Sep 28, 20263 min readHow to calculate a weighted average in Excel with SUMPRODUCT and SUM, worked on six customers' gross margins weighted by revenue. It shows why AVERAGE gives the wrong figure, the helper-column version, the check against total gross profit, and a weighted average by segment with a condition.
Sep 27, 20265 min readBuild a financial pivot from ledger movements after mapping accounts and checking signs. Work through a balanced export, separate profit from balance-sheet movements, and prove the totals.
Sep 26, 20265 min readScenario analysis recalculates a result under a few complete sets of assumptions; sensitivity analysis moves one driver at a time. This page builds both in Excel on one product business: a switch cell for base, downside and upside, a probability-weighted view, a two-way data table of price against volume, and a tornado ranking of the four drivers.
Sep 26, 20267 min readSQL for data analysis in twelve numbered queries, all run on the same eight-invoice sales table: filtering, grouping, HAVING, joins, finding gaps with a LEFT JOIN, CASE bands, month truncation, running totals, share of total, month-over-month change with LAG, deduplication with ROW_NUMBER and a CTE that chains the steps. Every result is shown, with the check that each summary sums back to the table.
Sep 26, 20268 min readHow to turn rows into columns in SQL: the SQL Server PIVOT operator, the portable conditional-aggregation version that runs in PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite, dynamic PIVOT for column values you do not know in advance, and UNPIVOT to go back. Every query runs on one ten-row sales table, with the result and the control-total check.
Sep 26, 20266 min readTrade marketing analytics connects manufacturer funding, retailer sales and channel inventory. Use this worked example to reconcile units and compare retailer contribution without confusing shipments with consumer purchases.
Sep 26, 20265 min readCompare lost customers and recurring revenue by segment and cohort from account exports. Work through a reconciled customer table, exact spreadsheet formulas, and the checks that separate full exits from contraction.
Sep 25, 20265 min readThese customer journey analytics examples follow a US supplier's requests through consultation, quote and payment. Rebuild stage conversion and elapsed time from individual rows, then see what changes when one pending request completes.
Sep 25, 20266 min readWhat an Excel Power Pivot table adds to an ordinary pivot table: the Data Model, relationships between tables, distinct counts and DAX measures that recalculate at every level. Built on the same ten-line sales ledger as our pivot table guide plus a five-row customer table, with the menu paths, the check, and which Excel editions Microsoft lists for Power Pivot.
Sep 25, 20267 min readHow to run a regression in Excel on your own data: simple linear regression with SLOPE, INTERCEPT, RSQ and FORECAST.LINEAR, multiple regression with LINEST, and the Analysis ToolPak's Regression tool. One ten-month table runs through every method, with the full output, how to read it and the checks that prove the line.
Sep 25, 20268 min readOLAP (online analytical processing) summarizes transaction data across several dimensions at once. This page explains cubes, dimensions and measures, works the five OLAP operations on an 8-row sales cube, shows the same thing in SQL with GROUP BY ROLLUP and CUBE, and covers MOLAP, ROLAP and HOLAP and the columnar and semantic-layer tools that now do the job.
Sep 24, 20267 min readPareto analysis ranks items from largest to smallest and adds a running share of the total, to show how few items make up most of it. This page works it on ten customers in Excel, with the running-share and cut-off formulas, the built-in Pareto chart, the checks that prove the table, and how it differs from ABC analysis.
Sep 24, 20266 min readHow to calculate percentage change in Excel between an old and a new value, worked on six product lines this year against last. Covers formatting as a percentage, lines that start or end at zero, a loss turning into a profit, applying and reversing a percentage increase, why the total change is not the average of the line changes, and percentage points.
Sep 24, 20265 min readHow to build a PivotChart from a pivot table in Excel, using the same ten-line sales ledger as our pivot table guide. Covers the menu paths in Microsoft 365 for Windows, Mac and the web, a month-by-product-line chart, slicers and timelines, the check that ties the chart to the ledger, formatting that survives refresh, and the chart types a PivotChart cannot use.
Sep 24, 20266 min readHow to calculate a moving average in Excel on monthly sales: the AVERAGE formula filled down, a window size you can change, a weighted moving average with SUMPRODUCT, the rolling 12-month total finance uses, and the chart trendline and Analysis ToolPak options. Every formula was tested in Excel for Microsoft 365 on a worked 12-month table.
Sep 23, 20266 min readCreate a Google Sheets revenue waterfall from monthly customer revenue and signed changes. Reconcile every bridge component to independently reported closing revenue before formatting the chart.
Sep 21, 20265 min readBuild a Power BI report that compares saved forecasts with actual results at a fixed forecast horizon. Prepare the workbook, calculate error and bias measures, reconcile the totals, and identify recurring misses by business segment.
Sep 21, 20266 min readHow to use Goal Seek in Excel to work backwards from a target result to the one input that produces it. The steps and dialog fields, a profit model solved three ways (units for a target profit, price for a target profit, and break-even), the algebra that checks each answer, and when to use Solver or a data table instead.
Sep 21, 20266 min readMobile marketing analytics compares the users acquired by each campaign on activation, retention and recorded revenue. Follow a worked cohort comparison from acquisition and cost exports to checked spreadsheet results.
Sep 21, 20265 min readHow to produce descriptive statistics in Excel, with the Analysis ToolPak or with worksheet formulas, worked on ten order values. Every statistic is computed by formula, each line of the ToolPak output is explained, and the page shows how to read mean, median, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis when one large order distorts the set.
Sep 20, 20266 min readHow Excel's forecasting functions work on sales data: FORECAST and FORECAST.LINEAR fit a straight line, worked by hand on eight quarters; FORECAST.ETS uses exponential smoothing with seasonality, run in Excel on 24 months with its confidence interval. Arguments, Forecast Sheet, which to use, and where each goes wrong.
Sep 20, 20267 min readBuild sales pivots by customer, product and month from a Google Sheets export. Follow the source layout, date grouping, filters and checks that keep the totals tied to the original rows.
Sep 20, 20265 min readCustomer clusters need commercial checks before they guide account treatment. Evaluate supplied cluster labels against revenue, margin, purchase frequency, and membership stability using a reconciled customer export.
Sep 19, 20265 min readThe Analysis ToolPak is the free Excel add-in behind the Data Analysis button. This page gives the click path to enable it on Windows and Mac, a table of all 19 tools with a finance or sales use for each, one worked Descriptive Statistics run on ten invoices, and the worksheet functions that check every line of the output.
Sep 19, 20266 min readChoose forecasting tools around the decision, the files you have and the evidence needed to trust a forecast. Compare approaches, work a sales-and-cash evaluation, and check whether saved versions can be reconciled to actual results.
Sep 19, 20266 min readAudience overlap analysis counts customers shared by two approved campaign exports. Deduplicate permissioned identifiers, calculate overlap using explicit denominators, and reconcile shared and exclusive groups before planning campaign coverage.
Sep 18, 20265 min readHow to use conditional formatting in Excel to make a finance report point at what matters. Where the rules live, the built-in rule types, formula rules that format one cell based on another, and a budget-vs-actual table of eight cost lines flagged only when a variance is material in both percentage and amount, with favorable and unfavorable colors.
Sep 18, 20266 min readCustomer care analytics compares ticket demand, repeated contacts and outcomes by customer. Follow a coded ticket export into customer and reason tables, with spreadsheet formulas and reconciliations that show where follow-up work collects.
Sep 18, 20265 min readBuild observed and expected counts for a customer-category comparison in Excel. Reproduce the chi-square statistic, interpret its p-value, and keep business importance separate from statistical evidence.
Sep 17, 20264 min readCalculate Pearson correlation from matched business observations with the CORREL function. Work through the arithmetic, inspect a scatter chart and distinguish association from evidence of cause.
Sep 17, 20265 min readBuild customer and monthly sales summaries in LibreOffice Calc from invoice rows. Use exact formulas, reconcile credits and totals, and export a checked CSV for follow-up analysis.
Sep 17, 20265 min readBuild an Excel analysis report that connects a business question to checked figures and a decision. This worked example reconciles revenue, direct costs and gross profit, then changes one input to show how the conclusion moves.
Sep 17, 20266 min readProduct funnel analysis compares signup cohorts through a defined activation sequence. Use prepared usage summaries, exact spreadsheet formulas, and a reconciliation to locate the transition that needs investigation.
Sep 16, 20266 min readXLOOKUP, VLOOKUP and INDEX MATCH compared side by side on one ledger and customer master: default match, missing IDs, inserted columns, left lookups, two-way lookups, speed and version availability. It ends with a rule a finance team can standardize on.
Sep 16, 202615 min readAd hoc analysis in Excel starts with one decision and a defined export. Build a formula summary, investigate the underlying groups, and reconcile the answer before sharing it.
Sep 15, 20265 min readA step-by-step guide to building a pivot table from an invoice-level sales ledger: preparing the data as an Excel Table, sales by region and month, each region's share of the total, slicers by product line, and the check that the pivot ties to the ledger. Every figure comes from a ten-line sample ledger you can rebuild.
Sep 15, 202618 min readA step-by-step guide to Power Query in Excel using a messy sales ledger export: removing title and blank rows, trimming IDs, turning CR suffixes into negative amounts, reading day-first dates with the right locale, merging a customer master and grouping by customer. It ends with the check that the cleaned total equals the export's own footer, and the monthly refresh.
Sep 15, 202618 min readThe SUMIF function in Excel and its multi-condition version SUMIFS, worked on a ten-line sales ledger: the syntax and argument order, a total for one customer, a customer-by-month grid built from one formula, date-range and not-equal-to criteria, wildcards, and the check that the grid equals the ledger total.
Sep 15, 202614 min readThe VLOOKUP syntax and one working example on a six-invoice ledger, then the five ways it gives wrong answers on finance data: approximate match by default, inserted columns, dirty keys, duplicate IDs and left lookups. It ends with the checks that catch all five before a report goes out.
Sep 15, 202615 min readThe XLOOKUP syntax with every argument and default, worked on a six-invoice ledger and a five-customer master. Five examples cover the segment for each invoice, several columns at once, the latest price, a discount band and a two-criteria lookup, followed by the control-total check that proves no invoice was dropped.
Sep 15, 202617 min readHow to calculate compound annual growth rate in Excel three ways (the power formula, RRI and POWER), worked on six years of revenue. Includes the year-over-year sales growth formula, why the average of yearly growth rates overstates growth, the check that proves the CAGR, and how to handle partial years and monthly data.
Sep 14, 202612 min readA step-by-step guide to building a business dashboard in Excel that updates when the data changes: three sheets for data, calculations and the dashboard, KPI tiles driven by SUMIFS and a month selector, a revenue-against-budget combo chart, slicers, and a check row that proves every tile ties to the data. Worked on six months of revenue, budget and gross profit.
Sep 14, 202615 min readCompare Shopify first-order cohorts after the same observation period. Build a workbook that separates repeat customers, retained orders, and revenue after refunds, then reconcile every total.
Sep 14, 20265 min readBuild an Excel waterfall from an opening balance, signed changes and a closing balance. This walkthrough includes source rows, subtotal formulas, chart settings and a reconciliation that catches missing or duplicated movements.
Sep 13, 20264 min readChoose charts for trends, category comparisons, distributions and relationships. Work from reconciled business tables, read the limits of each display and identify the next decision.
Sep 11, 20265 min readDescriptive statistics summarize the sales rows you observed; inferential statistics estimate a defined population from a sample. Compare both uses of the same order values, rebuild a confidence interval, and see which conclusions the evidence supports.
Sep 9, 20266 min readPrepare and validate customer retention cohorts before presenting them in Google Data Studio, formerly Looker Studio. This guide gives the source rows, Google Sheets formulas, equal-age checks, and report settings that keep unfinished periods out of the comparison.
Sep 9, 20266 min readWebsite audience analysis compares the visitors a website attracts with the actions those visitors complete. Build a consistent segment table from an existing analytics export, calculate conversion rates, and check the totals before changing a campaign.
Sep 7, 20265 min readOrganic marketing analytics connects unpaid acquisition with recorded commercial outcomes. This guide works through matched traffic and lead cohorts, opportunities, customer revenue, spreadsheet formulas, and reconciliation checks.
Sep 6, 20265 min readAnalyze structured survey responses in Excel with explicit valid-response denominators. Build rating distributions and segment summaries, then reconcile every total to the response rows.
Sep 6, 20265 min readAnalyze coded survey ratings with valid-response counts, distributions, and segment comparisons. Follow a complete Excel example that keeps missing responses separate and shows exactly how the percentages reconcile.
Sep 5, 20265 min readCalculate sample and population covariance from paired sales and cost observations. Follow a worked workbook example, check the arithmetic, and interpret the result without confusing scale with strength.
Sep 4, 20264 min readLifecycle segmentation assigns relationships to explicit acquisition, activation, repeat and lapse stages. Use customer and order exports to compare stage revenue and follow-up purchasing without confusing conversion, retention and reactivation.
Sep 4, 20266 min readTime series data correlation compares movements in ordered business measures. Learn how alignment, common trends, seasonality and lag choices affect the result, using a worked example that changes after differencing.
Sep 4, 20266 min readData analytics in manufacturing compares production, scrap, inventory and costs across plants and periods. Work through a checked plant example and assign the findings to the managers who can investigate them.
Sep 3, 20265 min readEcommerce funnel analysis compares shopping-stage progression by device and acquisition source. Use exported counts to locate material losses, separate mix effects from changing behavior, and assign a business investigation.
Sep 3, 20265 min readConnect creator codes and recorded link interactions to orders without counting the same sale twice. Reconcile refunds and campaign costs, then separate credited revenue from evidence of incremental growth.
Sep 3, 20265 min readBuild reproducible product-user groups from signup dates and recorded usage. Compare their counts, subsequent retention and recurring revenue, with spreadsheet formulas and reconciliation checks.
Sep 3, 20266 min readBrand marketing analytics compares coded survey measures with sales for the same regions and periods. Build a checked spreadsheet comparison, distinguish percentage points from growth rates, and avoid treating an association as proof of incremental sales.
Sep 2, 20265 min readMarketing analytics in banking follows campaign responses through account opening, funding, activation, and recorded revenue. Build a comparable cohort table from approved exports, calculate the measures in a spreadsheet, and reconcile the results before changing a campaign.
Sep 1, 20266 min readLead attribution connects a recorded source to a lead and its later customer outcome. Work through duplicate removal, original-source preservation, and account mapping with a reconciled CRM example.
Aug 30, 20265 min readMarketing analytics in sports compares ticket campaign costs, recorded sales and repeat purchases. Build an event-and-channel comparison from ticketing and spending exports, with clear revenue and buyer definitions.
Aug 29, 20266 min readA hub for the worked-example pages on this site: each core measure computed in full on a book small enough to check by hand, ten accounts, ten deals, ten invoice lines, five clients, four territories, with every intermediate figure shown and the identity at the end. This page lists them by measure with what each example demonstrates, so a reader can reproduce the arithmetic before running it on their own export.
Aug 28, 20268 min readFashion retail analytics connects size-level sales with seasonal stock and realized prices. Use a worked apparel example to separate demand, availability and markdown effects, then check the stock and margin totals.
Aug 27, 20266 min readOrganize business feedback in Excel, apply a human-reviewed codebook, and compare themes across customer segments. Work through response counts, percentages, coding checks, and the decisions a feedback summary can support.
Aug 25, 20265 min readA weekly sales meeting agenda built on computed lists rather than verbal updates: five minutes on the numbers that moved, ten on the accounts that need a call this week, ten on the deals that changed or stalled, and five on commitments made and kept. This page gives the agenda minute by minute, the four lists that feed it and where each comes from, what to cut from the usual meeting, the rules that keep it to thirty minutes, and a copyable template.
Aug 25, 20265 min readCompare customer sales by month in Google Sheets using signed transaction rows and SUMIFS. Build a clean analysis sheet and reconcile customer totals to the complete export.
Aug 24, 20264 min readA hub for the templates on this site: the weekly sales meeting agenda, the pipeline review, the forecast sheet with tested categories, the monthly sales report, the quarterly business review, the one-page account plan, the territory plan, the account handover checklist, the win-loss form and the lost customer review, plus dashboard examples for five readers. Each template is copyable, says which export each figure comes from, and is designed so that the document is mostly filled in before anyone sits down to write it.
Aug 23, 20263 min readA hub for the comparison pages on this site: churn and dormancy, win rate and close rate, pipeline coverage and weighted pipeline, OTIF and fill rate, gross margin and contribution, KPI and metric, leading and lagging indicators, concentration ratio and Herfindahl index, share of wallet and market share, renewal and retention, and more. Each page gives both definitions, computes both on the same rows, and says which to use when. This page lists them with the one-line difference for each.
Aug 23, 20264 min readCalculate subscriber value from service contribution, retention and acquisition costs. Work through a cohort example that separates device subsidies, observed results and future assumptions.
Aug 22, 20266 min readRetention rate in marketing compares how many customers from an acquisition cohort return at an agreed age. Work through campaign results, maturity checks and a mix adjustment before changing the budget.
Aug 22, 20265 min readA hub for the benchmark questions on this site: what is a good share of wallet, customer concentration, pipeline coverage, win rate, forecast accuracy, dormancy rate, account coverage, net revenue retention, renewal rate, seat utilization, quote conversion, OTIF, cost to serve, spend under management, realization and hit ratio. Each page gives the ranges people quote, says what those ranges assume, and sets out the three measurable things that decide the right figure for one business. This page lists them with the short answer to each.
Aug 21, 20263 min readRFM scores customers on recency, frequency and monetary value, and was built for consumer mail-order. This page shows how to compute RFM in Excel from an order export, with the exact formulas for the three measures and the 1 to 5 scores, then explains why the consumer version misleads in B2B, where customers order on very different cadences, and gives the three changes that fix it: recency against the customer's own cadence, frequency as a trend against the customer's own history, and monetary value read against a norm for similar customers.
Aug 20, 20264 min readA hub for the Excel guides on this site: how to calculate customer concentration, dormant customers, account coverage, win rate and pipeline coverage, forecast accuracy and bias, net revenue retention, renewal rate, quote conversion, OTIF and cost to serve in a spreadsheet, from exports a business already has. Each guide gives the columns needed, the exact formulas for Microsoft 365 and older Excel, the one check that proves the result, the usual spreadsheet mistakes, and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 20, 20264 min readFit a specified sales response curve in Excel by minimizing squared errors. Work through the formulas, residual checks and a separate validation row before comparing supplied predictions with actual sales.
Aug 18, 20265 min readReconcile a Power BI churn report to opening customer counts and recurring revenue. Prepare dated losses in a spreadsheet, compare segment results, and build ratios that use the correct denominator.
Aug 17, 20266 min readA customer lifetime value statistic is useful only when its population, contribution definition, and horizon are clear. Read external evidence against a worked internal customer file, and distinguish observed contribution from expected lifetime value.
Aug 16, 20265 min readA hub for the industry KPI pages on this site. For each of thirty-one industries and functions, from wholesale distribution and foodservice to commercial banking, law firms, freight, pharma, SaaS and sports, one page lists the ten measures that matter, each with its formula, the export it comes from and what it tells you, plus the three measures most teams in that industry miss, the figures to drop, the identity behind each table and who should own what. This page lists them all with the measure each industry most often overlooks.
Aug 16, 20265 min readTarget markets are the groups a business deliberately chooses to serve. Compare demand evidence, customer contribution and delivery requirements using a worked US example, then define a target the sales and operations teams can act on.
Aug 16, 20265 min readA step-by-step guide to computing contract renewal rate in Excel from a contract export: contracts due in the period, the outcome per contract with a stated grace window, renewal rate by count and by prior value, contraction on renewal, the rate by renewal number, the upcoming renewal calendar, and the check that every due contract has exactly one outcome. Includes the exact formulas and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 15, 20263 min readA step-by-step guide to computing win rate and pipeline coverage in Excel from a CRM opportunity export: win rate by count and by value with COUNTIFS and SUMIFS, the coverage a team needs as one over its win rate, in-period pipeline from close dates, coverage per rep against target, aged pipeline removed, and the check that every deal is in exactly one status. Includes the exact formulas and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 15, 20263 min readA step-by-step guide to building a dormant customer list in Excel from an order export: last order date per customer with MAXIFS, days since last order, each customer's typical gap between orders, a per-customer threshold, the dormant flag, prior-year revenue beside each name, and the check that every customer is in exactly one state. Includes the exact formulas for Microsoft 365 and older Excel, and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 15, 20263 min readA step-by-step guide to measuring sales forecast accuracy and bias in Excel: keeping a weekly snapshot table, pulling the forecast each rep made at a fixed horizon, signed error and absolute error against actuals, bias per rep across four quarters with AVERAGEIFS, mean absolute error, the team figure against the per-rep spread, and the horizon curve. Includes the exact formulas and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 15, 20263 min readUse a complete synthetic business table to practice revenue and cost analysis in Excel. The field dictionary, formulas and control totals let you check the result before applying the method to company exports.
Aug 14, 20266 min readA step-by-step guide to computing sales account coverage in Excel from a CRM activity export and an account list: filtering activities to real touches, last touch per account with MAXIFS, days since last touch, the cadence owed by tier with a lookup, covered at cadence, coverage by count and by revenue per rep, the uncovered list ranked by value, and the check that every assigned account is in exactly one state. Includes the exact formulas and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 14, 20262 min readA step-by-step guide to computing cost to serve per customer in Excel: choosing the cost pools and their drivers, counting drops, order lines, visits and return lines per customer with COUNTIFS, computing a rate per driver from the ledger, allocating cost with SUMPRODUCT, contribution after cost to serve, the ratio of cost to serve to gross margin, the largest driver per loss-making customer, and the check that allocated cost equals the pools. Includes the exact formulas and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 14, 20263 min readA step-by-step guide to computing customer concentration in Excel from an invoice export: revenue per customer with SUMIFS, the top-ten share with LARGE, the largest single customer share, the same figures for the prior year, the pivot-table route for older versions, and the one check that proves the customer totals still add up to the ledger. Includes the exact formulas for Microsoft 365 and for older Excel, and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 14, 20263 min readA step-by-step guide to computing net revenue retention in Excel from a billing export: revenue per customer in two periods with SUMIFS, NRR over the customers who were active a year ago, gross revenue retention with MIN, expansion, contraction and churn per customer, NRR by start-year cohort, and the identity that proves the movements add up. Includes the exact formulas and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 14, 20263 min readA step-by-step guide to computing on-time-in-full in Excel from an order and delivery export: the on-time test with early and late tolerances, the in-full test with a fill threshold, OTIF at line level and at order level, the rate per customer with COUNTIFS, the four-state identity of OTIF, late only, short only and both, and the customer's rule beside your own. Includes the exact formulas and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 14, 20263 min readA step-by-step guide to computing quote-to-order conversion in Excel: joining quotes to orders on the quote reference with COUNTIFS, a fallback match on customer, item and a date window, conversion by count and by value, conversion per customer with a minimum count, conversion by turnaround band, orders with no quote, and the check that every quote is in exactly one state. Includes the exact formulas and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 14, 20263 min readMarketing personalization analytics compares treatment and control outcomes using supplied experiment exports. Work conversion and contribution by segment, reconcile the totals and separate observed differences from causal evidence.
Aug 14, 20266 min readCompare social campaign costs and engagement with matched customer orders. Work from prepared exports, calculate consistent rates, and check the revenue and contribution behind the activity.
Aug 14, 20265 min readA four-part marketing review connects product, price, place and promotion to recorded commercial results. Use a sales export, cost file and campaign spending report to compare the choices and check the totals.
Aug 13, 20266 min readA step-by-step guide to building a customer cohort retention table in Excel: assigning each customer to the period of their first purchase with MINIFS, computing periods since first purchase for every invoice, counting active customers and summing revenue per cohort per period with COUNTIFS and SUMIFS, turning counts into retention percentages, reading the triangle, and the checks that prove no customer was lost on the way. Includes the exact formulas, the pivot-table route, and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 13, 20264 min readA step-by-step guide to building a cross-sell or whitespace matrix in Excel from an invoice export: a customers-by-categories grid with SUMIFS or a pivot table, a bought or not-bought flag, category penetration within each customer segment, the expected categories for each segment, the gap cells where a customer does not buy what most similar customers do, a value for each gap from the segment median, and the ranked opportunity list. Includes the exact formulas, the check, and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 13, 20264 min readA step-by-step guide to computing a monthly seasonality index in Excel from two or three years of sales: monthly totals with SUMIFS, each month as a ratio to its year's average, the index as the average of those ratios, the check that the twelve indices sum to twelve, and three uses: seasonally adjusting this month's figure, building a run rate that does not mislead, and spreading an annual target across months. Includes the exact formulas, what to do with one-off spikes, and the point at which the spreadsheet stops being enough.
Aug 13, 20264 min readTime series analysis compares a business measure over time, while cross-sectional analysis compares business units in the same period. Work both views from one branch sales export, with formulas and checks that keep the comparisons consistent.
Aug 12, 20266 min readPharmaceutical marketing analytics compares campaign costs, reach, and defined engagement across channels and territories. Work from approved aggregate exports, reconcile the audience and cost totals, and separate descriptive campaign results from prescribing or clinical claims.
Aug 11, 20266 min readEvaluate supplied propensity scores by comparing score bands with observed conversions and contribution. This business guide checks ranking, probability estimates, and contact capacity using exported records.
Aug 11, 20267 min readUse a synthetic sales order table to check revenue, cost and gross margin in Excel. Work the same rows by region, change one selling price and reconcile the results before using a business export.
Aug 10, 20265 min readInferential data analysis uses a sample to estimate a wider population result. Work through a branch comparison, calculate an illustrative confidence interval, and check whether the sampling assumptions support the decision.
Aug 9, 20266 min readABC analysis ranks customers by revenue or margin, accumulates their share, and cuts the list into tiers: A for the few that make most of the revenue, B for the middle, C for the long tail. This page gives the Excel formulas for the ranked table, the cumulative share and the tier, shows how to check whether the 80/20 rule holds for a given base, explains why the ranking should use contribution and potential as well as current revenue, and sets out what each tier should be owed in coverage so that the analysis changes what the sales team does.
Aug 8, 20264 min readThe six lines a validation report on an uploaded sales file should carry before any measure is computed: the period it detected, the row and value totals against what the source showed, the columns it mapped and the ones it dropped, the roll-up identity at every level, the identifiers it did not recognize from last time, and the exceptions it will exclude. What each line catches, what a pass looks like, and why a report that says only 'upload successful' has told you nothing.
Aug 6, 20263 min readExplore a business order export for customer concentration, product co-purchases and unusual monthly changes. This worked example shows the formulas, the reconciliation and how changing one order changes the findings.
Aug 4, 20266 min readThe four-level tree that every sales measure is summed through, the difference between a level and a dimension, the identity that must hold at each level, and the mapping decisions that make one hierarchy serve finance, sales operations and the salesperson at once.
Aug 4, 20263 min readA practical checklist for the analyst or operations person who refreshes a coverage report each month from exports: what to export, in what order, the control totals to note before uploading, the validation lines to read after, the three failures that stop the refresh and what to do about each, and what to send the team when it is done.
Aug 3, 20263 min readEvery gap on this site is measured against a norm from the company's own best customers of the same kind, and what the same kind means changes by desk: same menu type and covers, same size band and sector, same tenure band, same rig count, same property type and market. This hub gives, for twelve industries, the fields that define similar, the unit of size the norm scales by, the population the norm is drawn from, and the guide for each.
Aug 3, 20263 min readEvery measure on this site is computed from a handful of exports a company already has. This hub gives, for twelve industries, the three or four files, which system each comes from, the columns that matter in each, the identifier that joins them, and the control total to note before exporting, so that a team knows exactly what to drop before it drops anything.
Aug 2, 20263 min readReconcile campaign leads, won deals, and recorded revenue from prepared lead and finance exports. Follow the spreadsheet checks that preserve unique deals and keep unmatched revenue visible.
Aug 1, 20264 min readHealth insurance marketing analytics compares campaign leads, applications and confirmed enrollments. Build a comparable cohort report from aggregate campaign and enrollment exports, calculate stage conversion and acquisition cost, and reconcile the result.
Jul 28, 20265 min readDefine cohort membership and return events separately in Mixpanel, then export a consistent retention report. Compare completed activity windows with paid outcomes using a worked business example and spreadsheet checks.
Jul 28, 20265 min readChoose a statistical comparison that answers a marketing decision. Work from account counts to conversion rates, segment comparisons, sample checks and contribution using a reconciled campaign example.
Jul 28, 20265 min readCompare relationship balances, product holdings and retention from prepared banking exports. Build a fixed customer cohort, calculate the group measures in Excel and reconcile every total before interpreting the differences.
Jul 27, 20265 min readAnalyze collected market research in Excel with clear response denominators and segment comparisons. Connect the findings to matched customer sales without confusing stated interest with buying behavior.
Jul 27, 20265 min readWhat sales intelligence means when it is built from finance, CRM, activity, product and benchmark data a company already has: the five sources, how they join on the client, the roll-up that reconciles them, and the questions a salesperson can then ask that no dashboard anticipated.
Jul 23, 20263 min readThirty sales and commercial measures defined in one sentence each with the formula, grouped by what they describe: coverage and activity, wallet and depth, retention and churn, pipeline and forecast, concentration and reporting, and data quality. Each links to a full definition. Written so that a team can adopt the definitions as its own, version them, and stop arguing about what a number means.
Jul 22, 20264 min readA hub for the role pages on this site: for each leader, from CFO and CRO to the head of a trading desk or a foodservice distributor, the ten questions they ask, the tables that answer them, the identity behind each, and the answer to send back. This page lists every role page with the desk it is written for and the first question on it, so a reader can find their own questions in one click.
Jul 21, 20264 min readCompare regional order values with a one-way ANOVA in Excel. Follow the workbook layout, reproduce the sums of squares, and interpret the result with its assumptions intact.
Jul 19, 20264 min readRank customers into ten groups by revenue in Excel, with a reproducible rule for ties. Build a decile contribution table and check its customer counts and revenue against the source export.
Jul 18, 20265 min readBuild an Excel weighted score for supplier alternatives using explicit criteria and comparable scales. Follow the normalization formulas, verify the score and test whether a change in priorities changes the ranking.
Jul 17, 20265 min readThe difference between pseudonymized and anonymized data as it applies to a sales export, why coverage and share-of-wallet analysis needs the first and cannot use the second, what pseudonymization at export looks like in practice, the lookup that stays in the building, what is still personal data and what is not, and the three mistakes that turn a pseudonymized file back into a named one.
Jul 17, 20263 min readConnect SaaS acquisition spending to pipeline, won customers and recurring revenue from matched exports. Keep bookings, recognized revenue and ARR separate, and compare cohorts with the same observation window.
Jul 15, 20265 min readMedia and entertainment analytics connects audience measures with subscription revenue, advertising revenue and content costs. Compare business summaries by service and month, then reconcile the change in contribution.
Jul 15, 20266 min readEvent marketing analytics follows an attendee cohort through recorded follow-up and sales outcomes. Reconcile attendance and CRM exports, compare equal windows, and check distinct opportunity amounts before judging event performance.
Jul 13, 20265 min readThe difference between a norm, computed from the company's own customers of the same kind where the relationship is full, and a benchmark, a figure from outside describing an average company, why every gap on this site is against a norm, the three things a benchmark cannot do, be defended to a rep, be applied to a specific customer, or be versioned with the base, the two places an external figure is allowed, as a wallet fallback and as context, and the rule that it is always labeled.
Jul 12, 20263 min readAnalyze exported marketing experiment results using conversions, revenue, and contribution per assigned account. Follow a worked spreadsheet example, check uncertainty, and identify the conditions needed for a causal conclusion.
Jul 11, 20265 min readReconcile recorded campaign interactions with offline invoices using supplied business identifiers and a defined window. Measure matched and unmatched sales, resolve exceptions and prove the totals against the invoice export.
Jul 10, 20266 min readCompare supplied competitor offers with the prices your customers actually pay. This worked example standardizes package sizes and delivery terms, then tests the margin impact of matching a competing offer.
Jul 9, 20266 min readCampaign analytics connects campaign activity to customers, revenue and contribution. Follow a file-based review with matched exports, spreadsheet formulas and checks that keep the campaign totals tied to finance.
Jul 8, 20265 min readCompare structured benefit scores and price perceptions by customer segment. Build a transparent score table, check response coverage, and choose a focused follow-up without confusing perceived value with customer profitability.
Jul 8, 20265 min readCalculate video marketing ROI from matched financial outcomes and complete campaign costs. Allocate reusable production costs across campaigns, reconcile the allocation and keep viewing activity separate from contribution.
Jul 8, 20265 min readA gap list is only a plan when each gap has a number beside it. This guide compares the three ways to value a missing product, account or lane, at list price, at the customer's own rate, and against an external wallet, with the cases each fits, the bias each carries, and the rule of stating the basis on every list.
Jul 7, 20263 min readEvaluate recruitment campaigns using spending, qualified applicants, starts and retained hires from aggregated exports. Define comparable hiring cohorts, calculate cost per outcome and separate those measures from a financial ROI that requires verified monetary benefits.
Jul 7, 20266 min readA reading guide for the norm table that every gap on a report depends on: the population column that says which customers the norm was drawn from, the cell count that says how many, the greyed cells under the floor, the method column, median or percentile, the version and date, the norms that moved since last quarter and why, and the test of a good norm table, that a reader can defend any gap on the report by pointing at one row of it.
Jul 6, 20263 min readEvery penetration, fit, share or whitespace figure needs a denominator: what a customer like this one usually buys. This guide sets out how to build that norm from your own customers by banding them on type and size, the majority rule, the minimum band size, and how to record overrides so the gap list stays credible.
Jul 5, 20263 min readWhat a data map is and how to build one from any sales export: the six roles a column can play, region, team, person, account, product, value, plus date, how to tell which column is which when the headers do not say, the columns to drop, the roll-up check that proves the map is right before anything is computed, and the mistakes that produce a map that looks fine and rolls up wrong.
Jul 5, 20263 min readA practical checklist for getting a CSV or Excel export from a CRM, ERP or billing system into a state where coverage and share measures can be computed from it: one row per fact, a header row that names the column, identifiers instead of names, one date format, no subtotals, and a control total from the source system to reconcile against.
Jul 5, 20263 min readInsurance customer analytics compares the client relationship across policies, renewals and service effort. This workflow builds a client-level comparison from brokerage exports and checks that policy and revenue totals remain intact.
Jul 5, 20266 min readMarket basket analysis measures which products appear in the same order. Build an order-level table from an order-line export, calculate support, confidence and lift, and check the value of the baskets behind each pair.
Jul 5, 20265 min readCompare transaction first digits with Benford expectations in Excel. Build a checked frequency table, identify unsuitable populations, and trace unusual groups back to ledger rows.
Jul 4, 20264 min readWhy 'real-time' is the wrong answer to how often sales data should be refreshed, the cadence each measure actually needs, weekly for coverage and pipeline, monthly for share of wallet and concentration, quarterly for norms and segments, annually for definitions, what a refresh more frequent than the measure's cadence does to the reader, and the export schedule that follows.
Jul 4, 20262 min readA plain guide for a sales leader and a data protection officer evaluating an analytics tool under GDPR and UK GDPR: which fields coverage and share-of-wallet analysis actually needs, why customer and contact names are not among them, what pseudonymization at export means in practice, the lawful basis question, the data that stays in the building, and the six questions a DPO should ask before an export leaves.
Jul 3, 20263 min readThe five checks a commercial analyst runs on a workbook before its totals go into a deck: the SUM range covers every row, hidden and filtered rows are counted or excluded on purpose, no number is typed over a formula, the pivot matches the sheet, and the total matches the source system. Each with the symptom it catches and the one-minute test.
Jul 2, 20263 min readA fair account of what a spreadsheet does well for sales analysis, the point at which it stops, and the four signs a team has passed it: the same measure computed two ways by two people, a monthly refresh that takes days, a roll-up that does not reconcile and nobody knows why, and a number in a deck that nobody can trace. What changes when the measures are computed from stated definitions on every upload, and what does not need to change at all.
Jun 30, 20263 min readBuild a frequency distribution from an order export using explicit bin limits and Excel formulas. Check the counts, add relative and cumulative frequencies, and compare periods without changing the boundaries.
Jun 24, 20265 min readChoose charts for trends, rankings and business mix from a reconciled workbook. Work through one sales summary, the exact Excel formulas and the checks that keep the picture tied to the export.
Jun 23, 20266 min readBuild a Tableau retention view from prepared customer and activity exports. Fix cohort membership, compare equal customer ages, and prove the counts before reading the colors.
Jun 22, 20265 min readUse Excel to reconcile department headcount, staffing movements and labor cost. Build aggregate workforce summaries from roster and expense exports, with formulas and checks for a monthly review.
Jun 22, 20265 min readRestaurant marketing analytics connects campaign spend with orders and contribution by location. Compare POS and marketing exports, reconcile the totals, and separate attributed sales from incremental demand.
Jun 22, 20266 min readThe seven-part template every measure page on this site follows, and why: the answer in one paragraph, the formula in a line, the rows needed with identifiers only, one worked table, the roll-up and its identity, the four mistakes, and the three questions answered in full. What each part is for, the order and why it is fixed, the length each part gets, and how a company can use the same template for its own definitions document.
Jun 21, 20264 min readCompare healthcare service demand, repeat visits and survey results from approved aggregate exports. This workflow keeps the reporting populations and observation windows explicit, with spreadsheet formulas and reconciliation checks.
Jun 20, 20265 min readImprove customer lifetime value by finding which cohorts lose contribution through retention, purchase frequency or margin. Work from customer and invoice exports, compare the cost of each action, and check whether the improvement pays for itself.
Jun 18, 20266 min readCalculate restaurant campaign returns after discounts, food costs and other variable costs. Work from POS and spending exports, check the totals, and distinguish attributed contribution from incremental ROI.
Jun 16, 20264 min readThe six big losses separate downtime, slow production and rejected output. Use recorded production exports to compare losses by line and reconcile them to planned production time.
Jun 15, 20266 min readHealthcare marketing analytics connects campaign inquiries with booked appointments and completed visits. Use de-identified aggregate exports, consistent observation windows, spreadsheet formulas, and checks that reconcile each stage.
Jun 14, 20265 min readMarketing research analytics compares structured survey responses with explicit bases and limitations. Work from a research workbook to checked counts, segment percentages and multiple-response tables without turning association into a causal claim.
Jun 14, 20265 min readCalculate weighted prices and gross margins from sales rows in an Excel pivot table. Sum each measure's numerator and denominator separately, then divide and reconcile the grand total.
Jun 14, 20265 min readImprove marketing ROI by comparing contribution, customer acquisition cost, and campaign mix before changing budget. Use reconciled exports to identify a specific action, calculate its assumptions, and measure the result at a consistent cohort age.
Jun 13, 20265 min readCompare supplied aggregate customer segments by store using customer counts, sales and average order value. Keep unknown labels visible and distinguish customer composition from catchment population.
Jun 12, 20265 min readTransfer a working customer-growth review to another sales team while checking local customers, definitions, buying constraints and decision practices. Separate a reusable method from assumptions that need local confirmation.
Jan 7, 20264 min readPreserve the customer-growth questions, review decisions and commercial context when an internal analytics champion changes role. Give the next reviewer a usable decision history rather than an unexplained dashboard.
Aug 13, 20224 min readWrite a neutral analytics request for proposal with a bounded business decision, source scope, required outputs, supplier response structure and explicit acceptance responsibilities.
Jul 27, 20224 min readReview external analytics distribution through approved audiences, scoped outputs, excluded fields, explanation, rights and the limits of revoking already downloaded material.
May 2, 20193 min readPrepare an internal analytics purchase brief that names the business decision, budget owner, current process, proposed scope, costs and evidence needed for approval.
Nov 4, 20183 min readEvaluate analytics exit usability across source records, mappings, measure definitions, report configurations and approved outputs, rather than counting downloaded files alone.
Oct 13, 20173 min readTeach account managers to trace evidence, question assumptions, review constraints and choose a customer action. Assess practical decisions rather than attendance or report-opening counts.
Nov 22, 20144 min readReview analytics vendor support expectations for unavailable reports, incorrect results and delayed data, distinguishing incident response, restoration and final resolution.
Nov 17, 20143 min readReview contractual ownership and permitted use separately for customer inputs, mappings, bespoke definitions, finished reports and vendor software or reusable methods.
Oct 18, 20114 min readDefine the inputs, mappings, measures, reviewed outputs and handover an analytics setup proposal should include, with clear exclusions and change boundaries.
Jun 8, 20103 min read