Advanced Excel Skills for Automation — Lesson 2: Power Query, PivotTables and Refreshable Reporting

Learning Objectives

• Create Power Query transformations, reusable queries, refresh steps, PivotTables, charts, and dashboards
• Design repeatable reporting workflows with parameters, dependencies, error handling, and source reconciliation
• Validate power query, pivottables and refreshable reporting decisions with documented requirements, evidence, risk controls, and measurable acceptance criteria

Detailed Topics

• Create Power Query transformations: Create Power Query transformations, reusable queries, refresh steps, PivotTables, charts, and dashboards
• Design repeatable reporting workflows with parameters: Design repeatable reporting workflows with parameters, dependencies, error handling, and source reconciliation
• Validate power query: Validate power query, pivottables and refreshable reporting decisions with documented requirements, evidence, risk controls, and measurable acceptance criteria

Guided Demonstration

1. Review the requirement, users, data, dependencies, permissions, risks, and expected result.
2. Demonstrate the relevant configuration, development, analysis, administration, testing, or operational workflow step by step.
3. Capture settings, outputs, logs, screenshots, calculations, test results, and other useful evidence.
4. Compare the observed result with acceptance criteria and explain any corrective action.

Hands-On Activity

Complete a guided implementation scenario and preserve evidence of settings, outputs, and exceptions.

• Document assumptions, prerequisites, and the planned sequence before starting.
• Complete the activity and preserve evidence of normal, boundary, and failure behavior.
• Record issues, corrective actions, reusable notes, and the next improvement priority.

Scenario Analysis

• Identify the business or technical decision that must be made.
• Compare valid implementation approaches and their trade-offs.
• Consider security, privacy, accessibility, performance, support, and operational impact.

Troubleshooting Focus

• Separate symptoms from causes and collect evidence before applying a fix.
• Check configuration, data, permissions, dependencies, capacity, connectivity, and recent changes.
• Validate rollback, recovery, ownership, user impact, and business continuity.

Validation Checklist

• The requirement, scope, inputs, and expected outcome are clear.
• The selected design or configuration is documented and follows approved standards.
• Normal, boundary, failure, security, accessibility, and operational conditions are reviewed.
• The result is supported by evidence and the next improvement is prioritized.

Lesson Outcome

Learners can explain and apply Power Query, PivotTables and Refreshable Reporting in a realistic scenario and validate the result with documented evidence.