Microsoft Excel Data Analysis and Business Modeling

I have used many Excel how-to manuals over the years, and I can say unequivocally that this is the most high-end product available for Excel business modeling. The content in this book is the type of material that you would learn in an Ivy League MBA program (~$100k in tuition) or at a top consulting firm after years experience -- all for the price of a textbook. The pedigree of the author is incredible, both academically and industry-wise, and I truly felt as if I was learning from the preeminent guy in the field. I think the biggest advantage of this book over similar products is that the author uses real-life examples that he has encountered in his decades of consulting experience in industry to teach the reader complex modeling from finance to supply chain to sports analytics. Unlike other material I have used, the author is adept at engaging the reader and making you feel like he is talking directly to you. I am a consultant at one of the most notable firms in the world, and this book has become the secret weapon that differentiates me from my peers.Pros:1. The examples are laid out very well and the author provides files that you can download to follow along with;2. The author does not use boring examples like comparable products, yet real-life problems that the reader can relate to;3. The author has a tremendous pedigree and can be considered an expert in his field;4. The material in this book has made me the premier Excel guy at my organization that everyone comes to in order to solve problems.Cons:1. I feel like the author is someone that knows "a lot about a lot" and he tends to hold back on some topics just because his publisher probably imposes a page count limit on him;2. The book is a large soft-back textbook, but it is still very portable.

This book is very thorough. It will teach you everything excel is capable of doing, from a novice to a pro. But it is only geared toward Excel tools, very little mention on Power Pivot and some of the newer technology incorporated into excel. I thought it being the 2016 version, it would cover the new stuff in detail, but instead it seems to be complicated formulas and charts.

Make sure you read the TOC before purchasing it. I thought it was a book teaching PowerQuery and some BI information. I made a mistake so...it taught me a lesson. Unless this is exactly what you want, go for it.

The content is great, you're going to learn a lot from this book. The book is huge which isn't a problem, but something you should note if you're deciding between the print and kindle versions. My main issues are with the format of the book and example problems.First, I find it strange that they don't include a short chapter at the beginning about shortcuts. They probably did this because they didn't want to include both Windows and Mac shortcuts.My recommendation to the author: Include a tear-out shortcut page in the beginning of the book for readers to reference.Second, the example workbooks are inconsistent. All examples include a workbook with the solutions filled in, but only some examples offer a blank workbook for you to fill in yourself. In the cases where there is only the solved workbook available, it is easy enough to clear the cells yourself, but it spoils the fun a bit.However, the main issue is that every example is in a separate workbook. Including a separate workbook for both the solutions and the blank workbooks. When you have 6+ examples per chapter, you have to open a minimum of 11 workbooks per chapter for 89 chapters which seems excessive. If you have the "Enable Editing" prompt enabled within Office, you will have to enable editing on each workbook individually which can be a pain.My recommendation to the author: 1 workbook per chapter. Include separate sheets for each example and solution.My recommendation to readers: Disable the "Enable Editing" promptFinally, there are some sloppy errors in the wording of some of the examples. For example, in one of the chapters they are talking about doing a 10 year forecast, but halfway through the example they switch from years to months. It's not that big of a deal, but it's this inattention to detail that makes you question the author's credibility.My recommendation to John Pierce: As the editor, you should probably be more attentive if the author is going to name-drop you in the acknowledgments.Even with these problems, I still have no problem recommending this book. If the author fixes these issues, I will gladly give this book 5/5. As it is now, this is a 3 star book.

If you are interested in learning how to model with Excel then this is a very good reference. Covers a lot of ground from the basic Excel functions used to create pretty robust models. A step by step approach and examples online, the reader who is willing to invest time should get a lot of benefit from the work.

This is not a good copy that I received. The pages are falling off because the glue wasn't held tight enough. It's like I'm reading two books that I try putting together to one book by myself and it failed...It is a huge inconvenience reading the pages after this as it tries to flip its way back to close the book.Other than this, the pages are good although some edges of the book got wrecked during shipment but not bad at all. If it wasn't for this glue thing, I would have kept the book, but I'm returning it and getting a new one.

Practical hands on exercises with data that works excellently. Only problem is there are online resources that are free these days in YouTube that perform better for the more basic concepts but may not meet the thoroughness for complex problems as seen in this book. Try the YouTube channel "Excelisfun" if interested.

I brought this book to support the Microsoft Data Science course. Although the content is clear, concise and easy to follow I wish I had not brought the Kindle version and actually went for a physical copy

For: Excellent book, each section is comprehensive, well explained and you will learn new tricks of the trade even from the earlier chapters. This is aimed at intermediate to advanced Excel users, I have plenty of macro experience but have learnt a lot about the applications of fundamental formulae and Excel shortcuts from this book. The format of the book is to answer a series of questions with worked solutions in each chapter. There are a number of Problems (up to 37 at the end of each section) which are very useful for testing, honing, and expanding upon skills learnt using downloadable Excel content.Against: Inconsistencies in the problems sections lets the book down slightly- some of the solution files have minor errors, there doesn't appear continuity in style throughout and some of the finance worked questions are overly complex and may require further research to complete.

This is a great book. It is a bit more advanced, but the techniques in this book are the same that the largest companies in the world use. This isn't a book that says, this is what a VLOOKUP does. This is a book that answers questions like, how can a company maximize profit by minimizing costs and with limited resources (labour and resources).

Very good book, full of details and knowledge.

This book for is fantastic for Learn-It-Yourself.