Business Data Analytics & Advanced Excel · Beginner level

Beginner level · Module 1 of 5 · 10 guided hours

Clean Data for Business Analysis

Understand the analyst's workflow, structure data for analysis and clean real business records reliably.

Learning objectives

  • Describe the business data analysis workflow
  • Structure data in tidy, analysable tables
  • Clean data with Excel tools and document every change

Topics

  • questions, data, analysis, report
  • tidy data structure
  • consistent data entry
  • duplicates and inconsistent values
  • Remove Duplicates, Flash Fill, Text to Columns
  • cleaning logs

Lessons

  1. Lesson 1 The Analyst's Workflow

    See how business analysis moves from a question to data, analysis and a report that supports a decision.

    business questiondata sourceanalysisreport and decision

  2. Lesson 2 Structuring Data for Analysis

    Lay data out so Excel, PivotTables and Power BI can analyse it, and design entry sheets that stay clean.

    one row per recordone column per fieldno merged cells or subtotalsdata validation

  3. Lesson 3 Cleaning Business Data

    Find and fix common data problems with Excel tools, and document every change.

    duplicatesinconsistent categoriestext dates and numberscleaning log

Practical activity

Clean a quarter of messy sales records — duplicate rows, inconsistent branch names, text dates, totals mixed into the data — and keep a cleaning log.

Expected outcomes

  • Data ready for analysis
  • A repeatable cleaning routine

Assessment

Cleaning practical: remaining errors are counted and the cleaning log is reviewed.

Free taster lesson Data Entry & Cleaning Read a free self-study lesson on this topic in the Free Course Library.

Taught live by an instructor — online or in person. Free course lessons are for self-study and do not lead to a certificate — see registration options.