Lesson 6 — Automation & Efficiency
Analysts waste hours every week on tasks that should take 10 seconds. Automation is not about replacing you — it’s about making your insight cycle **faster, cleaner, and leadership-ready**.
Key idea:
If you repeat a task more than twice… it should already be automated.
1. Quick Automation Wins (10 seconds → 0 seconds)
- Auto-Fill Formats: Create a template sheet with headers, borders, colors.
- Reusable Formulas: Save common patterns (SUMIFS, INDEX/MATCH, FILTER).
- Named Ranges: Automate references so formulas never break.
- One-Click Cleaning: Use SUBSTITUTE, CLEAN, TRIM inside one formula cluster.
These reduce manual work — but the next step is systemising.
2. Power Query — Clean Data on Autopilot
Power Query is your **data washing machine**. You drop data in → you get structured, clean insight-ready tables out.
- Import CSV/Excel without manual copy-paste
- Remove blank rows, trim text, fix types (automatically)
- Create a step-by-step cleaning recipe you can refresh anytime
Leadership Benefit:
Leaders trust data more when they know the cleaning steps never change.
3. Refreshable Dashboards — The Analyst Superpower
A refreshable dashboard turns one week of work into a one-click weekly update.
- Design a clean input sheet
- Connect tables to pivot charts
- Automate slicers for trend views
- Add an “Insight Box” summarising what changed
Tip: Keep dashboards minimal.
More color ≠ more insight.
4. Error-Proofing Your Files
Leaders hate surprises. Your job is to build files that never break.
- Lock formulas
- Use data validation
- Turn off gridlines for summaries
- Create warnings when inputs are missing
Worksheet #6 — Automation Starter Sheet
Download the practice sheet and automate 3 tasks you currently do manually.
Download Worksheet #6 →
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