Mastering Excel: a Roadmap for the Average Modeller
Microsoft Excel continues to evolve at an incredible pace. The introduction of new features and functions like Dynamic Arrays, LET and LAMBDA open up a whole new world of possibilities for modellers. Those at the cutting edge of these Excel features are more excited than they’ve ever been. But what about the vast majority of Excel users who still struggle with the basics? How can they keep up, and how can we, as a global community, help them cut through the hype? Watch to hear from financial modeller Giles Male, co-founder at Full Stack Modeller during his visit to Sydney.
Power Automate is part of the Power Platform on Microsoft 365 and is being promoted as the new low-code no-code tools for the business user. You can set up workflows between Excel and Teams, Sharepoint, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Trello and hundreds of other third-party apps using Power Apps.
The Full Stack financial modelling community have been working collectively to “solve” the problem of creating flexible rolling monthly forecasts that can cater for new periods of actuals. This is an area of modelling that thousands of businesses and modellers can relate to, and that many find extremely time-consuming and frustrating. 
Major improvements are being made with Microsoft Excel Online. It is completely free, works on any browser and is particularly useful if you need to share files and collaborate with others. It’s basically a slimmed-down version of Excel and although Microsoft is constantly working to improve the functionality, what we want to know is *can we use Excel Online yet for financial modelling?* 
Have you ever built a fantastic Excel model only to have the user “break” it almost straight away? Building a model widely available for anyone to use is very different process to building one for other modellers. If your model is going to be operated by non-Excel users, the challenge is to build a robust model that will stand the test of time but is simple for others to follow as well as bullet-proof so that they can’t mess it up. 
Following on from “I didn’t know Excel could do THAT”, join us once again to hear from Excel legend Bob Umlas who will take us through some of his best Excel tips and tricks. Prepare to be amazed! Bob received the first ever Microsoft Excel MVP award back in 1993, continued to receive it for 25 years after that and is still the longest-running MVP. 
Many data projects “fail,” because leaders start projects with unrealistic expectations and lapses in communication.
The pace of technical innovation for financial modellers is accelerating. Although Microsoft Excel remains the best tool for deals modelling, recent innovations are augmenting, enhancing and going beyond the ordinary Excel spreadsheet.
