If you can open Excel but freeze when someone asks for a SUM, this is the day that fixes it.
Who delivers this: Christopher Ross · Microsoft Excel trainer for working professionals · classroom and virtual training delivery since 2004 · MA Candidate, Learning and Technology, Royal Roads University
Excel 101 is the practical day for staff who use Excel because they have to, not because they like it. By the end of it you’ll write formulas without guessing, format a sheet that prints cleanly, and stop being the person who copies values when the formula stops working.
Who this is for
- Fit. Anyone who opens Excel a few times a week — admin, ops coordinators, finance assistants, project staff — and wants the basics to stop feeling like guesswork.
- Fit. Returning users who learned Excel a decade ago and have lost the thread.
- Not fit. Staff who already write SUMIFS, build charts, and use named ranges. That’s 201 territory — you’ll be bored.
Prerequisites: you can open a file and save it. You’ve used a spreadsheet at least once. That’s the bar.
What you’ll be able to do after
- Enter and edit data without breaking the workbook.
- Write SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, and a basic IF — and know when each one applies.
- Lock formulas with absolute references so they survive a copy-paste.
- Format a worksheet so a manager can read it without squinting.
- Set up a workbook for clean printing — page setup, scaling, headers.
What your manager will see different on Monday
- Fewer “the formula broke” Slack messages, because absolute references are no longer mysterious.
- Workbooks that print on one page instead of forty, with headers that show on every page.
- The monthly tracker comes back with running totals already in it — not values someone copied across after the formulas stopped working.
- Dates in a contact list sort as dates, and the leading zeros in phone numbers and postal codes survive a paste.
Curriculum, in four themed blocks
- Getting around the grid. The ribbon, navigating without the mouse, understanding what cells, ranges, and worksheets actually are. This sounds basic until you watch someone fight it.
- Data entry that won’t bite you. Types, autofill, fixing the small mistakes that cost an hour later — leading zeros, dates that turn into numbers, copy-paste that brings formatting you don’t want.
- Your first formulas. SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, IF. The Insert Function dialog when memory fails. Absolute references — the single concept that separates “Excel works” from “Excel keeps breaking.”
- Formatting and printing. Making a worksheet readable, setting up the print area, previewing before you print fifty pages.
Real examples we’ll work through
- A monthly expense tracker with running totals.
- A simple invoice that calculates tax and totals automatically.
- A contact list that sorts properly — including the date columns that usually don’t.
Format, duration, and pricing
Most teams take 101 as a single full-day class — six hours, virtual or onsite. Pricing is by format and travel zone, not by group size, and is uniform across all five Excel levels.
| Format | Investment (CAD) |
|---|---|
| Half-day (3 hours, focused) | $1,495 |
| Full-day (6 hours, comprehensive) | $2,495 |
| Two half-days (split across one week) | $2,795 |
| In-person delivery within Niagara / GTA: add $500/day. Teams larger than 12, custom curriculum, or multi-cohort rollouts — let’s scope it. | |
Where this fits in the Microsoft Excel ladder
Shaped for: Anyone new to Excel or returning after long enough that the muscle memory is gone.
From here, the most common next steps:
- Microsoft Excel Training 201 — the natural next step once the basics are comfortable.
The full training catalogue shows how the Microsoft Office courses sit alongside the WordPress training track.
Upcoming
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