Microsoft Excel Training 201

You know SUM. You can format a sheet. Now your boss wants charts that aren’t ugly, formulas that survive a column insert, and a macro that handles the Monday report.

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 201 is the day staff stop being users and start being people the team asks. The course teaches the formula logic, linking discipline, chart craft, and starter automation that turn an everyday Excel user into someone the team relies on.

Who this is for

• Ô£ôFit. Staff who completed 101 or are self-taught up to formulas, formatting, and basic ribbon navigation.
• Ô£ôFit. Coordinators, finance assistants, sales-ops staff, and team leads who own a recurring report.
• Ô£ùNot fit. Anyone who writes SUMIFS without thinking and builds PivotTables in their sleep — take 301.

Prerequisites: 101-fluent. You can write a SUM, format a sheet, and copy a formula across rows without it breaking.

What you’ll be able to do after

• Build IF and IFS logic — single-condition and multi-condition decisions inside formulas.
• Link workbooks safely, repair broken links, and know which links to avoid.
• Build charts that communicate at a glance — including sparklines for tight reporting.
• Apply data validation, sheet protection, and templates to keep team workbooks clean.
• Record, edit, and run your first macros without writing code from scratch.

What your manager will see different on Monday

• The weekly report comes back with a chart that reads at a glance, not a 3D pie with twelve slices.
• Formulas survive a column insert without anyone having to rebuild them.
• The Monday formatting job that used to take 25 minutes now takes one click, because the macro is on the toolbar.
• Branch workbooks that link to the regional summary stop breaking quietly when someone moves a file.
• Sheets the team shares come back protected where they should be, so the formula cells stop getting overwritten by accident.

Curriculum, in five themed blocks

1. Formula logic that survives. IF, IFS, nested decisions, named ranges, structured references. Why your formulas break when someone inserts a column — and how to fix that for good.
2. Linked workbooks. Where links break, how to trace them, when to break them on purpose. Source-of-truth discipline for files that depend on other files.
3. Charts that communicate. Picking the right chart, formatting without overdoing it, annotating with notes and text boxes, sparklines for compact reporting.
4. Worksheet hygiene. Range names, data validation, worksheet security, outlining, workbook templates — the boring topics that prevent loud mistakes.
5. Your first macro. Plan, record, run, edit, save responsibly. Adding a macro button to the Quick Access Toolbar so the team can use it without thinking about it.

Real examples we’ll work through

• A budget-vs-actual chart with sparklines that updates monthly.
• A regional summary linked from three branch workbooks with a repair plan when one path changes.
• A macro that formats a weekly export — same actions, one click.

Format, duration, and pricing

Most teams take 201 as a single full-day class — six hours, virtual or onsite. Mixed-skill groups take a quick pre-class skills check at no extra cost so the pacing works for everyone. Pricing is uniform across all five Excel levels.

Training investment — up to 12 participants

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: Everyday Excel users ready for the intermediate surface — advanced formulas, linked workbooks, charts, first macros.

Most learners come here from: Microsoft Excel Training 101.

From here, the most common next steps:

• Microsoft Excel Training 301 — if you do data analysis — tables, PivotTables, slicers, dynamic arrays.
• Microsoft Excel Training 302 — if you do financial modelling — what-if scenarios, Goal Seek, Solver, formula auditing.

The full training catalogue shows how the Microsoft Office courses sit alongside the WordPress training track.

Common questions

How do you price this for a team?

Private on-site training: $2,250 per day for up to 3 participants, $175 per additional participant (maximum 10). Half-day: $1,400. Travel within 50 km of Fort Erie is included; beyond that, travel is billed at cost. Remote delivery: $1,800 per day. After a short discovery call I confirm the format, recommend the right starting level, and send a fixed quote.

Can you tailor this to our team's actual workbooks and templates?

Yes. If you can send me a sanitised example or two before the day — a real workbook, a recurring report, the spreadsheet someone always asks about — I build the exercises around it. People learn faster when the examples are theirs, and the workbook usually goes back to the team in better shape than it arrived.