If you own a forecast or a budget, this is the layer where your assumptions stop being buried in cell B47.
Who delivers this: I’ve delivered classroom, virtual, and onsite training across North America since 2004, twenty-two years. MA Candidate, Learning and Technology, Royal Roads.
Excel 302 is the modelling and audit day for staff who have moved past summarizing data into using it for decisions. It teaches reference discipline, what-if scenarios, Solver-based optimization, and the auditing skills you need to trust any spreadsheet, including ones you’ve inherited.
Who this is for
- Fit. Finance staff, analysts, operations leads, and managers who own a forecast, budget, allocation, or pricing model.
- Fit. Anyone who has inherited a multi-tab workbook from a predecessor and needs to trust it.
- Not fit. Staff still building comfort with named ranges or basic lookups; 201 and 301 are the right ground first. And if the goal is automating a recurring report from raw exports rather than testing assumptions, that’s Power Query, which is 401.
Prerequisites: 201-fluent at a minimum, 301 ideally. Comfortable with named ranges, structured references, and the difference between absolute and relative references.
What you’ll be able to do after
- Build models with reference discipline that survive insertions, deletions, and copy-paste.
- Run multiple what-if scenarios, compare them, and produce scenario reports.
- Project figures with Goal Seek and Data Tables (one- and two-variable).
- Set up Solver problems with constraints and read the resulting reports.
- Audit any inherited workbook: trace precedents, evaluate formulas, fix errors, watch critical cells.
The day, block by block
- Build a model that doesn’t crack when someone edits it. Absolute, mixed, named, and structured references, why models break, how to spot the cell that did it, and how to design models that hold up.
- Show a decision-maker three futures, not three guesses. Scenario Manager, comparing scenarios, and generating scenario reports that stand up as evidence.
- Work backwards from the number you need to hit. Goal Seek for single-input targets, Data Tables (one- and two-variable) for sensitivity analysis, and when to use which.
- Let Excel find the best answer under real constraints. Solver: defining objective cells, setting constraints, choosing the right solving method, reading Solver reports, and refining the model.
- Trust a workbook you didn’t build. Tracing precedents and dependents, evaluating formulas step by step, locating and correcting errors, and using the Watch Window for critical cells. When I audit an inherited workbook with a group, the cell I go looking for first is the hard-coded number sitting inside a formula, the growth rate or tax figure someone typed straight into the math years ago and never wrote down anywhere. That buried assumption is usually the one nobody in the room can explain, and it is almost always where the model has been quietly lying to its owners.
Real examples we’ll work through
- A pricing model with 5%, 10%, and 15% margin scenarios: same workbook, three named scenarios, one comparison report.
- A warehouse allocation problem solved with Solver: 6 sources, 4 destinations, supply and demand constraints.
- An audit of an inherited 30-tab budget workbook, finding the broken precedent on day one.
The discipline I push hardest in this room is getting every assumption out of the formulas and into labelled input cells where a reader can see them. I push it because a model you cannot explain is a model you cannot defend, and sooner or later someone senior will ask you to defend it.
Format, duration, and pricing
302 runs as a full-day class, or as a two-day onsite workshop when an inherited workbook is the working example, where the extra day pays for itself in audit findings. Many teams pair 302 with 301 (analysis) for a back-to-back two-day block. Pricing is the same across the 101 through 302 levels. (401 is a separately scoped track and priced on its own page.)
| Format | From price (CAD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full-day class (6 hr) | from $1,495 | Up to 3 participants; $175 each additional (maximum 10) |
| Two-day onsite workshop | from $2,990 | Up to 3 participants; $175 each additional (maximum 10) |
CAD. Travel within 50 km of Fort Erie included; beyond 50 km, travel and accommodation are billed at cost. Final scope and quote confirmed on the discovery call.
Where this fits in the Microsoft Excel ladder
Shaped for: Forecast and budget owners working with financial modelling, scenarios, and formula auditing.
Most learners come here from: Microsoft Excel Training 201.
302 is the capstone of the core Excel track: the decision-grade modelling and audit skills the 101 through 301 days build toward. From here the move isn’t a higher number doing more of the same. It’s 401, where the focus shifts from trusting one model to automating the reporting around it with Power Query and dashboards.
The full training catalogue shows how the Microsoft Office courses sit alongside the WordPress training track.