Learning Paths: Basic, Intermediate and Expert

Choose a route based on what you can do today—not on a label. Every path uses practical work: a real spreadsheet, a repeatable report, a small automation or a check you can apply at work.

Basic: build confidence with the essentials

Start here if you are learning the tools, have inherited a workbook, or want a reliable foundation before automating anything. The aim is to understand the screen, make safe edits and verify your output.

Intermediate: solve repeatable work problems

Choose this level when you can follow a process but want to make it faster, more reliable and easier to hand over. Build a clean data model, a refreshable report or an automation with checks.

Expert: design, control and scale

Expert work is not merely harder formulas. It means designing an approach that another person can check, maintain and use safely. Start with a defined business problem, document assumptions, add reconciliations and test failure cases.

How to use a learning path

  1. Pick one route and complete one lesson with your own small sample file.
  2. Keep a copy of your before-and-after output.
  3. Write down what failed and why; that becomes your next lesson.
  4. Move up a level when you can explain and repeat the work, not just when you finish a page.

For quick answers, browse the Excel, Automation, ERP and Wacky World sections. Longer pillar guides are being expanded from the short posts previously published on the site.