01
Totals that look reasonable
A total can look right and still be wrong. Spreadsheet error research finds mistakes are common and that the people who build workbooks tend to be overconfident about them.
Camderson Academy · CA-TD-001
Build Excel workbooks you can trust.
A practical, self-paced course for business professionals and small business owners who use Excel but never learned it properly. Lay out clean data, write core formulas, use tables and lookups, summarize with PivotTables, build a one-page dashboard and check your numbers before anyone else sees them.
About 6 hours · 20 lessons with video · Beginner · Self-paced · Certificate of completion · 30-day money-back guarantee
Most business workbooks are built by people who were never taught how.
02
Inherited workbooks nobody understands
Merged cells, typed-over totals and formulas that stop short of the last row make an inherited workbook hard to update and harder to trust.
03
Hours lost to copy and paste
Retyping lookups, fixing dates and rebuilding the same summary every month takes time that tables, lookups and PivotTables give back.
Learning outcomes
What you will be able to do
Ten practical outcomes, each practiced in a workbook exercise and checked in the final assessment or the capstone.
- Explain why business workbooks need checks, and lay out data in a clean structure that prevents unwanted automatic conversions.
- Write formulas with correct operators, order of operations and relative, absolute and mixed references.
- Summarize and test data with SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, COUNTA, MIN, MAX, ROUND, IF, IFS, AND and OR.
- Calculate conditional totals, counts and averages with SUMIFS, COUNTIFS and AVERAGEIFS, and cross-check them.
- Organize data in Excel tables with structured references, retrieve values with XLOOKUP (and read VLOOKUP in older files), and clean text and dates.
- Protect data quality with data validation, sorting, filtering, safe duplicate handling and conditional formatting.
- Summarize data with PivotTables and introductory dynamic array functions: UNIQUE, FILTER and SORT.
- Choose charts that fit the question and build a one-page dashboard that prints legibly.
- Find and fix common error values without hiding them, and protect and share workbooks appropriately.
- Build and check a business tracker workbook with a simple monthly routine.
The Camderson method
Teaching tools for workbooks you can trust
The Clean Data Rules
One header row · One row per record · One fact per column · One kind of data per column · Nothing else inside the data
Five rules for laying out data before any formula, so totals, lookups, filters and PivotTables work the first time and keep working as the list grows.
The One-Page Dashboard Frame
Question · Headline numbers · Charts · Context · Print
Start from the question the reader asked, show four to six formula-driven headline numbers and a chart whose title states the point, add the As Of date and source, and make it print on one page.
Three Checks and a Second Look
Count check · Cross-foot check · Spot check · Second look
Confirm the row count, check that the parts add up to the whole, recompute a key result by hand and ask a second person to trace the formulas behind the numbers that matter most.
A monthly routine
Keep raw copies · Append and remove duplicates · Refresh · Check · Update the As Of date
The same short routine every month keeps a tracker accurate as new data arrives, so the numbers you report next month are as trustworthy as this month's.
Check before you share.
Curriculum
Inside the course
Seven modules, 20 lessons with worked examples and video
01
Workbook Foundations
Why spreadsheet errors happen and how checks catch them, workbook parts and data types, the Clean Data Rules, stopping unwanted automatic conversions, and formulas with relative, absolute and mixed references.
02
Core Formulas
SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT and their cousins, blanks versus zeros, decisions with IF, IFS, AND and OR, and conditional totals with SUMIFS, COUNTIFS and AVERAGEIFS that you cross-check.
03
Tables and Lookups
Excel tables and structured references that grow with your data, XLOOKUP with a clear not-found message, VLOOKUP in older files, and cleaning text and dates.
04
Keep Data Clean
Data validation and drop-down lists, sorting and filtering without breaking rows, a safe routine for duplicates, and conditional formatting that highlights what matters.
05
PivotTables and Dynamic Arrays
Building a PivotTable from a table, grouping dates, percentages and refresh, and a first look at UNIQUE, FILTER and SORT.
06
Charts and a One-Page Dashboard
Choosing the chart that fits the question, honest chart design, and a one-page dashboard with formula-driven headline numbers that prints legibly.
07
Accurate, Protected and Shared
Finding and fixing error values without hiding them, protecting and sharing workbooks, and your Business Tracker with three checks, a second look and a monthly routine.
What is included
Everything you need to build workbooks you can trust
- 20 lessons, each with a written lesson, worked examples and diagrams, and a narrated lesson video, at your own pace
- Seven practice workbooks, one per module, with shaded input cells and check cells that tell you when you have it right
- Worked solution workbooks for every module, where every result is a live formula
- A Workbook Guide with Try it and Reflect pages for every lesson, the Clean Data Rules and Three Checks checklists, a dashboard planner and a monthly routine planner
- Formula Quick Reference Cards: twelve one-page cards from operators and references to lookups, PivotTables, charts and error checks
- Practice data from Larkfield Coffee Roasters, a fictional small-batch coffee roaster with cafe, online and wholesale sales, so you can practice every step without business data of your own
- An optional visual companion PDF with the course diagrams
- Knowledge checks for every module and a 20-question final assessment
- The Business Tracker workbook, an applied capstone reviewed by a person, with a starter workbook
- A Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion when you pass the final assessment and the capstone
- Access to the Camderson Academy community
Is this course right for you?
This course is for you if
- You use Excel at work but never learned it properly, and you want to trust the numbers you report
- You own or run a small business and track sales, costs or invoices in spreadsheets
- You have inherited workbooks from someone else and want to clean them up, check them and keep them running
It is not the right fit if
- You already build PivotCharts, slicers, the Data Model or interactive dashboards (CA-TD-002 Advanced Excel: Formulas, PivotTables and Dashboards builds on this course)
- You want to learn macros, VBA or Power Query (this course does not cover them)
- You need a Microsoft certification exam prep course (this course earns a Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion, not a Microsoft certification)
Your instructor
Meet your instructor
Ruben Tejada
MA, MS, PHR
Managing Partner · Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness
Ruben Tejada is a strategic advisor and organizational leader whose career spans healthcare, public service, human resources, operations, and learning and development. He has advised executives and leaders on leadership development, talent development, employee experience, culture and succession planning, and has led initiatives to strengthen leadership accountability and build workforce capability. That work gives him a practical view of how trust is earned and how good processes help people do their best work. In this course he helps you build workbooks you can trust, with clean data, sound formulas and simple checks you can keep running every month.
About
About Camderson Academy
Camderson Academy is the education division of Camderson Advisory Services. Camderson helps leaders build organizations that work without them in the room. Everything we teach has been used in a real organization first.
Training a team?
We offer group enrollment for operations, finance and administrative teams that want everyone to build and check workbooks the same way. Email connect@camderson.com to talk through your team.
Frequently asked questions
Which version of Excel do I need?
The course is written for Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows, with notes where Excel 2024, 2021, 2019 and 2016, Excel for the web and Excel for Mac differ. A few features, such as XLOOKUP and the dynamic array functions, need a recent version; the lessons show what to use instead in older versions.
I use Excel every day. Is this too basic?
It starts with the foundations, because most spreadsheet problems start there, then moves quickly to tables, lookups, PivotTables, dynamic arrays, charts, a dashboard and a checking routine. Many everyday users find the clean data layout, references and checks change how much they trust their workbooks.
How long do I have access?
Your access does not expire. We review the course regularly, and any updates are added for you at no extra cost.
How long does it take?
About 6 hours in total, including the written lessons and their videos, the exercises in the practice workbooks, the knowledge checks, the final assessment and the capstone. Everything is self-paced.
Do I need my own business data?
No. Every exercise and the capstone can be done with the fictional Larkfield Coffee Roasters practice data. If you use your own data, the course shows you how to leave out names and other confidential details.
Is the certificate accredited, or a Microsoft certification?
Neither. You receive a Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion after passing the final assessment and the capstone, a Business Tracker workbook that a person reviews. It is not an academic credential, does not carry continuing education or other professional credit, and is not a Microsoft certification.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Yes. You are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. If the course is not right for you, email connect@camderson.com within 30 days of purchase and we will refund you in full. No questions asked. Your course access ends when the refund is issued.
What tools do I need?
A computer with Microsoft Excel. The practice workbooks, solutions, guide and reference cards are included as downloads.
Build it clean, check it, then share it.
Self-paced, about 6 hours, with practice workbooks, worked solutions, a Workbook Guide and Formula Quick Reference Cards to help you lay out clean data, write core formulas, use tables and lookups, summarize with PivotTables, build a one-page dashboard and check your numbers.
Backed by our 30-day money-back guarantee.
This course earns a Camderson Academy Certificate of Completion. It is not an academic credential and does not carry continuing education or other professional credit. This course is not a Microsoft certification. Microsoft and Excel are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies; this course is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.