Skillwave Training

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Your #1 resource for online training on Power BI, Power Query, Power Pivot, and Excel. View our course catalog at skillwave.training/learn

Use code HOTDATA and get 25% off: - All courses at Skillwave.Training - Annual or Lifetime Pro Licenses at MonkeyTools.ca (Image of a woman sitting on the sand at the beach using a laptop) Valid July 1-31, 2026
Untangling ISO Weeks Into a Real Calendar Ken Puls built a student a quick custom Power Query function that unpacks any ISO week into real calendar dates. From there, he expanded the calendar to add other key periods for dimensional reporting. Screenshot of the Power Query editor with a table with 2 columns: Week ID (containing the ISO week codes) and Date (containing Lists). The formula bar contains the following function: =Table.AddColumn(#”Removed Columns”, “Date”, each fnISOWeekIDToDates ([Week ID])) Below the table is one of the expanded Lists containing the calendar dates for the corresponding ISO week code. (Skillwave Training logo)
Hot Data Summer Use code HOTDATA and get 25% off: - All courses at Skillwave.Training - Annual or Lifetime Pro Licenses at MonkeyTools.ca (Image of a woman sitting on the sand at the beach using a laptop) Valid July 1-31, 2026
Add-In to Sync Office Settings Across All Your Devices If you work on multiple devices, you know the pain of configuring options and dismissing notices on each machine. Ken Puls wrote a little add-in that syncs settings for Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Access. (Screenshot of the Office Sync settings Ken has configured for Word) (Skillwave Training logo)
News from the Data Monkey Brought to you by Excelguru and Skillwave (Image of a cyborg monkey in a superhero style crouch) July 14, 2026 In This Issue: - From the AKA Sessions - New video blog on automatically resizing Excel's formula bar - Monkey Tools Updates - What's New in Excel - Latest Meet-up Recording and Next Event Information - Upcoming Courses and Conferences - Available Training Options It's been an exciting few weeks as our team follows all of the World Cup action, and we're stoked that Vancouver was one of the host locations! Between watching matches, we managed to add a new module to the free Using Monkey Tools course, which cover the Formulas Monkeys. And just yesterday, we added three new products to our training catalog: Master Your Data: Power Query in a Day, VBA Launch Pad: Novice to Ninja, and an All Access Pass. More details on all are below.
Introducing our "All Access Pass" (Skillwave Training logo) (Image of a laptop on a desk with windows and greenery behind it. The laptop screen is displaying the Courses page of the Skillwave site.) (Microsoft Excel and Power BI icons) Get access to over 230 hours of course content, plus our twice-monthly ‘Ask Ken Anything’ sessions!
Learn the magic of Excel automation with Visual Basic for Applications VBA Launch Pad: From Novice to Ninja (Image of a laptop on a desk with a person's shoulder and arm to the right. The screen is displaying the Error Handling lesson of the course.) (Skillwave Training logo, Microsoft Excel icon, VBA icon)
If you need to learn one skill in Excel today, Power Query is it! (Image of a laptop on a desk with a bookcase behind. On the screen is displayed the course thumbnail for "Master Your Data: Power Query in a Day" and the Microsoft Excel icon is overlayed on the bottom right corner of the laptop) (Skillwave Training logo)
Hot Data Summer Use code HOTDATA and get 25% off: - All courses at Skillwave.Training - Annual or Lifetime Pro Licenses at MonkeyTools.ca (Image of a man sitting in the sand at the beach using a laptop) Valid July 1-31, 2026
Hot Data Summer Use code HOTDATA and get 25% off: - All courses at Skillwave.Training - Annual or Lifetime Pro Licenses at MonkeyTools.ca (Image of a man and a woman sitting at the beach using a tablet and laptop) Valid July 1-31, 2026
(Image of a woman in profile who is sitting at a table working on a laptop) Do you Need Microsoft Fabric or Just Power BI Pro? (Microsoft Fabric and Power BI icons) (Skillwave Training logo)
Hot Data Summer Use code HOTDATA and get 25% off: - All courses at Skillwave.Training - Annual or Lifetime Pro Licenses at MonkeyTools.ca (Image of a woman with a sunhat sitting in the sand next to the ocean with a laptop on her lap) Valid July 1-31, 2026
Start Mastering Your Data with our Free Intro Course! Power Query Fundamentals for Excel and Power BI "The course is well structured for a beginner, and the instructors were very helpful." J.S. (5 stars) "Really great overview of the content. Appreciated all the demos for practical application." A.B. (5 stars) skillwave.training (Skillwave Training logo)
Hot Data Summer Use code HOTDATA and get 25% off: - All courses at Skillwave.Training - Annual or Lifetime Pro Licenses at MonkeyTools.ca (Image of a man and a woman sitting at the beach using a tablet and laptop) Valid July 1-31, 2026
When Excel “Helpfully” Rewrites Your File Links… (Image of a man sitting at a desk in front of a laptop with his hands covering his face in frustration) (Skillwave Training logo)
Using Monkey Tools Learn about all of the amazing features of Monkey Tools with our FREE course! NEW CONTENT ADDED The Formula Monkeys module covers: - Formula Bar Monkey - dynamic expansion of the function bar for multi-row formulas - Indent Formula Monkey - quickly indent your formulas, making them easier to read - Letify Monkey - easily convert Excel formulas to use the LET() function (Image of a cyborg monkey jumping up in the air cheering with one fist raised) Register today at https://mkyt.ca/course
Tearing Down a Bridge (Table) (Image of a steel bridge over a river) Don’t feel locked in if your source data isn’t in a good format. Fix it with Power Query! (Skillwave Training logo)
News from the Data Monkey Brought to you by Excelguru and Skillwave (Image of a cyborg monkey in a superhero style crouch) June 23, 2026 In This Issue: • New video on using Group By in Power Query to reduce data load • Monkey Tools Updates • From the AKA Sessions • What's New in Power BI • Latest Meet-up Recording and Next Event Information • Upcoming Courses and Conferences • Available Training Options We're now officially into summer here on the West Coast of Canada, and our team has been juggling work between watching the World Cup! Ken has also led some training last week for both Chartered Professional Accountants of BC and for a private client. On a sad note, you may have seen the announcement that the Excelguru Help Forums will be officially closed on Friday, June 26, 2026. With AI taking a more prevalent role in answering user questions, the traffic to our forums has seen a sharp decrease over the past couple of years. We do not see this trend changing anytime in the near future. As such, continuing to run the forums is just no longer feasible, so we have made the difficult decision to close them down at the end of June.
Master Your Data in Excel & Power BI Remove Top x (Dynamic) Rows Recipe: - Find the intended “first” data point - Right-click the data point (in the grid) - Choose <data type> Filters -> Does Not Equal - Modify the formula in the formula bar Replace: Table.SelectRows( … With: Table.Skip( … (Image of cyborg monkey sitting on a block with its fist on its chin. A speech bubble next to it says, "The problem I have here is that “Account 1015” doesn’t always appear in row 5..." Below is is a screenshot of a worksheet with several rows of un-needed data above the row containing Account 1015.) This recipe will always eliminate all rows before the first instance of the selected value Recipe 20.150.2312 For more data patterns check out our course at www.skillwave.training
(Skillwave Training Logo) Why Skillwave? Our courses are created by experienced professionals for other professionals. The individuals who author our courses are respected experts in their field and have practical experience, like you. They hold professional designations such as Microsoft MVP, Microsoft MCT, or CPA, among others. (Caricatures of Matt Allington and Ken Puls with the letters FAQ between them) skillwave.training
Building a Self-Updating Cash Flow Forecast with Power Query Instead of manually copying and pasting weekly cash flow forecasts into a history table, Ken Puls used a self-referencing table paired with the Date.Add.Weeks function.Now, the historical record automatically grows with each refresh! (Screenshot of a worksheet showing the cascading forecast) (Skillwave Training logo)
Screenshot of the Data Model view in Power Query. The Sales table in the centre is surrounded by tables (in clockwise order) named Products, Territories, Calendar, and Customers.
Power BI and Excel training created especially for data professionals (Image of a smiling man and sitting in front of a computer in an office) (Skillwave Training logo)
News from the Data Monkey Brought to you by Excelguru and Skillwave (Image of a cyborg monkey in a superhero style crouch) June 9, 2026 In This Issue: - Latest Monkey Tools Updates - New video on creating a staged refresh process in Power Query - From the AKA Sessions - What's New in Excel - Latest Meet-up Recording and Next Event Information - Upcoming Courses and Conferences - Available Training Options Since returning from Global Excel Summit in the UK, Ken Puls has continued to reflect on the varied and interesting content presented at the conference. It was unbelievable fun connecting with old friends, meeting new ones, and generally geeking out on Excel together! Now that he's recovered from jetlag, Ken was able to get a batch of updates done on the Monkey Tools Excel add-in, something he'd been trying to do for a while. Read more about the updates below.
Are Excel Users Actually Software Developers? (Image of a smiling woman standing in front of a bank of computers with her arms crossed) (Skillwave Training logo)
Testimonial "It is a very comprehensive course. I especially like the Wireframe module and the consistent use of raw data - Staging - Load folders. This really makes a difference and this is something that I have never seen in any other course." Peter G. (5 stars) Self Service BI Academy for Excel and Power BI (Caricature of Ken Puls) Developed and delivered by Microsoft MVP and Chartered Professional Accountant, Ken Puls (Skillwave Training logo)
The best learning resources (Laptop icon with a speech bubble on the screen with a mortar-board hat inside it) (Skillwave Training logo)
Hardcoding Data in Power Query: Brilliant Move or Total Nightmare? (Image of a man facing ¾ away from us, working on a computer at a desk with a bookshelf above and a plant trailing down the side.) (Skillwave Training logo)
Don’t “Refresh All” at the Wrong Time What if your queries need to run in a specific order, or if the standard “Refresh All” overwrites data manually updated in between steps? Ken Puls’ solution sets up a controlled workflow: - Record macros for each individual query refresh. - Assign the macros to separate Form Control buttons, or to shapes, placed directly onto the worksheet. (Skillwave Training logo)
News from the Data Monkey Brought to you by Excelguru and Skillwave Training (Image of a cyborg monkey in a superhero style crouch) May 26, 2026 In This Issue: - New Video explaining join types in Power Query - From the AKA Sessions - What's New in Power BI - Latest Meet-up Recording and Next Event Information - Upcoming Courses and Conferences - Available Training Options Ken had an amazing time in London last week for the Global Excel Summit! Along with a fantastic line-up of speakers for the conference and connecting with friends old and new from around the world, Ken also delivered his 3-day live Self Service BI Boot Camp. There's nothing better than catching up with people in person - despite the jet lag! Now it's back to it at the office, prepping for a couple of courses with CPABC in June, as well as the regular 'Ask Ken Anything' sessions and user group meet-ups - full details on all the courses and events are below.
Make Your Report Header as Dynamic as Your Data How do I get my report header to automatically reflect the month I have selected on my timeline slicer? You can’t reference it with a formula. Instead, create a 2nd hidden PivotTable connected to the same timeline that returns the MAX date from the filtered period, and use a TEXT formula in the header cell to pull from the PivotTable. (Screenshot of a timeline slicer with the months Jul, Aug, and Sep selected. The header above the timeline reads “Sales vs Budget for the 3 months ended Sep 30, 2019”. Arrows highlight the number of months and the final month selected on the timeline up to the header. Below the timeline it says, “Read date from a timeline?”) (Skillwave Training logo)
Power Query... something everyone in finance, sales, and data analysis needs to know (Skillwave Training logo) An image of a woman with glasses working at a table on a laptop)
(Skillwave Training logo) Testimonial "I loved that it was easy to follow along." Y.C. (5 stars) Power BI for the Business Analyst Online (Caricature of Matt Allington) Registration includes digital editions of both of Matt Allington's best-selling books (Book covers for 'Supercharge Excel' and 'Supercharge Power BI') skillwave.training
News from the Data Monkey Brought to you by Excelguru and Skillwave Training (Image of a cyborg monkey in a superhero style crouch) May 12, 2026 In This Issue: - New Video on Tearing Down Bridges - New Article on Learning Power Query Over VBA - From the AKA Sessions - What's New in Excel - Latest Meet-up Recording and Next Event Information - Upcoming Courses and Conferences - Available Training Options It's been a busy few weeks as Ken was away doing some consulting and training for a private client, hosting our regular Vancouver Power BI and Modern Excel meet-ups, and helping students in the 'Ask Ken Anything' sessions. He's now getting ready to to leave for his trip to the Global Excel Summit in London, and there are only 2 seats left for his LIVE Self Service Business Intelligence Boot Camp! This hands-on course is designed to equip you with practical, scalable techniques to turn raw data into meaningful insights. This 3-day immersive training will deepen your skills in data modelling, Excel, Power Query, DAX, Power BI, and more.
When Two Steps are One Too Many There’s no getting around the two-step conversion from date-time data types to just plain dates... (Background image of the legs and feet of a cowboy and cowgirl dancing together) (Skillwave Training logo)
Master Your Data in Excel & Power BI Patter Difficulty: No Code (Easy) (Image of a cyborg monkey with its fist up in front of him for a fist bump) Standard Competition Ranking Recipe Initial Preparation: -Perform any possible preliminary cleanup -Set data types -Sort the [Fact] column > Descending -Sort any [Dimension] column(s) to order ties -Go to Add Column > Index Column > From 1 Group the Data: -Go to Transform > Group > Advanced -Group by the [Fact] column -Add new column names as follows: --Rank > Min > [Index] --Data > All Rows -Expand the [Dimension] field from the [Data] column -Re-order the columns if desired NOTE: Standard Competition Ranking records ties, leaving gaps in the ranking numbers AFTER sets of equal-ranking items (Screenshot of the Source table with sales information with the Fact and Dimension columns highlighted, and the Ranked table with the data sorted by the new Rank column) Learn about ranking methods: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranking Recipe 50.105
When AI Writes the Wrong Fix: A VBA Cautionary Tale Image of an open book. Page on left reads: "The actual fix took Ken about 60 seconds once he identified the root issue. All he had to do was rewrite the macro to use “Active Workbook” instead of “This Workbook. " Page on right reads: "The lesson here is one Ken comes back to often: AI can be a powerful coding assistant, but it needs context. Telling it where your code will live changes what it generates.." (Skillwave Training logo)
When AI Writes the Wrong Fix: A VBA Cautionary Tale Image of an open book. Page on left reads: "The macro was written using "This Workbook" instead of "Active Workbook". This meant it was adding sheets to the Personal Macro Workbook in error every time it ran. " Page on right reads: "Over time, this would have stacked up dozens of hidden sheets with no warning! The AI had treated the symptom, not the cause..." (Skillwave Training logo)
When AI Writes the Wrong Fix: A VBA Cautionary Tale Image of an open book. Page on left reads: "One of our students had been using an AI tool to help write a macro. Every time they closed Excel, it was prompting them to save their Personal Macro Workbook." Page on right reads: "The AI's solution? Just save the workbook at the end of the macro so it doesn’t prompt to save changes! However, Ken Puls spotted the real issue immediately..." (Skillwave Training logo)
Image of a book titled "When AI Writes the Wrong Fix: A VBA Cautionary Tale" by Ken Puls (Skillwave Training logo)
Claim this free video training today! (Skillwave Training logo) Power Query Academy - Fundamentals (Microsoft Excel and Power BI icons) Start Learning
Our promise: the best learning resources (Skillwave Training logo) (Image of a man sitting at a wooden table working on a laptop, with a whiteboard behind him and some notebooks next to him.)
News from the Data Monkey Brought to you by Excelguru and Skillwave (Image of a cyborg monkey in a super hero-style crouch) April 28, 2026 In This Issue: • New Video on Excel and Power BI Rounding Techniques • From the AKA Sessions • What's New in Power BI • Latest Meet-up Recording and Next Event Information • Upcoming Courses and Conferences • Available Training Options Ken is getting really excited to be heading to the UK in a few weeks for Global Excel Summit! It's going to be an amazing event, which includes the conference itself and a variety of masterclasses (like Ken's 3-day Self Service BI Boot Camp) - get your tickets today. Plus, there are only a couple of days left to vote for this year's Global Excel Awards, including for Ken in the Excel Training Provider of the Year category and Monkey Tools in the Best Excel Add-in category. We want to thank everyone who has already cast a vote, and ask anyone who hasn't to consider doing so by April 30, 2026.
Screenshot from the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” where a man in a cap has another man slung over his shoulder. The man being carried is labelled with “Custom Data Types” and has a speech bubble saying, “I’m not dead yet… I’m getting better.” The man with a cap is labelled with “Microsoft” and has a speech bubble saying, “No you’re not. You’ll be stone dead in a moment.”
Global Excel Awards - 3rd Edition Finalist: Training Provider of the Year Ken Puls (Headshot of Ken Puls and Skillwave Training logo) Vote For Me
I’m taking this time to learn Excel and Power BI (Skillwave Training logo) (Microsoft Excel and Power BI icons) (Image of a woman sitting in front of a laptop, looking straight into the camera with her chin on her hand)
Keep Your Power BI Refresh Alive with This Simple Trick PROBLEM: You have a report that runs quarterly, but the data refresh pauses every 60 days because lack of activity. SOLUTION: Set up a report subscription to send it as an email once a month. This counts as engagement and keeps the report active! (Screenshot of the Subscriptions dialog in Power BI, with it set up to send an email at the end of each month.) (Skillwave Training logo)
News from the Data Monkey Brought to you by Excelguru & Skillwave Training (Image of a cyborg monkey in a superhero style crouch) April 14, 2026 In This Issue: - New Video on Building a Weekly Forecast - History Using Power Query - From the AKA Sessions - What's New in Excel - Latest Meet-up Recording and Next Event Information - Upcoming Courses and Conferences - Available Training Options Spring is in full bloom here on the West Coast of Canada, and the team here has been excited to get out into the sunshine! We've been busy working on some special projects for private clients, welcoming new students to the Self Service BI and Excel Fundamentals Academy, and hosting the 'Ask Ken Anything' calls and Vancouver Power BI and Modern Excel Meet-ups. It's just a little over a month until Ken goes to the UK for Global Excel Summit and his 3-day Self Service BI Boot Camp, and tickets are still available. As part of the event, the Global Excel Awards will be announced at a special ceremony on May 20. Ken is a finalist for Training Provider of the Year and Monkey Tools is a finalist for Best Excel Add-in, and we want to give a big "thank you" to those who have supported us by voting. There's still time, public voting is open until April 30.
Check out our FREE course on Power Query! (Power Query Academy - Fundamentals) (Microsoft Excel and Power BI icons) Start Learning (Image of a guy at a table with a laptop wearing earbuds. He's looking over his shoulder towards us with a smile and pointing at his computer)
Testimonial Dimensional Modeling for the Excel and Power BI Pro "What I really enjoyed was diving deep into the different types of many-to-many relationships. It was fascinating to understand not just how they work, but also when they should—and shouldn’t—be used in a data model... I also liked how the material tied back to Power BI and Excel workflows—it made the learning directly applicable to real projects." Andrew K. (5 stars) (Skillwave Training logo) skillwave.training