Power Query for Excel Users: A practical guide to cleaning, transforming, and automating Excel data with Power Query

Learn Power Query in Excel to clean and automate business data: repeatable workflows for business users, with tips for using AI tools. No coding required

Free with your book: DRM-free PDF version + access to Packt’s next-gen Reader*

Key Features

• Learn Power Query step by step, starting from everyday Excel tasks and building up gradually
• Organize messy data and combine files from common business sources using repeatable workflows
• Get practical tips for using AI tools like ChatGPT alongside your Power Query workflows

Book Description

If you spend hours every week copying, cleaning, and combining spreadsheets, Power Query will improve how you work, permanently.

In Power Query for Excel and Business Users, you follow Quinn, a newly hired data analyst at Northbridge Office Group, through realistic business scenarios that any business user will recognize. This book uses Quinn’s journey to make Power Query accessible and relatable. With beginners in mind, a very basic Excel knowledge is all you need to start.

As you work through the book, you’ll learn how to clean up messy data, combine files from different systems, and automate the recurring steps that eat up your time every week.

Beyond the basics, you’ll also learn how to use LLMs (like ChatGPT) to accelerate your data work through tested prompt templates without compromising data quality or trust.

By the end of the book, you’ll have a strong foundation in data preparation that not only improves your daily Excel work but also prepares you to move confidently toward tools like Power BI and Microsoft Fabric.

What you will learn

• Use Power Query’s UI to import and clean data without coding
• Automate everyday tasks—split, merge, pivot, and reshape data
• Combine files from multiple sources reliably
• Use AI prompts safely to speed up transformations
• Create reusable workflows that your team can refresh themselves
• Build foundational concepts that transfer to Power BI and Microsoft Fabric
• Handle and fix messy organizational data

Who this book is for

This book is written for office managers, executive assistants, project/operations coordinators, and finance and HR professionals. Anyone who works with data, not just data specialists. It’s perfect for those who spend hours cleaning and combining files, tracking KPIs, or making sense of complex spreadsheets. No coding experience required: if you know how to open Excel and use basic formulas, you’re ready to start.

Table of Contents

1. Power Query Basics in Excel (ETL + UI Tour)
2. Transform Daily Excel Tasks with Power Query
3. Connect and Standardize Common Business Sources
4. Build Reliable Step Chains and Read M Passively
5. Build Reusable Reports with PivotTables
6. Combine and Clean Registration Exports
7. Combine and Reshape Attendance Logs
8. Merge Tables to Build Master_Attendees
9. Join and Lookup Data Safely Without a Data Model
10. Automate Repetitive Processes
11. Build Your First Events Data Model in Excel
12. Answer Questions with Your First DAX Measures