"I love the format… detailed explanation, repetition, tips and tricks, the ability for us to practice... ability to access it whenever we need it, etc. I learned many valuable things, but perhaps the vlookup is most useful, as I don’t think I’d have learned that on my own. I’ve done pretty much all the things you said not to, so it was good to see the correct way to do things or at least understand why I was having trouble. Thanks for the great training."

- Kristin Gushuliak, United Way Regina

"While I was taking Ann Emery’s course, I was given a large dataset that required hundreds of VLOOKUPs. Her mention of using F4 saved me multiple hours that would have been lost in manually inserting four dollar signs in each lookup. It is this type of time-saving tip that made her course most valuable for me. Even after using Excel professionally for 18 years, I learned more efficient ways to do almost everything that I’ve been doing, and plenty of new skills too. Now that the course is finished, what I value most is having a one-stop shop for Excel tips. No more google searching – I just go back to the course and refresh my memory with Ann’s short and to-the-point videos."

- Kristen Degan, Senior Associate - Monitoring and Evaluation, Sharp Insight, LLC

"The Simple Spreadsheets course provides the necessary skills for working professionals who need a solid understanding of data analysis in Excel, but don't have the time or desire for an overly technical course. This course is designed with users in mind, especially those with limited exposure or comfort with Excel. However, as someone who is quite comfortable working in Excel, I benefited from learning Ann's tips and tricks for organizing my spreadsheets and how to get the most out of Excel's features (e.g. conditional formatting, spark lines, pivot tables, etc.). In my current role, I provide support and training to 15 staff members across multiple countries and timezones on all areas of M&E. Data analysis has long been a skill that I've struggled to teach others, especially in a virtual format. After taking Ann's course I learned some cool new skills for myself, but better yet I learned how to walk others through an analysis project from start to finish -- from how to setup a spreadsheet, to data cleaning and recoding, to summarizing data with formulas, comparing variables with pivot tables, and finally how to present and share analyses. Ann's simple step-by-step approach has been tremendously useful in my work with others and I will continue to draw on what I learned for years to come. Thank you Ann!"

- Mia Schmid-Velasco, Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, Namati

"I am a university researcher and have a lot of familiarity with data collection and statistical analysis programs/platforms (e.g. SPSS, SAS, etc.), but needed a low-cost, widely-used data collection and analysis tool I could recommend and teach to the community partners with whom I conduct research. I have known for a long time that Excel was likely the solution to my problem, but could never find time to learn to use it, except in the most basic ways (sort, sum). Last summer, I took Ann Emery's Simple Spreadsheets course and dramatically improved my Excel acuity. *Plus* the course was fun, straightforward, and immediately useful. Having the modules available for lifetime access meant that I could make up sessions I missed, and revisit material on which I needed refreshers. This course was more than worth the time and money I put into it, and I continue to learn and benefit from it (almost a year later). I highly recommend this course!"

- Sarah V. Suiter, Vanderbilt University

"I’ve known Ann for 10 years and in that time I’ve learned a lot from her. Her vision for turning text into something that a lay person would understand, visually, has been a life-saver. She has creative ideas that many organizations can turn into real world application. I’ve valued the trainings I’ve received from her and continue to learn new things in each class."

- Joyce Shelton, Senior Child Welfare and Education Operations Specialist, ICF

"I first heard of this course through a training opportunity at work. Being the data-junky that I am, I was thrilled to have an opportunity to learn something new. I was not disappointed! This course is great for all walks of life. Whether it’s the hum drum of daily data entry or pulling together a final report, there are countless tidbits I now use on a daily basis. I went from hand counting and color coding to pivot tables and VLookUp. Albeit shakily at first, I slowly got the hang of it. The new approaches Ann shared changed the way I view data. Her teaching style is conversational and made me feel comfortable."

- Tyler Small, Grant County Community Corrections

"I've learned many helpful tips. Even things as simple as how to highlight all the cells in a sheet, sort them by a particular variable(s), and order them in a specific way have saved me time and frustration. I have on multiple occasions gone back to lessons I've completed to watch them again and repeat the steps with my own work. Best of all, Ann speaks in an engaging, easy to understand way that makes learning Excel almost fun!"

- Judy Lee, Evergreen Evaluation & Consulting, Inc.

"This course is great for staff at small non profits who use Excel. It's an affordable way to get professional development in segments that are easy to fit into your schedule. It's great to be able to digest the info, try it out in your own scenarios and then re-watch segments as necessary. This course helped me display data in easy 'bites' for our board and staff to digest. I also really enjoyed the pivot table set of videos--they were way more helpful than anything I've ever seen before. Ann's explanations are very clear and her examples are relatable to our nonprofit work. Thanks, Ann! I'm so glad to have found this course!"

- Mary Henriques, Development Director, Valley Family Center

"Resources at a non-profit can be scarce; if you use Excel, take this class now! Ann K. Emery's class "Simple Spreadsheets" helps you harness its lesser-known and more advanced data and visualization powers. As a former Excel trainer, I learned so much from this class. For example, your supervisor wants an additional piece of information in your report? No need to re-export all the data when Ann breaks down the very scary vlookup function into its component parts to help you add that column of data to specific records. You'll wonder how you ever lived without vlookup. Data hygiene of your database is very important. Using conditional formatting and filters help make this daunting task much, much easier. Lastly, the case studies reinforce what you've learned throughout the course with real-life projects. Thank you, Ann, for sharing your vast knowledge with us. You've made my job much easier."

- Adrienne Giovino, Prospect Research Analyst

"This course is great for someone who does not have very much experience in excel to the advanced level. No matter how much experience you think you have, it does not hurt to learn new work arounds and short cuts to save time. The videos are short and easy to follow. I would highly recommend this class."

- Chris Nefas, MA, Research Analyst

"This course is great for those endeavoring to use Excel in ways perhaps they haven't yet been able to manage. Getting clear on the formulas and short cuts have expanded my capacity for using Excel and I have been able to translate that into better products for clients."

- Helen Ries

"This course is for beginners and veterans of spreadsheets. The easy progression takes you on a journey of increased functions, tips and uses. As a project manager I been able to incorporate more efficient functionality into my spreadsheets for both data analysis and tracking. I highly recommend this course for everyone. Thank you Ann K Emery!"

- Janet Flynn, Prosper Canada

"This course was extremely useful. I'm a self taught fairly advanced excel user and long time evaluator but Ann's tips on how to set up, clean, and quickly scan data for patterns were fabulous. There wasn't on big thing I took from it, but lots of small time savers that have already revolutionized the way I use excel. Worth every penny!"

- Joy Stewart Riffle, QA Design and Innovation Specialist, Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies

"Simple Spreadsheets helped introduce me to PivotTables, something I never took the time to learn before. This is a great beginner course!"

- Vanessa Stoquert, Academic Assessment Coordinator, University of South Carolina College of Nursing