Sign in Choose a hub
Menu
Starter course

Career · Everyday work with AI

Clean Sheets: Excel course for beginners: faster spreadsheets with AI

Six lessons on the spreadsheet skills most office jobs use, with AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini doing the heavy lifting and you doing the checking.

trainyourselfCourse guide · step-by-step lessons
Welcome0% complete

About this course

Excel course for beginners: faster spreadsheets with AI.

Starter · About 1 hour of learning · 6 lessons · 12 quick checks · 1 download

  • Who it's for

    Office workers new to Excel or Google Sheets who want to use AI assistants to work faster and check results, in Australia, the UK, the US and elsewhere.

  • How it works

    6 guided lessons in your browser, with worked examples, exercises and a quick check after each lesson. Progress is saved in this browser only, and you can restart at any time. You start with just your first name and email, and you can take one whole course that way. After that, a free account lets you continue past lesson 1.

  • Sources we rely on

    11 published sources, mostly regulators and official bodies, listed below so you can check the original guidance yourself.

By the end you can

  • Arrange data as a clean table that formulas, PivotTables and AI assistants can read
  • Ask for formulas, explain them in plain words and test them against known values
  • Use XLOOKUP and SUMIFS and avoid their most common mistakes
  • Summarize data with PivotTables and honest charts, and check AI insights
  • Let AI edit a workbook safely and keep sensitive data in approved tools

Downloads

  • Excel practice workbook .xlsxPractice bookings data, a messy sheet to clean, a staff lookup table, formula and change logs, and an answers sheet.

Rules by country

Australia
Digital Transformation Agency: assume anything entered into a public generative AI tool could be made public. Dates in Australia are usually day/month/year; tell the assistant.
United Kingdom
Dates in the UK are usually day/month/year; tell the assistant. Follow your organization’s policy on which AI tools can be used with work data.
United States
Dates in the US are usually month/day/year; tell the assistant. Follow your employer’s policy on which AI tools can be used with work data.

Learning time

About 1 hour of learning. May count towards your CPD or professional development; check your professional body's rules. Estimated from reading time, exercises, quick checks and downloads.

Sources

Check the originals.

How these courses are made. Spotted an error or out-of-date rule? Send a correction.

General information and training only. Courses may count towards your CPD or professional development; check your professional body's rules.

Publisher

Who publishes this course.

Published by trainyourself.org, a trading name of Combine TRS Pty Ltd (ABN 42 112 983 678), Brisbane, Australia.

How it's made: researched from published official, regulator, professional-body and vendor guidance, then run through automated quality checks against our course depth standard and automated source checks that match each rule to its official source, listed above. Read how these courses are made.

Last updated:

General information, not careers, legal, employment or professional advice. Spotted an error or an out-of-date rule? Send us a correction.

Keep going

More in Everyday work with AI.

All courses in this topic

  • 6 lessons · 14 quick checks · about 1 h · downloads

    Plain Start: AI course for beginners: how AI works and how to use it at work

    AI course for beginners: how AI and chat assistants work, why they make things up, which work tasks suit them and how to keep data safe. Short lessons.

  • 6 lessons · 12 quick checks · about 1 h · downloads

    Plan Ahead: AI for project managers

    AI for project managers: draft a project brief, break down tasks, build a risk register and write status reports, with templates you download after sign-up.

  • 6 lessons · 12 quick checks · about 0.75 h · downloads

    First Line: Cyber security awareness training for staff

    Cyber security awareness training for staff: spot workplace phishing, verify payment and bank-detail requests, report fast without blame, protect work data.

  • 6 lessons · 12 quick checks · about 0.75 h · downloads

    Daily Assist: everyday work with AI assistants

    How to use Microsoft Copilot and other AI assistants at work: draft emails, get summaries you can check, turn meeting notes into actions, keep work data safe.

  • 6 lessons · 12 quick checks · about 1 h · downloads

    Lead Well: Management course for new managers

    How to be a good manager: a starter course for new managers on clear goals, one-to-ones, feedback, early performance talks, wellbeing, change and safe AI use.

  • 6 lessons · 16 quick checks · about 1 h · downloads

    Clear Asks: learn prompt engineering: better prompts for everyday work

    Learn prompt engineering for everyday work: brief AI tools clearly, add examples, set limits so they don’t invent details, check output, keep data safe.

Start learning

Pick a course and start today.

Every open course starts with just your first name and email. Want to go further? Premium courses are open for enrollment now.

Find a course