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Data and IT · · 4-minute read

Excel or Power BI: which to learn first

Both are Microsoft products and both have Power Query. The difference is the result: Excel gives you a file to send, Power BI a report that refreshes itself every morning.

A group with laptops at a long table while the instructor teaches by the screen

What Excel is for

Calculations, budgets, one-⁠off analysis, a table to send to someone. The formulas, the pivot table and the chart sit in one file that anyone can open. Day-⁠to-⁠day work in accounting, sales and HR is still done in Excel.

When you need Power BI

When you rebuild the same report by hand every week, the data comes from several places (a 1C export, a CRM, a folder of Excel files) and your manager reads the report on a phone. Power BI Desktop is free; sharing a finished report with colleagues needs a paid licence, which the company usually buys.

Three questions to ask yourself

  • Can I build a pivot table and an XLOOKUP without help? No: start with Excel, because the Power BI course assumes you know pivot tables.
  • Do I build the same report several times a month? Yes: Power BI gives that time back.
  • Is my data over a million rows? An Excel sheet ends at 1,048,576 rows; a Power BI model is not tied to that limit.

How our courses fit together

The Advanced Excel course gives 10 hours to Power Query, and the Power BI course starts with Power Query too. So someone moving from Excel to Power BI begins with familiar work and gets to DAX quickly. Before either course you can come to an open lesson and ask the instructor where to start.

Sources: The Excel sheet limit and Power BI Desktop: Microsoft’s official documentation, 11 October 2026. Modules and hours are on the course pages.

NextData and IT courses: from Excel to Python

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