Learn how to make a data model with Excel

Microsoft Excel, a very useful tool for your SME

Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are one of the most widely used tools in the world. In fact, almost 750 million people in all countries already have it.

You can perform up to 400 functions, such as controlling your stock, recording incoming and outgoing products, performing advanced calculations, inserting graphs or pivot tables and even creating invoices.

But Microsoft Excel also offers a function that allows you to create your own data model in a very simple way. Read on and we'll show you how!

What is a data model?

Before starting, it is important that you know what this concept consists of. A data model is a representation that allows you to relate different documents or databases to group all the information and make it easier to access.

For example, imagine that you have all the information about the sales of your SME in different files and at some point, you want to join them to have an overview of this area of your business. With a data model, you can relate these values to obtain, through different documents, unified results so that you can know them without having to manually perform the whole process.

This feature can help you to:

1. Organize your data and facilitate access to any type of information you can obtain about your business.
2. Efficiently manage the data obtained in your SME, reducing the possibility of making a mistake when transferring information manually.
3. Improve decision making thanks to the use of a tool that allows you to identify the same values in different databases and provide clear objectives to your strategy.
4. Having a system that facilitates communication within the team, since all members of the SME have the opportunity to use the same data relation.

Guide to create your own data model with Microsoft Excel

Now that you know what a data model is and how to achieve better results based on it, we show you how you can achieve it in a very simple way thanks to Microsoft Excel.

Don't miss these steps!

1. Plan and structure your data: identify the different databases from which you want to obtain specific information. Then organize these files so that you can locate them and access their information quickly.
2. Define your objectives and key metrics: the next step is to establish what you want to achieve by relating your data. This will depend on the information contained in your databases, for example, data about a customer, about a product or about your sales. Later, establish the key metrics you want to connect in your data model, which can be, among others, a customer's phone number, a product name, the amount of stock or its date of entry or exit.
3. Create the relationships between files: open a new document in Microsoft Excel and activate the Microsoft Power Pivot option from the 'Add-ins' window. There, you will be able to load your databases and relate them thanks to its 'Diagram View' option, where you will have the possibility of linking the common values of the different databases by means of arrows. Finally, create a dynamic table with the metrics from which you want to obtain the results, using all the information from your databases at the same time!

Keep in mind that this tool is very useful when you have several large databases with a lot of information. It will allow you to organize everything you store in the spreadsheets so that you don't have to review each of them separately.

Start taking advantage of Microsoft Excel!