
Live cohort · 5 days · online
Five live sessions to bring real Python analysis into Excel: the cleaning, charts, forecasts, and text work that finance and ops teams actually need.
Dates
July 20 to 24, 2026
Time
3:00 to 4:00 PM ET
Format
Live plus recorded
Sessions
5 x 60 min
Taught by a Microsoft MVP and O’Reilly author who has trained over 400,000 people on modern Excel and analytics.
MVP
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
2
books published with O’Reilly Media
400k+
learners taught on LinkedIn Learning
What’s included
- Five live, 60-minute training sessions
- A free ebook copy of Advancing into Analytics: From Excel to Python and R (O’Reilly), yours to keep
- Clear notes, handouts, and resource guides
- Full session recordings shared after each day
- A certificate of attendance for professional development or internal documentation
What people are saying
George has a solid core of knowledge on everything Excel and does excellent webinar training sessions.
Scot H., Analytics Principal
George is a tremendous teacher. Makes the topics easy to understand and relatable.
Jorge C., Senior Operations Analyst
Very informative and to the point.
Marcello D., Project Analyst
What you’ll cover, day by day
By Friday you’ll have a working skill, not just a tour. Each day builds on the last.
Day 1, Monday: Foundations, from Excel cells to pandas DataFrames
What Python in Excel actually is, how it fits your existing spreadsheets, and how to write your first cell that does something formulas can’t.
- How PY() cells calculate, and how data flows between ranges and DataFrames
- Work with the libraries that ship with Python in Excel
- Replace clunky multi-formula workarounds with a single Python cell
Day 2, Tuesday: Data cleaning, hours of Excel work in minutes of Python
The messy data tasks that take hours in formulas and minutes in pandas.
- Clean dates, split and merge columns, and dedupe with logic Excel can’t easily express
- Reshape wide tables into formats that work for analysis and reporting
- Build cleaning steps that are repeatable and auditable
Day 3, Wednesday: Visualizations, charts Excel cannot make
How seaborn and matplotlib build the charts Excel either refuses to make or makes badly.
- Build faceted plots, heatmaps, and distribution charts inside your workbook
- Use color and layout to communicate clearly with finance and ops audiences
- Choose the right chart for the question you’re actually trying to answer
Day 4, Thursday: Forecasting and modeling, past trendlines into real statistics
Move beyond Excel’s trendline tools into modeling you can defend.
- Build regression models with statsmodels and interpret the output
- Generate time series forecasts for revenue, headcount, or other metrics
- Run sensitivity analysis on your assumptions
Day 5, Friday: Text analysis, working with the fields no one touches
The text fields most analysts ignore: vendor names, transaction descriptions, customer comments.
- Clean and standardize messy text data at scale
- Extract patterns and categories from free-text fields
- Apply basic natural language techniques to finance and ops data
Python is built into Excel now. This is how you use it.
For the analysts, accountants, and finance professionals who live in spreadsheets, this is the most important upgrade in years. You no longer need to leave Excel to do the work formulas struggle with, and this cohort is built to make it feel approachable, not intimidating.
The old way
- Hours cleaning the same messy data every month
- Charts you can’t build, so you don’t
- Trendlines standing in for real analysis
With Python in Excel
- One cell that cleans and reshapes in seconds
- Charts that were never possible in the grid
- Regression and forecasts you can stand behind
Who should attend
Professionals who want to bring Python into their Excel work without leaving Excel. A great fit for:
- Data analysts and financial analysts
- Accountants and controllers
- Operations and project managers
- BI professionals and IT leads on Microsoft 365
Comfort with formulas, tables, and PivotTables is ideal. No prior Python is required, though some exposure helps.
Your instructor
George Mount is the founder of Stringfest Analytics, a Microsoft MVP, and the author of two O’Reilly books, Modern Data Analytics in Excel and Advancing into Analytics. His courses on LinkedIn Learning have reached over 400,000 learners, and his next book, on Python in Excel, is forthcoming.
He helps finance and operations professionals modernize their analytical workflows using the tools already in their Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
Questions, answered
Do I need to know Python already? No. If you’re comfortable with formulas, tables, and PivotTables, you’re ready. You’ll write your first useful Python cell on day one. Some prior exposure helps, but none is required.
What if I can’t make every live session? Each session is recorded and shared the same day, so you can catch up on anything you miss and rewatch the parts you want to practice.
Do I need a special version of Excel? You need Excel for Windows or Mac with a license that includes Python in Excel. You can confirm yours on Microsoft’s Python in Excel availability page.
Will this replace my Excel skills? No, it extends them. You stay inside Excel and reach for Python only where it clearly beats formulas, so the spreadsheet skills you already have keep working.
Before you register
Software: Excel for Windows or Mac with a license that includes Python in Excel. You can confirm availability on Microsoft’s Python in Excel availability page.
After you register: you’ll get access details and a setup guide beforehand. Recordings and resources are shared during the event. Certificates and the ebook go to all attendees on completion. Refunds are available up to 7 days before the event.
Register
Reserve your seat
Five live sessions, the recordings, the O’Reilly ebook, and a certificate. Checkout is right below.