When you dive into Excel, you quickly realize the power it holds for data analysis and prediction. Two of the most potent tools at your disposal are the TREND and FORECAST functions. These functions ...

Trend lines are a type of regression analysis, which is a way to study the relationships between variables. In the context of small business, trend lines are often used to show sales trends and can be ...

If you are using Microsoft Excel to manage numerical data, at some point you're inevitably going to display percentages. Doing so can give you a new insight, or make summarizing heaps of data a bit ...

When you review your small business's balance sheet, it's important to compare accounts across multiple years to identify any trends. To make this process easier, you can convert each account's dollar ...

Sean Ross is a strategic adviser at 1031x.com, Investopedia contributor, and the founder and manager of Free Lances Ltd. Charlene Rhinehart is a CPA , CFE, chair of an Illinois CPA Society committee, ...

In 2026, data analysis roles still depend heavily on two practical tools: Excel for cleaning, checking, and working through business data, and Tableau for turning that data into dashboards people ...