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The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration

Excel course for event planners

For event planners and coordinators managing budgets, timelines and guest records in Excel. The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration contains no event files of its own; this guide selects the lessons behind those workbooks: category budgets, guest lists in an Excel Table, drop-downs, COUNTIFS totals, seating lists via FILTER, the TaskFlow timeline and the opening half of FinanceGuard for comparing budget to actuals.

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Taught by Sagnik Bhattacharya and Virginia Thorn

The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration: Sagnik Bhattacharya and Virginia Thorn

What you will be able to do

At work, you will be able to:

  • Maintain attendee records inside an Excel Table using drop-down menus for RSVP status and dietary needs, tallying each response with COUNTIFS.
  • Create a seating list by filtering attendees to each table with FILTER and SORT, pulling dietary requirements alongside with XLOOKUP.
  • Track the event budget by category, setting quotes and invoices against it with variance, percentage variance and colour-coded number formats.
  • Total supplier deposits and balances using SUMIFS, flagging payments as they fall due with date arithmetic and conditional formatting.
  • Plan the countdown to the event in a tracker featuring statuses, deadlines in colour and a Gantt-style timeline.
  • Report attendance afterwards using COUNTIFS for registered and attended guests alongside turnout as a percentage.

Projects

What you will build.

The course has 14 projects. These five matter most here.

  • Personal budget tracker in Excel: spending by category with income, expense and saving totals beside a pie chart of expenses.

    Project 01

    Personal Budget Tracker

    Your first workbook: where the money goes each month.

    Categorise event costs across venue hire, catering and suppliers, apply highlight rules for overspending, and display category totals in a pie chart.

  • XLOOKUP formula in Excel (PeopleInsight): each employee row looks up its location from another sheet.

    Project 06

    PeopleInsight HR workbook

    Employee data joined across sheets with one formula.

    Join seating and dietary details by guest name with XLOOKUP, and use FILTER and SORT to list who sits at each table.

  • Task tracker in Excel (TaskFlow): start and due dates, status, priority and a progress bar for each task, with working days left, days past due and unfinished high-priority tasks highlighted.

    Project 07

    TaskFlow

    One sheet that shows what is done, what is late and what is urgent.

    Built for tasks, it serves as a planning timeline tracking bookings, confirmations and deliveries as rows with statuses and deadlines, showing overdue items in colour alongside a Gantt-style view up to the day.

  • Budget vs actual dashboard in Excel (FinanceGuard): total budget, actuals and variance cards above a monthly line chart and a column chart by department.

    Project 09

    FinanceGuard

    The budget vs actual report finance teams send every month.

    Its budget against actual model fits an event: quotes and final invoices set against the event budget line by line, with variances in colour to highlight an overspend before the final bill arrives.

  • Project 02

    Dunder Michael Paper Company employee database

    Practice for a guest list: organise names in a single Table, remove duplicates when combining lists, split names for place cards, and produce a filtered print for the door.

Lessons

The lessons that matter, in course order.

The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration has 186 lessons. This page picks out 53 of them, 4 h 51 min of video. Each lesson keeps its number in the course.

Where to start

Lesson 14 SUM and AVERAGE in Excel

Start with Lesson 14 if you already know how to enter figures and sum a column, as constructing an event budget comes first. If you are brand new to spreadsheets, start at Lesson 1. Planners comfortable with budgets can jump straight to Lesson 19 for the guest list, or head to Lesson 79, where the planning tracker begins. The whole of Managing data in Excel is on this path and is free by email with its practice files: ask for it on the course page.

Get the free section by email

53 of 186 lessons · 4 h 51 min

02 Project: personal budget tracker 4 of 5 lessons · 22 min An event budget constructed like the course budget tracker: totals and averages, highlight rules for overspends, a summary broken down by categories such as venue, catering and suppliers, and a pie chart of the spending.
  1. 14 Start here SUM and AVERAGE in Excel Personal budget tracker totals and average expense 4 min
  2. 15 Conditional formatting in Excel Highlight rules, data bars and icon sets 3 min
  3. 16 Monthly expense summary in Excel Category totals for a personal budget tracker 7 min
  4. 17 Excel charts for beginners Pie chart of budget expenses by category 8 min
03 Managing data in Excel: sort, filter and tables (Dunder Michael Paper employee database) 9 lessons · 1 h 1 min The guest list managed as an Excel Table: sorted by table or surname, filtered by RSVP or dietary requirement, tidied with TRIM, duplicates eliminated after merging lists, names divided with Flash Fill, headers frozen, and a clean roster printed for the door. An employee database is used in the lessons.
  1. 19 Excel tables Create and format a table, structured references and total row 8 min
  2. 20 Sorting data in Excel Single and multi-level sort on an employee database 6 min
  3. 21 Filtering data in Excel AutoFilter, text and number filters on employee data 10 min
  4. 22 Cleaning data in Excel TRIM, Paste Special values and Find and Replace 13 min
  5. 23 Remove duplicates in Excel Find and delete duplicate rows in an employee list 6 min
  6. 24 Flash Fill in Excel Split first and last names automatically 3 min
  7. 25 Text to Columns in Excel Split data by delimiter into separate columns 6 min
  8. 26 Freeze panes in Excel Lock header rows and columns while scrolling 3 min
  9. 27 Printing in Excel Print area, page orientation, scaling and page layout 6 min
04 Essential formulas and functions (IF, SUMIF and more) 12 of 13 lessons · 1 h 9 min Determine the days left to each payment through date arithmetic, and aggregate deposits and balances by supplier using SUMIF and SUMIFS. Event counts and totals also rely on COUNTIF and COUNTIFS for tallying RSVPs and dietary needs, alongside IF to flag items as paid or unpaid and AND and OR to review two conditions.
  1. 28 Logical functions in Excel TRUE and FALSE comparisons for beginners 5 min
  2. 29 The IF function in Excel Pass or fail results with a single condition 3 min
  3. 30 IF function practice in Excel Categorise sales data with IF formulas 6 min
  4. 31 Nested IF and IFS in Excel Customer value tiers with nested IF 6 min
  5. 32 Nested IF and IFS in Excel Sales performance labels with the IFS function 5 min
  6. 33 AND and OR with IF in Excel Flag high-value deals with multiple conditions 8 min
  7. 34 SUM, COUNT and COUNTA in Excel SUM with FILTER and counting numbers with COUNT 7 min
  8. 35 SUM, COUNT and COUNTA in Excel COUNTA, unique counts and completeness checks 4 min
  9. 36 SUMIF and COUNTIF in Excel Conditional sum and count with one criterion 8 min
  10. 37 SUMIFS and COUNTIFS in Excel Sum and count with multiple criteria 7 min
  11. 38 The Excel function library Insert Function dialog and Formula AutoComplete 5 min
  12. 39 Date and time functions in Excel TODAY, NOW, MONTH and date arithmetic 6 min
05 Text functions and data validation (enhancing data quality) 5 of 7 lessons · 25 min Consistent guest names and details: CONCAT and TEXTJOIN to generate full names for place cards, PROPER and TRIM to clean up names, SUBSTITUTE for stray characters, Text to Columns, and drop-down menus for dietary requirements and RSVP status.
  1. 41 CONCAT, the & operator and TEXTJOIN in Excel Combine text from multiple cells 6 min
  2. 42 TRIM, UPPER, LOWER and PROPER in Excel Clean messy text and fix capitalisation 6 min
  3. 43 FIND, SEARCH and SUBSTITUTE in Excel Locate and replace text with formulas 5 min
  4. 44 Text to Columns wizard in Excel Split a column by a comma delimiter 4 min
  5. 45 Data validation in Excel Create drop-down lists for consistent data entry 4 min
08 Advanced Excel functions: lookups, text and arrays 9 of 12 lessons · 45 min XLOOKUP along with INDEX and MATCH to pull guest details onto a seating list, IFERROR when a name is missing, TEXTJOIN to combine names using separators, NETWORKDAYS for working days before the event, and UNIQUE, FILTER and SORT to compile a list for each table.
  1. 69 XLOOKUP in Excel Exact match, if not found and two-way lookup 6 min
  2. 70 IFERROR in Excel Handle lookup errors in VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP formulas 3 min
  3. 71 INDEX and MATCH in Excel A flexible alternative to VLOOKUP 6 min
  4. 72 CONCAT and TEXTJOIN in Excel Combine employee names and text with a delimiter 3 min
  5. 73 LEFT, RIGHT and MID in Excel Extract parts of a text code like DAL-SAL-0001 7 min
  6. 74 TODAY, EOMONTH and NETWORKDAYS in Excel Date calculations for HR data 5 min
  7. 75 UNIQUE function in Excel Extract a distinct list with dynamic arrays 6 min
  8. 76 FILTER function in Excel Dynamic array filtering with AND and OR criteria 5 min
  9. 77 SORT and SORTBY in Excel Sort data dynamically with formulas 4 min
09 Project: task automation with data validation and forms 9 lessons · 49 min TaskFlow adapted as a run sheet and planning timeline: bookings, confirmations and deliveries recorded with drop-down statuses and priorities, late items highlighted, a Gantt-style timeline view, working days left, and sheet protection. While the project tracks tasks, an event to-do list fits into the same columns.
  1. 79 TaskFlow project tracker in Excel Overview of the task tracker dashboard 4 min
  2. 80 Designing a task tracker in Excel TaskFlow layout, columns and headers 5 min
  3. 81 Data validation in Excel Status and priority drop-down lists in TaskFlow 8 min
  4. 82 Conditional formatting in Excel Highlight overdue and completed tasks 8 min
  5. 83 Gantt chart in Excel Build a project timeline with conditional formatting 6 min
  6. 84 Data bars and icon sets in Excel Visual priority and progress in TaskFlow 6 min
  7. 85 NETWORKDAYS and TODAY in Excel Days remaining and task deadlines in TaskFlow 5 min
  8. 86 Protect a sheet and lock cells in Excel Secure the TaskFlow tracker workbook 4 min
  9. 87 Testing an Excel task tracker Stress test TaskFlow with sample data 3 min
12 Project: FinanceGuard budget variance analyser (budget vs actual Excel dashboard) 5 of 10 lessons · 21 min The initial half of FinanceGuard: tables for budget and actual figures, a model constructed using SUMIFS and dynamic arrays, variance and percentage variance, and custom number formatting to highlight overspends in colour. The lessons utilise corporate budgets, but an event budget uses the same columns.
  1. 115 FinanceGuard budget vs actual dashboard Excel project overview 3 min
  2. 116 Excel tables for budget and actual data Organise the FinanceGuard datasets 4 min
  3. 117 Budget vs actual model in Excel SORT, UNIQUE, VSTACK, LET, TEXTSPLIT, SUMIFS 8 min
  4. 118 Budget variance in Excel Calculate variance and percent variance 4 min
  5. 119 Custom number formats in Excel Show budget variances with colours and signs 2 min

Instructors

Who teaches it.

Virginia Thorn smiling at the camera, dark hair tied back, wearing a navy top.

Instructor, Excel with AI

Virginia Thorn

Emmy Award winner. Teaches Excel with AI at Coding Liquids.

Questions

Asked before starting.

Is there an Excel course suited for event planners?

Yes. The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration from Coding Liquids covers the spreadsheets needed for an event: an attendee list as an Excel Table with drop-down menus for dietary needs and RSVPs, COUNTIFS for headcounts, FILTER for table seating lists, the TaskFlow tracker as a planning timeline, and a budget measured against quotes and invoices with colour-coded variances. The lessons work with employee, budget and task data; guests and suppliers follow the same steps. This page details 53 lessons, taking 4 hours 51 minutes altogether.

Can event planners manage RSVPs and dietary requirements in Excel?

Yes. With what The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration teaches in Managing data in Excel, free by email, the guest list is organised as an Excel Table, where sorting, filters and Remove Duplicates maintain order. Drop-down lists restrict dietary requirements and RSVP choices to specific options, and COUNTIF and COUNTIFS tally each response, allowing catering numbers to be drawn directly from the list instead of a separate tally.

How can an event coordinator create a seating plan from the guest list?

By applying dynamic arrays. The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration covers UNIQUE, FILTER, SORT and XLOOKUP, functions that an event planner uses to generate a seating list broken down by table. UNIQUE provides the distinct table numbers, FILTER gathers the attendees for each one, SORT arranges them in order, and XLOOKUP pulls their dietary requirements alongside. When you update a guest's table number in the primary list, the seating plan reflects that change. No lesson sketches a floor plan or room layout: the outcome here is strictly a list per table.

Can event planners track supplier deposits and payments due?

Yes. The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration teaches SUMIFS to total what has been paid to each supplier, a formula to calculate outstanding balances, IF to mark payments as due or settled, and date arithmetic with TODAY to find the days left until each due date. Lessons in TaskFlow also introduce conditional formatting to highlight overdue dates in colour, which works for payment tracking as well as task lists.

Does the course cover venue contracts or event management software for event planners?

No. The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration is an Excel course: event management software, ticketing and registration platforms, venue contracts and event design are not taught, and lessons do not use event data. Instead, it covers the spreadsheets that run alongside them: guest lists, catering headcounts, table seating lists, planning timelines, supplier payments, and the event budget set against actual costs.

Excel with AI

See the whole course.

The Complete Excel Course with AI Integration: 16 hours of video in 186 lessons, built around 14 projects, with lifetime access, a Certificate of Completion and a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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