Average Rating: (54 Reviews)
Until now, building Business Intelligence solutions has been a painful, repetitive process requiring a great deal of manual effort to clean, filter, and format data before it can even be used. And updates have been tedious and error prone.
Learning to use Power Query means less time spent manipulating data and more time analyzing it to gain powerful insights and make better decisions.
Power Query will save you hours of time gathering and preparing your data before loading it into your data model.
How much time? Great question…
Consider this scenario: a regulation changes in your industry, and every company is forced to hire a new full-time employee in order to process the data that now needs to be reported to the government on a monthly basis. Every company, that is, except yours. Why? Because you were able to automate the data processing and reporting using your amazing Power Query skills, reducing the job to 15 minutes per week.
This isn’t a hypothetical scenario, this really happened for one of our clients. An average of 160 person-hours was reduced to a single hour, using Power Query. How amazing is that? Where their competition all ended up adding a full-time employee to their corporate overhead, our client didn’t need to. That means they’ve been able to get a competitive advantage over their competitors based on what they’ve learned from our material.
Or how about the client who was able to take the rent-arrears report which took a full day of manual effort to create every single week? What would you say if you could take a job like that, and reduce it to the click of a single button that now only takes a couple of minutes? Would you like to save 52 person days of manual effort per year? Of course you would! And yes, that truly happened.
Now let’s be fair. It would be irresponsible of us to promise you that you’ll save 52 person-days per year, or a full time employee on an annual basis by learning our techniques. Not everyone will realize those kinds of productivity gains.
But, what we can say is that we routinely get emails from people telling us that they’ve saved 4-5 hours of manual labour per week based on the things they’ve learned from our material. Think about that for a second… What if you saved only 3 hours per week? Multiply that by your hourly rate, and by 50 working weeks per year. It’s a lot of money, isn’t it? And what if you could use that time to learn even more about Power Query and automate other processes as well?
There’s one more thing that we really want you to think about here. Do you enjoy cleaning up the same data on a weekly or monthly basis? Is that satisfying for you? Wouldn’t you be more interested in analyzing that data and drawing conclusions from that data? You know – the job you were actually hired for?
Our courses are built from a practical point of view, showcasing real-world examples and techniques that you can use right away. You’ll learn the steps, formulas, and tricks from world-class experts that will save you hours of time on a weekly basis. Let us help you get the data-cleaning out of the way, so that you can focus on the satisfying part of the job: providing the insights that you were actually hired to deliver.
This course starts at the beginning, and is intended for people who have never used Power Query at all, those who are self taught and want to ensure they haven’t missed anything, or those who just want great coverage of all of Power Query’s core features.
You’ll learn basic transformation techniques and methods to clean up a variety of common data challenges, as well as how to pull data from various data sources and pull them together into a single refreshable solution that will save you hours of time on a monthly basis.
From there, you’ll learn how to unwind difficult data patterns, dive deep into the underlying M language, and complement user-interface-driven actions with a sprinkling of code to build amazing and practical solutions. Power Query formulas, custom functions and even pro tips for future proofing solutions and improving performance; you’ll pick up the skills to make you a data ninja.
Simply put, you won’t find a more comprehensive Power Query course anywhere! Plus, everything you learn in applicable to both Excel and Power BI.
Visit our Learning Journey page to compare courses by skill level and area of specialization.
Average Rating
(based on 54 reviews)
First release of the course as the complete Power Query Academy (course was formerly two separate courses: Power Query Essentials and Power Query Advanced).
New lessons added to the course:
New lessons added to the course:
Release of Master Your Data with Excel and Power BI book (formerly titled M is for (Data) Monkey). Course registrants now receive the new second edition instead of the original first edition.
New module added to the course called Allocating Values to Periods, which contains 10 new lessons:
Updates to two existing lessons in the Simple Transformation Techniques module:
Updates made to the Power Query Recipes:
Power Query Academy Updates:
Power Query Recipes Updates:
Power Query Academy Updates:
Power Query Recipes Updates:
Power Query Academy Updates:
Power Query Recipe Update:
Power Query Academy Updates:
Power Query Recipes Update:
Added all content from our free Power Query Fundamentals course to the beginning of the Academy. The modules added are:
Updated the module called Web Based Data Sources. The lessons contained in this module are:
Added a new module called Advanced Web Techniques, which appears after Advanced M Techniques. The lessons contained in this module are:
Power Query Academy Updates:
Power Query Recipes Updates:
This course is built on an annual subscription format. Your registration comes with 12 months of access to the course materials, so you can refer back to the videos and example files whenever you like. Your subscription also gives you access to our private Discussion Forum, where you can ask questions related to the course materials, as well as how to apply those teachings to your own work. This forum is an invaluable resource that also allows students to practice their own learnings by helping others with those questions.
On your annual renewal date, your subscription will be automatically renewed with the credit card information on file, unless you cancel your subscription beforehand. You will be emailed a renewal reminder about one month before the renewal date. Please see the FAQs below for information about subscription renewals and cancellations.
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Harlan (verified owner) –
[The trainers] are each doing a great job. The lessons are so compelling that I think about them while I’m walking my dog!
Thomas (verified owner) –
The Power Query Academy course is really great… Really well done and lots more tricks than I expected to see before I decided to purchase it. It is the small stuff that speeds up my workflow and that I can see better from you doing it in the video than from just reading a blog or book. It is also the systematic learning as opposed to mainly using google to find answer to a current problem… During playback I really liked the fact that I can slow down and speed up the playback from 0.5x to 2.0x which allows me to focus on the content most relevant to me and to my current skill level, and that I can jump around in the videos as fits best.
My biggest regret is that I didn’t buy it earlier, since it could have saved me time thru the well-structured learning in the course as opposed to my random learning before that thru blogs and Google.
Alessandro (verified owner) –
I have an 8 month’s work experience on Power BI and DAX. In the first months I’ve thought of Power Query as a “complementary”, nice to have skill. Not fundamental. After 8 months, having taken on more serious and difficult projects, I realize it’s not a complementary skill. It’s THE skill of a good BI analyst that works with Power BI. As soon as you start working on more complicated projects, this is what you realize.
Rochma (verified owner) –
I have changed my excel performance by over 100%. i have learned so much. the clarity and ease of learning with the platform is exemplary. the customer service is above and beyond!
Abdulrahman Joseph (verified owner) –
Power Query Academy has changed my whole experience in transforming data from almost any shape with less or no Excel formula. Step-by-Step videos are easy to understand and follow.
Mitchell (verified owner) –
1. Platform
The Skillwave platform is the most polished of the leaning platforms I’ve been on. The decision to migrate from Thinkific was a smart one. I like being able to find my way around without having to guess.
2. Course Content
With three top-notch experts in the field, the content is bound to be awesome. The course materials are like a deep dive into their public blog content. In fact, the articles on the blog often refer to specific videos in the various courses. That’s smart marketing; also, it’s my opinion that anyone who doesn’t have access to the video content is missing out on the opportunity to gain a more thorough understanding of the concepts presented on the blogs.
3. Instructors’ Engagement
It was gratifying having my questions answered within an hour of posting in the forums. Often, both Ken and Miguel chimed in. Sadly, the overall forum is pretty quiet, but that’s not the fault of the Instructors. Maybe it needs to be publicized more within the course. There are too many sections that display “Discussions… Total: 0 threads”.
4. Accessibility
This is the one area where improvement is sorely needed. All three Instructors are soft-spoken. For hearing-impaired individuals like me, this is super frustrating. I read lips and, in the absence of a talking head, rely on closed-captioning. While the visuals do pop up relevant text, that’s not enough. I advocate for transcripts on every video-centric platform that I hang out on. I’m hoping that, at the least, future videos will have clearer speaking.
5. Affordability
As a freelancer, I probably calculate the value of a course differently than an employee who might have to pay out of pocket or get management
to see the value in paying for the training. Personally, learning Power Query via another platform opened up new markets for me. So, when Ken and Miguel launched the original version of this Power Query Academy, the investment was a no-brainer. Their course material BEGINS where others end. The extra knowledge and practical skills (along with the brilliant Recipe Cards for reference) are priceless. My clients pay for my yearly membership!
Chris Kroll (verified owner) –
I have completed the course Power Query Fundamentals and am 50% complete with Power Query Academy. As an a Senior Analyst/Programmer writing and implementing code for several decades, I found these courses very helpful.
I like the way they describe the technical specifics of each section then follow that up immediately with a sample exercise. The labs were especially helpful in solidifying the learned information. A lot of good information there to help me down the road with Power Query. I like it!
Yoash (verified owner) –
This changed the way I use Excel, long work hours became easy and short time with excellent outcome. Very easy to understand, comprehensive videos, well done, great job.
Elayne Jones (verified owner) –
The trainers are clear and concise, and the resources are invaluable! Thank you!
iangroves (verified owner) –
I learned about Power Query by accident at a SQL Server Pre-Con in 2018 taught by Rob Collie. I picked the BI-Sounding Power Pivot class since my new job was Data centered. Rob only recommended one book (other than his own), and it was M is for (Data) Monkey. I fell in love with Power Query that day and bought Ken’s book, and worked through it all in the evenings at the conference. Then I came back to work and didn’t get to pick it back up for a couple of years. I was trying to find the book and see if there was an update, but I also found the Power Query Magic podcast with Wyn, and Ken was the first guest! So I heard about Skillwave from that and found these great courses…
PQ Fundamentals reminded me of why I should never have put PQ on hold. The website, first and foremost, is the best platform I have seen and reduced all the standard friction of learning sites. The content in this course (so far) and the fundamentals course are spot on, delivered in digestible chunks, and there are chances to practice. The Quizzes ARE NO JOKE, but essential to understand things well enough to move on to other areas and helpful (no gotchas!).
I initially thought the primary use for my team would be to eliminate all the manual Excel aggregation work. However, after reviewing the entire course, I realized that the way they teach Power Query is the same way a DB Developer would write an ETL/ELT process. Also, the way a DB Developer would learn about Data Warehousing and star schemas. And it is all in Excel, which of course runs the entire company. So, I signed up my junior data analyst for the Self Service BI Boot Camp in July, and while the aggregations will be trivial, the application to our entire data estate may be company-changing!
Ceren Karakurt (verified owner) –
Many interesting and comprehensive topics covered. There were some stuff which I was applying without knowing the logic but now I have all the power
Matthieu RANCINAN (verified owner) –
Great job with those videos, pretty clear and precise
Kasper (verified owner) –
Great course ! really informative and great learning
Seth Barron (verified owner) –
I continue to be impressed with the value delivered by Power Query Academy, it covers a stunning amount of ground for what has become an essential daily tool for me. These guys are on-top of questions too, if you’re taking the course and have a problem you’re very likely to get a thoughtful response by the next day. If you’re doing anything from advanced financial modeling to basic accounting you’re going to come out with a number of ways to improve the quality and speed of what you’re doing. Do yourself a favor and skip your next obligatory continuing education course and do this instead.
John (verified owner) –
This course is for deep understanding of this new exciting and increasingly essential area for all power Excel users and analysts. The content is a clear and explained in an efficient way, the quizzes really test you and the practical examples test the leanings are thorough. You will become proficient if you do this course. Highly recommended.
Kajsa (verified owner) –
These guys are something extra! I got in touch with them through an open and free site some years ago, I wrote and expressed my difficulties in doing whatever I tried to do but didn´t manage. With an outstanding patience and educational talent, they directly went beyond the “monkey do” -stuff, they rather started explaining the underlying logics and then the necessary work arounds, to achieve the results I could not manage.
As enrolled, their expertise is always close. And on top of that, e-mail contact in whatever matter is easy. One drawback is that I am personally not so fond of the website, that does not match the splendidness in the Excel wonders they make possible.
I am not totally through with the courses, and I wish I had more time to dig deeper into Power Query, but if you consider putting some money into your personal learning, this is the choice. They don´t give you “just a pattern” to follow, you learn why and you learn extras. Thank you for being there!
Sylvia Grozdeva (verified owner) –
I am really enjoying the course as it gives you deep dive into PQ. The course is structured in user-friendly way, the lessons are delivered by great professionals and the steps are easy to apply after the detailed explanations and the showed examples.
I was fascinated by the automatization that can be done with PQ after Excel Conference in 2019 where Ken Puls gave us some pretty cool PQ insides. The magic that can be done with PQ is the reason to apply it in my work but also to be here and subscribe for the course.
I am recommending the course with both hands as it is totally worth it.
Nick Burns (verified owner) –
I’ve been with this course through several iterations of their training website. It is by far the best resource/training for Power Query. The Advanced M Techniques module alone are worth the price of admission. I especially like that they keep adding new content as the application (Excel / Power BI) changes.
Angelique (verified owner) –
This is the best laid out, in depth training I’ve found for Power Query. The break downs of and progressions towards a deeper understanding are really helpful and have given me ways of being able to do just about anything I need with Power Query. Thank you Skillwave
Jeff (verified owner) –
I was faced with a pile of disparate Excel tools filled with old MS Queries and Vlookups to make sense of. Then I found Power Query and realized there was a better way and I needed to learn it. But so many courses and programs take a more academic-style approach to teaching this stuff. As the solo figure-out-er of all things data and technology at my company, I need answers to specific challenges, fast. I don’t need a drawn-out, A-Z explanation of all M functions. I just don’t have the time.
That is the difference I found at Skillwave, and why I chose to invest here (and continue to renew). The reasons for a lesson are not as much about “how completely will you know Power Query, M, Power BI, DAX, Excel..” but instead about “do you have the tools and techniques to solve the real business challenge you’re facing”. And it’s obvious that the instructors are using their experience doing just that, as the foundation for course topics. While there is certainly a flow from fundamental to advanced, there are real use-cases baked into every single lesson. I’ve built translation tools for customer POs to be consumed by our ERP, used List.Generate in complex forecasting tools to traverse multiple levels of bills of materials to produce what-if scenarios. And I use Power Query just about every day to wrangle datasets for various reasons. But I couldn’t write a test on M syntax, because that isn’t my goal. So if you’re like me in your learning needs, I can save you the time scouring the web like I did. This is your one-stop shop.
Benjamin (verified owner) –
I have learned so much from this course and love having a subscription so that I get updates as they come out. The format is great, the presentations are clear and well organized. This is some of the best training I have ever taken and I have taken a lot of training. I highly recommend Skillwave. I started learning about Power Query when Bill Jelen introduced me to M is for Data Monkey and it had not even been published yet. Sign up and subscribe! You will not regret it!
Wilfried (verified owner) –
I’m very content, best course I’ve ever bought. Thank you.
Thomas (verified owner) –
A well structured very helpful intro course into the power of Power Query. First class training done by the best instructors and real experts. I love how it is presented. The recipes are very handy and helpful.
Matias (verified owner) –
I wish I had found this course before I undertook a big project. It would have saved me untold hours of trial and error.
The course is laid out with sound instructional techniques, high-quality presentations and thoughtfully designed practical exercises to apply what you learn.
I highly endorse the Power Query Academy course to anyone who wants to learn Power Query.
Matthias (verified owner) –
I wholeheartedly recommend Power Query Academy!
I learned first about Power Query in 2017 and I just love it and use it for so many data issues in Excel and Power BI. Therefore when I joined Power Query Academy in 2019 I was already quite experienced and had already two other good(!) Power Query courses under the belt. Nevertheless this well-structured course taught me a lot of new tricks and techniques. Each video does not only teach a course topic but is also filled with helpful tips and gems which make it so much easier to work with Power Query. Ken, Miguel and Matt know what they do, teach it well and they continue to add regularly new content to the course.
On top of this Ken, Miguel and Matt also help you in the forum with any question you might have regarding the course content and when you have problems applying your new knowledge to your own data tasks.
As a bonus to the course you get also a good, not techie book “M is for (Data) Monkey” and recipe cards.
matthew wagner (verified owner) –
This course is absolutely fantastic! I love the in depth approach to all the topics contained in the syllabus. I like to watch the videos multiple times and I often pick up something new or gain a firmer understanding of the material with each view. I do not know how I got along before without having an understanding of Power Query. It has been a game changer at work. I used to go to the guy that knew Excel for help, now he comes to me! I have other co-workers that also request my assistance. It has been quite rewarding applying my knowledge and I owe it to Ken, Matt and Miguel. I love their teaching style!! I often find it to be a great way to relax and forget about the other stresses of life as I sit back and focus on the lesson. I highly recommend this course.
Stanton (verified owner) –
Learning Power Query has made it possible to see a 1000% increase in my work productivity. Providing a client the ability to transform data that took them days to format in a useable form to virtually a mouse click was terrific. Power Query Academy provided me with the tools and understanding to do just that. The Skillwave formula of comprehensive training through video and working examples is the best way I’ve found to learn. Once again, thank you, Ken, Matt, and Miguel.
Steffen (verified owner) –
Your new lessons on “Allocating Values to Periods” are absolutely brilliant! The lessons on this have been so helpful to me that I have viewed them several times and have already been able to apply them in practice several times. Thank you for these great Power Query lessons! The practical use-cases of your videos is exactly what I needed and what convinced me being part of Power Query Academy!
Beverly Bruce (verified owner) –
I am transitioning into a BA role and my coworker suggested I google Ken Puls. I am so happy I did that and took this course. I would not recommend it for anyone who is not disciplined but they break it down so that anyone can understand it. This is so empowering! Thank you.
Sara Brown (verified owner) –
I loved the detailed examples
Avinash (verified owner) –
Thank you to the course instructors for sharing their knowledge on this topic! I liked that the course showed several Power Query features through examples, reviewed important topics that users will see everyday, and then built upon them to more advanced M topics. It was a great course!
Jorrit Ruigrok (verified owner) –
I like the complete set of information, and that it is updated regularly.
Benjamen (verified owner) –
I liked transforming dirty data to something usable from multiple sources. I use the skills acquired almost daily. Almost all of the lessons are easy to follow and understand. All instructors are really good, but Ken is great. I hope to take other courses.
Julie Meadows (verified owner) –
I loved how many lessons there were and how they were broken down. As an auditory learner I had some trouble with the voices switching often at first.
Darren G, CPA (verified owner) –
Power Query is saving us heaps of time and enabling us to create reports that we were not previously able to do. I can’t speak highly enough of it and the Skillwave training!
Matthew Wagner (verified owner) –
I loved the course! Now I am going to go back to lesson number #1 and do it again!! I liked the thorough nature by which the material was presented. Loved “going under the hood”!
Holly D. (verified owner) –
As a beginner, I loved how detailed the course was. It was a great course!
Bryan Dimick (verified owner) –
The course was well documented and detailed. Plus, the flow of the training was easy to follow, well designed. Luckily, I was used to the methodology having witnessed some of the videos in prior google searches. Plus, I recently worked through the M is for (Data) Monkey book. I love the recipes, as I am not always doing reports (broad responsibilities), so being able to flip back to the recipes and videos will help me when I have long gaps of being away from PQ or P-BI.
Bernard Clark (verified owner) –
I liked that it was self-paced, provided tips for organisation and possible gotchas (e.g., “remove errors before nulls”), steps for alternative ways to solve problems, and an insight to M language using trial and error.
Tom (verified owner) –
I liked the course structure. Explanations are easy to follow. Demos very well done, and very easy to follow. Very hands-on. Feedback support via the forum was excellent – very responsive and good advice. Gave solid information that can be applied quickly to real business problems. Great course! Thoroughly enjoyed it. We’ve already applied learnings from the course to hands-on work at our company.
Michael T (verified owner) –
I liked how clear each subject was and how thoroughly each topic was explained.
Judith Calvo (verified owner) –
It is so well organized and easy to understand. Kudos on an awesome course!
João Teixeira (verified owner) –
Great Instructors! Very clean explanations and a very comprehensive course!
Haydee Mera Escalante (verified owner) –
I really enjoyed learning techniques and tricks to solve problems that are frequently found when cleaning data to generate reports. In general, the course seemed very good to me. The inclusion of subtitles in the videos helps me to better understand the content, since English is not my native language. I thank you for the course, I have learned a lot in these months. I will continue to advance with other courses that I have activated on your platform.
JB (verified owner) –
I liked the depth and breadth of coverage. Simple explanations and real-world use cases. Course materials were well-organized and easy to use.
Chris Aragao (verified owner) –
I think there is a wealth of information and the trainers were excellent.
Melanie Lacroix (verified owner) –
I love seeing the steps on video. I also enjoy your approach to teaching. Wonderful course! Thank you so much!
Edmond Dzimah (verified owner) –
I liked the elaborate and practical explanations.
John Giger (verified owner) –
I liked the well-structured lessons, practical tips throughout the lessons, and very understandable explanations; simply a great course. I appreciate that the lessons get an update regularly.
Colin (verified owner) –
I liked the comprehensive coverage of the content, logical flow, articulate explanation, and easy-to-follow demos.