Why this matters
If you clean the same kind of file every month, Power Query can do it for you. You show it the cleaning steps once; it records them; next month you click Refresh and every step runs again on the new data. Adverts for MIS officers and Excel specialists name Power Query and reporting automation. Learning it now also prepares you for Power BI, which uses the same engine.
Which version you need
- Desktop Excel for Windows has the full Power Query editor (Data tab, Get Data, or From Table/Range).
- Excel for Microsoft 365 on Mac has the editor too in recent versions (Data tab, Get Data (Power Query)), with fewer data sources than Windows.
- Excel for the web: Microsoft lets Microsoft 365 subscribers view and refresh queries, and keeps the rest, such as building queries, for business and enterprise plans. A free account does not include it.
- Power BI Desktop is free and contains the same Power Query editor, but it runs only on Windows.
So you need a Windows computer with desktop Excel, or a Mac with Excel for Microsoft 365 (at work, school or a hub), or any Windows computer where you can install Power BI Desktop. If you have neither yet, read on: the ideas still apply, and the practice task has a version you can do in any spreadsheet.