Excel Dashboard School was launched in 2013 with one clear mission: to help users open the full potential of Excel, not through shortcuts, but through understanding. What began as a solo project has since evolved into a learning-first platform, powered by a small team of developers and Excel thinkers who build, share, and support everything in-house.
From hands-on examples to free tools and advanced formula libraries, we focus on practical solutions to real problems. Whether you’re a beginner trying to clean messy data or an expert building recursive logic with LAMBDA, our goal is to make Excel less intimidating — and more inspiring. This site isn’t about following trends. It’s about creating durable resources that make a lasting difference.
Practical Excel, from People Who Use It
Most of our tools — including the popular DataFX and DataXL add-ins — are free to everyone. They weren’t created as commercial products, but as meaningful contributions to the Excel community, developed in-house and shaped by real-world feedback.
The Bigger Picture
We’re a focused team, led by a developer with a teaching mindset, driven by one goal: helping Excel users learn and succeed. This site has been live and active for over 12 years. There have been no pivots, no big rebrands, just steady progress, community focus, and a deep commitment to practical, actionable knowledge.
We’re proud of what we’ve built, and even prouder of the community that’s grown around it.
- In 2013, we launched our first free add-in for Excel and began working with developers and designers who shared his passion. Visual languages enable us to communicate efficiently and universally.
- In 2018, after a few years of development, we released the first version of our chart add-in.
- In 2019, we released the first chart add-in version for Mac Excel.
- In 2020, we launched our YouTube channel to meet the growing demand.
- In 2022, we introduced our free function library, DataFX. The tiny add-in contains hundreds of user-defined functions.
- In 2024, Excelkid.com and ExcelDashboardschool.com websites are joining forces. Additionally, we have rewritten our add-in from the ground up, and it will now be referred to as ChartEngine.
From the first free add-in, through hundreds of blog posts and YouTube tutorials, to today’s advanced solutions — the spirit hasn’t changed: Knowledge first. Commercial only if it adds value. Get ready, because we are coming with many surprises. Let the adventure begin!
Our core values
Excel is growing, and more and more people use it every day. As it grows, it changes frequently.
We believe that sharing Excel knowledge is necessary: We have shared over 300 tutorials and videos, helping thousands of users master Excel. One of our popular resources, free Excel add-ins, has been downloaded over 500,000 times. Our open-source project, DataXL Office Productivity Suite, has been developed collaboratively with contributions from our global community.
Money matters, but it does not come first: Our core value is users first. For us, users come first. By prioritizing feedback and aligning our tools with real-world needs, we’ve created solutions like the Sankey diagram feature in ChartEngine, directly inspired by our community.
Creating great content and tutorials: Our tutorials range from simple formula breakdowns for beginners to expert-level Excel hacks. Every piece of content is designed to be clear, practical, and immediately useful. We believe in cultivating a positive and inspiring working environment, which directly reflects in the quality of our content.
We believe in innovation and collaboration: Innovation is at the heart of everything we do. By incorporating Microsoft 365’s latest features, like dynamic arrays and advanced Excel formulas, we ensure that our content and tools remain future-proof. By working closely with experts and integrating user feedback, we continually refine and expand our offerings to meet diverse needs.