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Person practising basic Excel skills for work on a laptop at a home desk.

5 Basic Excel Skills for Work (Office & Admin Jobs)

New to Excel and aiming for an office or admin role in the UK? Start with these basic Excel skills for work. These are the excel tasks for admin jobs that employers check in short tests, and you’ll use them every day at work. Download the free practice file and follow the mini exercises to learn fast.

Download the Excel Beginner Practice Workbook (with Answer Key)

Why Excel still matters for office & admin roles

Teams use Excel to track lists, dates, budgets and simple KPIs. Most admin interviews include a quick Excel check. If you can sort and filter, total numbers, show percentages, highlight risks, and make a simple chart, you’re off to a strong start.

How to use this guide (+ download the practice file)

  1. Read each skill: What / Why / Try it.
  2. Open the practice workbook, do the exercise, then repeat it from memory.

5 Excel tasks employers expect (beginner-friendly)

Tip: Use the “Tasks”, “Orders” and “Pivot Source” sheets in the practice file.

1) Sort & Filter

  • What: Reorder your rows and show only the data you need.
  • Why this matters: It’s the fastest way to tidy a big list so you can focus on what’s important.
  • How you’ll use it at work: You’ll quickly narrow lists for checks, reports, and follow-ups (e.g., HR tasks due this month).
  • Try it: On Tasks, sort by Department (A–Z) then Due Date (oldest first). Filter to show only HR items due this month.

2) SUM and COUNT

  • What: Add up amounts and count items.
  • Why this matters: Totals and simple counts appear in almost every office report.
  • How you’ll use it at work: You’ll total costs, hours or orders and count things like overdue tasks or completed forms.
  • Try it: On Orders, use SUM to total Amount (£). On Tasks, use COUNTIF to count how many items have Status = “Overdue”.

3) Percentages

  • What: Turn numbers into simple rates.
  • Why this matters: Percentages make performance easy to understand at a glance.
  • How you’ll use it at work: You’ll show completion rates, response rates and month-on-month changes in simple updates.
  • Try it: On Tasks, work out % completed for each Department (completed tasks ÷ total tasks). Format as %.

4) Conditional Formatting

  • What: Automatically highlight data that needs attention.
  • Why this matters: Issues and progress stand out without manual checking.
  • How you’ll use it at work: You’ll flag risks (overdue, low stock, high cost) and show progress bars for status updates.
  • Try it: On Tasks, highlight rows where Status = “Overdue”. Add data bars to the % Complete column so higher progress looks fuller.

5) Charts (column or line)

  • What: Turn a small summary into a simple chart.
  • Why this matters: Visuals help managers understand results quickly.
  • How you’ll use it at work: You’ll share quick monthly trends or team comparisons in meetings and emails.
  • Try it: Build a two-column summary of Month and Total Amount (£) from Orders (PivotTable or simple totals). Insert a Column chart to show the trend.

Bonus: a simple “Excel interview test” to practise (10–12 mins)

  1. Filter & Sort: Show Sales tasks due this month, sorted by Due Date.
  2. Totals: Sum Amount (£) on Orders and count Overdue tasks.
  3. Percentages: Show % completed by Department.
  4. Risk flag: Use conditional formatting to highlight Overdue tasks.
  5. Quick chart: A Column chart of monthly totals from Orders.

Do this calmly without notes and you’re interview-ready for many entry-level admin roles.

Next steps: free courses & support at ELATT

Want to build your Excel and IT skills? Learn with ELATT’s supportive, career-focused courses and guidance.

  • Business Administration – build office-ready skills and confidence.
  • IT for the Office – get hands-on with Excel and practical IT.

As an ELATT student, you’ll also have access to our Careers & Employability Service for CV checks, applications, interview prep and 1-to-1 career planning.

Apply now – we’ll support you from first steps to job applications.

Download the Excel Beginner Practice Workbook (with Answer Key)

The file helps you practise basic Microsoft Excel skills step by step.

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