flyline for business intelligence
Excel has stood the test of time for a reason: It’s easy to use, powerful, and versatile across countless use cases. Whether you’re managing a small business or a complex operation, Excel’s familiar tools for analysis—pivot tables, charts, and formulas—are hard to beat.
In this post, we’ll explore how flyline integrates with Excel, allowing users to easily query a data warehouse, and how to further enhance it with Excel’s most popular functions, including dynamic array (spillover) formulas.
Imagine you’re managing a retail business with locations across the Northeast. You want to evaluate how your locations have been performing by analyzing sales trends across different regions. Traditionally, you’d rely on your business intelligence team to pull this data from a data lakehouse—if they have the time. But not every business has a team of engineers on standby, and waiting for queries can create bottlenecks.
With flyline, you can connect to your data warehouse directly within Excel, allowing you to import data in seconds—no SQL, no delays.
Query cloud data into excel in seconds with flyline
Flyline makes it easy to query any number of items from your data lakehouse directly into Excel. Whether you’re pulling sales figures, regional performance data, or stock levels, flyline ensures your data is accessible and ready to use. When working with dynamic data, you often don’t know the size of the dataset in advance. This is where Excel’s dynamic array functions are invaluable—they allow data to automatically expand across adjacent cells without any manual adjustments.
Excel dynamic array functions
In our Excel workbook, we’ll use three sheets: Data, Calculations, and Dashboard. The Data sheet will hold the imported data from a data warehouse via flyline. Calculations will be… you guessed it… where we run our calculations, essentially our “scratch paper” for analysis, and Dashboard will be a stylized overview of key metrics.
One of the first functions we’ll use is FILTER, which helps populate the Calculations sheet with the data imported by flyline:
=FILTER(Data!A:M, Data!A:A <> "")
This formula dynamically pulls all non-empty cells from the Data sheet, keeping the Calculations sheet up to date with the latest data. The FILTER function automatically adjusts to the size of the imported data, whether it’s 100 rows or 1,000 rows, so you don’t need to worry about manual range changes or empty cells disrupting your formulas.
Now, let’s see how FILTER and its spillover behavior can help us focus on specific subsets of data. For example, if we want to quickly view leases that are expiring soon, we can apply a FILTER formula to retrieve only relevant rows—say, columns D through G for leases marked as “Active” in column G. The spillover feature will automatically fill adjacent cells with matching data, giving us an up-to-date subset to work with. From here, we can use conditional formatting to highlight upcoming expirations or apply formulas to calculate metrics like the average lease duration.
Building pivot tables and charts with spillover data
Pivot tables are one of Excel’s most powerful tools. With dynamic data, you can create pivot tables that automatically update as new data flows in.
Here’s an example: We’ve built a pivot table to show the Sum of Sales by Month for each Region. From this data, we generate a chart to visually explore which regions are performing well and identify any sales patterns.
However, the first chart is too cluttered—we don’t need data for both 2022 and 2023. Instead, we just want to look at the last four months.
Dynamically filter data with flyline
With traditional pivot tables, you’d need to manually filter out the unwanted months every time you build a new chart or adjust your analysis. But with flyline, filtering becomes a breeze.
Flyline allows you to apply dynamic filters directly in the app interface. Simply specify the date range you want—for example, greater than August 2023 and less than January 2024—and the imported data will automatically reflect the new criteria. This will in turn update our Calculations sheet and subsequent tables and charts.
Maximizing Excel’s capabilities with flyline
By integrating flyline into your workflow, you’re not just getting easy access to cloud data—you’re also unlocking the full potential of Excel.
- Dynamic array functions ensure your data stays dynamic and adaptable.
- Pivot tables and charts allow you to quickly visualize and analyze trends.
- Dynamic filtering through flyline keeps your data focused and relevant, without the need for manual adjustments.
Whether you’re running a retail operation, analyzing financial data, or tracking real estate performance, flyline ensures you’re always working with up-to-date information in the most efficient way possible.
Simple, powerful, and efficient analysis with flyline and Excel
In this guide, we’ve shown you how flyline supercharges Excel, bringing your data warehouse to your fingertips with real-time updates, dynamic array functions, and powerful pivot tables. Imagine the time and effort saved across your organization by allowing users to access and analyze data without waiting for SQL queries or manual updates.
If you’re ready to transform your data workflow and empower your team to make data-driven decisions faster, take the next step:
Schedule a free demo today and get the most out of your spreadsheets!