How Power Query Helped Me Catch a Costly Mistake
How Power Query Helped Me Catch a Costly Mistake
On the surface, the report looked perfect.
Top 3 employees by sales? Check.
Sorted and ready for a bonus decision? Double check.
But then... something felt off.
In this video, I’ll walk you through a real-world data trap that many analysts fall into — and how Power Query helped me spot it before it turned into a costly mistake.
We’ll compare a classic Pivot Table approach with a smarter, more reliable Power Query method, and show why using employee names instead of IDs can completely distort your results.
🧠 What You’ll Learn:
✔️ The hidden dangers of relying on names in your Excel reports
✔️ Why employee IDs are essential for accurate grouping
✔️ How to use Power Query to:
– Group by ID
– Get the latest name
– Calculate total sales
– Fix the false top 3 list
✔️ The kind of mistake that looks small… but can lead to real-world consequences
📌 In This Video:
• Pivot Table gone wrong — and why it happens
• Two employees with the same name? One changed her name last year?
• Power Query steps to clean and verify your data
• A smarter, centralized approach to calculating business metrics
Download the practice file:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 – Another Simple Task
00:19 – Simple Solution?
00:57 – The True Hidden Problem
02:10 – Power Query Fix: Grouping
02:54 – Sorting the Nested Tables
03:53 – Extract the Latest Name
04:24 – Calculating Totals
05:12 – Expanding Values and Sorting
05:37 – Final Thoughts
✅ Like the video if you’ve ever trusted a Pivot Table too quickly!
🔔 Subscribe for More Tutorials:
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✅ Drop a comment: Have you ever seen a “perfect” report… that turned out wrong?
🔗 More from the Channel:
▶️ Power Query Challenge Playlist:
• Power Query: Tip & Tricks
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