I'm a CPA: How I Analyze Sales & Revenue with SQL (Start Here)
Learn SQL for data analysis with this beginner tutorial using real sales data.
In this SQL tutorial for beginners, you’ll learn the core SQL basics by working through a practical sales data example in a free SQL Playground. Instead of using abstract examples, we’ll analyse realistic business data including revenue, cost, profit, customers, products, regions, and monthly trends.
This video is designed for beginners who want to learn SQL for data analysis, SQL for data analyst roles, business reporting, dashboards, or practical workplace analysis.
You’ll learn how to:
View a table using SELECT
Choose specific columns for analysis
Sort results with ORDER BY
Filter rows with WHERE
Combine filters with AND
Create calculated columns in SQL
Calculate gross profit and gross margin percentage
Summarise data with GROUP BY
Analyse sales by region, product category, customer, and month
Follow along using the free SQL Playground:
https://sqldemo.financedatapro.com/
Download the full query list:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z...
Starter queries from the video:
1. View the sales data
SELECT *
FROM sales_data_flat
LIMIT 10;
2. Show selected columns
SELECT
sale_date,
customer_name,
product_name,
units,
revenue
FROM sales_data_flat
LIMIT 20;
3. Revenue by region
SELECT
region,
SUM(revenue) AS total_revenue
FROM sales_data_flat
GROUP BY region
ORDER BY total_revenue DESC;
This is the first video in a practical SQL data analysis series. In future lessons, we’ll build on this with SQL GROUP BY, SQL joins, date analysis, customer analysis, product analysis, margins, trends, and dashboard-style reporting queries.
Chapters:
00:00 Learn SQL with practical sales data
00:29 What this beginner SQL tutorial covers
01:19 Open the SQL Playground
01:47 View the sales_data_flat table
03:26 Select specific columns
04:38 Sort results with ORDER BY
05:59 Filter data with WHERE
08:11 Combine filters with AND
09:38 Create calculated columns
11:26 Calculate gross margin percentage
13:04 Summarise data with GROUP BY
14:35 Analyse sales by product category
16:58 Find top customers
18:39 Monthly sales trend
20:02 Recap and next lesson