PensionsDataStandardDraft1(2)

A (UK) Pensions Data Format Standard – let’s make it happen! (Part 2)

(This is a follow up to part 1 which you can see here. Posted by Patrick Lee on 15 August 2017 at a different location, but migrated here on 05 Feb 2018).

Proposed First Draft

I’ve now completed a first draft of a proposed standard, as a Microsoft Excel file (118kB, so quite small). You can download it here. Comments/criticisms most welcome. Let’s make this happen!

Why Microsoft Excel?

I’ve chosen to put it in an Excel file (as opposed to CSV or other non proprietary formats) for the moment because Excel offers the following advantages:

  • we can put several different worksheets/tables in a single file
  • field headings can have explanatory comments
  • I’ve using colour coding to visually group similar fields.

The goal

Treemap chart in Excel

Useful charts for business/data analysis in Excel 2016

(Posted by Patrick Lee on 10 August 2017 at a different location, but migrated here on 05 Feb 2018).

You may not know that Excel 2016 added some useful new charts for analysing data. I particularly like the Treemap, Box & Whisker and Pareto charts. (The images below are taken from this Microsoft post, please see that link for more detail on these and other charts).

The Treemap gives you a quick view of which categories are most significant: