Your decision makers need much better knowledge.
Much sooner.
A new Excel strategy frees your analysts from manual-update work — so they can spend their time producing the business knowledge and understanding your managers need.
WHY YOUR MANAGERS ARE ALWAYS ONE STEP BEHIND
Your analysts have the data. They just don't have time to think about it.
The problem isn't your people. It's what you have them doing.
Accenture surveyed CFOs in 550 companies with revenues greater than $1 billion. What they found should alarm every manager who depends on Excel-based reporting and analysis:
"FP&A teams spend 85% of their time on tactical and labor-intensive production tasks and only 15% on generating insights."
— Accenture survey of CFOs in 550 companies with revenues exceeding $1 billion
That 85% isn't analysis. It's manually copy-pasting data, manually fixing number formats, manually searching for errors, and manually rebuilding the same outputs, period after period.
For managers, that means that the people best positioned to help you understand what's happening and why are wasted. That's because your Excel users spend most of their time on mindless, manual work that produces no new knowledge or understanding. We call their cluttered, fragile, randomly created workbooks Frankenbooks.
Frankenbooks aren't caused by a staffing problem. They're a structural problem. And the structure can be fixed. You'll see the difference in the two 50-second videos just below.
The videos show Charley Kyd's Excel Data Plumbing (EDP) Strategy in action. Charley is an MBA, a former CFO, a 10-year Excel MVP, the author of four Excel books, and the inventor of Excel dashboards.
His EDP Strategy flows data, like water, from multiple sources to tables in your workbook. Then it flows the data, through any number of transformations, to any number of reports, plans, and analyses — collectively known as reflows.
As you'll see in the first video, the data flows with one command, using Excel's Power Query feature. The EDP-enabled, consistently structured workbooks are called flowbooks, and the people who create them are called Excel Data Plumbers, or just Plumbers.
THE PROOF
Flowbooks in Action
Two 50-second videos show fast-updating flowbooks and fast-interacting analyses.
These two, 50-second, AI-narrated videos show what EDP-trained analysts can deliver.
This first video shows how you can generate a P&L in about 40 seconds. Notice the Scaling settings. We display millions or billions of dollars for large companies and thousands or ones for small companies.
The next video shows interactive analysis that reveals a pattern that probably will intrigue your CFO.
Although only one transformation is shown here, you could set up dozens, exploring thousands of combinations at less than two seconds each with the Transformations slicer.
What you've just seen isn't a special case. It's what the EDP Strategy makes routine.
When analysts stop spending most of their time on manual updates and start investing it on knowledge production, the value they deliver to the firm increases significantly, as the financial case below demonstrates.
The sections that follow explore what that shift looks like in practice: for the analysts who build flowbooks, for the managers who depend on them, and for the senior executives who finally get the knowledge and understanding they need.
The first section below, for instance, reveals an unexpected benefit for Excel users, a benefit that makes them significantly more valuable to your company.
THE SOLUTION
The Excel Data Plumbing Strategy: build fast, update forever
The Excel Data Plumbing (EDP) Strategy includes a complete workbook architecture that automates recurring Excel update work, and also makes new builds faster.
Plumbers build flowbooks: structured workbooks where data flows in automatically, transforms predictably, and produces finished outputs with one command.
Once built, admins with no Excel expertise can update them forever. Flowbooks use ordinary Excel — no add-ins, no VBA, no special software.
They're also much faster to build than traditional workbooks. Standard Excel templates only help with formatting the presentations. Flowbook templates include complete data infrastructure: imports, transformations, settings, outputs. Plumbers start nearly finished instead of building from scratch every time.
The result: Plumbers build once, admins update forever. Nearly all the Plumber's time becomes available for work that serves managers: researching what numbers mean, explaining changes, spotting patterns, answering questions, etc.
BEFORE EDP
Analyst spends most of their time on update work.
Managers get canned reports, often late.
There's little time for context, explanation, or new questions.
Every report is rebuilt manually each period.
Templates only help with formatting, not data flow.
Knowledge lives in the analyst's head, not the workbook.
When analysts leave, the process leaves with them.
AFTER EDP
Admins update reports with one command.
Plumbers spend their freed-up time researching, analyzing, and explaining.
Managers get their reports, plus context, interpretation, and answers.
New flowbooks start nearly finished using templates already connected to the data.
Templates also include automated error checking, with error alerts.
Flowbooks are reusable, transferable, and team-maintained.
Knowledge is built into the workbook architecture.
That shift — from drudgeworker to knowledge producer and explainer — is what changes the quality and timeliness of what managers receive. Not marginally. Fundamentally.
WHAT CHANGES FOR DECISION MAKERS
Managers get knowledge and understanding, not more reports, unless they want them.
When Plumbers stop updating and start thinking, the character of what reaches management changes entirely.
01
Answers to current questions managers are asking
Standard reports answer the questions that existed when the report was first designed. A Plumber with time to think can answer the questions managers asked this morning, because building a tailored reflow takes minutes or hours, not days or weeks.
02
Internal data placed in external context
Your Plumbers can connect your revenue, margin, and operational data to external signals. Perhaps like tariff changes, commodity prices, competitor results, economic indicators, or industry trends. That context explains not just what happened, but why, and what might happen next.
03
Control over timing and priority, not IT
Every standard reporting system puts the work queue in IT's hands. So when managers need new analyses or modified reports, they submit a request and wait. They have no control over when it will be done, or by whom. With the EDP Strategy, managers control who does the work and how urgently it gets done. Domain managers set the schedule. IT doesn't.
04
Alerts and error detection, not just periodic summaries
When Plumbers have time to build strategic alerts, they can flag changes quickly: like a demand shift, a margin squeeze, a supplier risk, or a competitive move. Managers learn about changes when they start, not after they've already done damage. Similarly, flowbooks can raise errors when reports don't reconcile with source data, or when they fail other tests.
05
Explanation, not just numbers
The hardest part of most reports isn't generating the numbers. It's understanding what they mean. A Plumber with time to think can explain the story behind the data, and deliver that explanation alongside the output, in plain language, tailored to the challenge at hand.
06
A team that can research almost any question the business needs answered
When analysts are no longer consumed by periodic update work, they become available for something most managers have never had: a team with the time, energy, and company knowledge to research nearly any topic for which internal or external data exists. That capability doesn't require new-hires or consultants. It requires freeing the people you already have.
WHAT THIS MEANS BY ROLE
One strategy. A different payoff at every level.
How EDP delivers distinct benefits to Excel users, their managers, and senior executives.
EXCEL USERS / PLUMBERS
From update drudge to knowledge producer
You stop spending 85% of your time rebuilding the same reports and start devoting it to research, analysis, and explanation. Your job becomes more interesting, more visible, and significantly more secure. That's because knowledge producers aren't replaceable the way manual updaters are.
MANAGERS OF EXCEL TEAMS
From report factory to analytical resource
Your team stops being the people who crank out canned reports each period. Instead, they become the people senior leaders call when they need to understand something. You reposition a cost center as a strategic asset, without adding headcount.
CFOS
From reactive reporting to anticipatory intelligence
You get the faster decision cycles, and cleaner data workflows that modern finance demands. Your analysts finally spend their time on what they were hired for, not on the high-pressure, manual production work that has been consuming them.
CEOS
Turning analysts into a strategic engine
Your teams of analysts finally have time to research any question that bears on the business, using any internal or external data that exists—and explain their findings clearly. In a volatile environment, that capability may be worth more than any single strategic initiative.
WHY THIS WORKS WHEN OTHER APPROACHES DON'T
Power Query moves data. The EDP Strategy designs how it flows.
Most attempts to fix Excel productivity address the wrong problem. They automate the import. They don't automate the entire reporting chain.
Power Query alone creates a new kind of chaos
Power Query is a valuable feature; it imports data. But without a larger design strategy, it produces half-automated workbooks that still require manual interaction every period. The analyst still has to touch the file. The update burden persists. The knowledge deficit persists.
The EDP Strategy isn't a feature. It's a complete workbook architecture, a design for how data should enter a workbook, transform, calculate, and produce finished output with no analytical judgment required at the update step. That's what makes admin-run updates possible.
BI tools put the wrong people in control
Every standard reporting system, including BI platforms, ERP outputs, and IT-built dashboards, shares the same structural flaw: the report is controlled by programmers, not by the people who understand the business. When conditions change and new questions arise, the reports don't adapt. You wait for answers.
EDP introduces Recipient-Driven Intelligence. Unlike programmers, Plumbers are Subject Matter Experts who understand the business from the recipient's perspective. When tomorrow brings new questions, SMEs build new answers — in hours, not days.
"Forcing a Plumber to run periodic reports is like forcing a racehorse to pull a plow.
"EDP puts flowbooks into production so admins can handle the updates. That gives Plumbers the time and energy to focus on work that requires their skills, education, experience, and creativity."
— Charley Kyd, founder, EDP Institute
ADVANCED APPLICATION
When your team is ready: The Concierge Plumber
Once Plumbers are free from update work, a new model becomes possible — one that gives senior executives something they have always wanted but rarely received.
Like a concierge physician who gives important patients priority access, Concierge Plumbers devote part of their time directly to a senior manager — providing exactly the information and understanding that executive wants to see. Not the standard package. Not the generic dashboard. The specific views of the business that help that manager understand what is happening and make better decisions faster.
Most of their time, however, is devoted to their team's other analytical work.
"Executives finally get the knowledge and understanding they've always wanted, in the format that's the easiest to digest. It's tailored to the challenges they're currently facing, and updated on demand."
For the Plumber, the Concierge model is an accelerated education in how decisions at the top actually get made. It's the kind of exposure that normally takes years to earn.
For the team's manager, it repositions the entire function: from a reporting department that delivers standard outputs to a strategic analytical resource that senior leaders actively request access to.
The Concierge Plumber model requires no separate program and no special hiring. It requires Plumbers with flowbook architecture and a manager willing to make the introduction to senior leadership.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Your Golden Portfolio
As you complete each phase of EDP training, you accumulate tangible, executive-quality proof of both your technical skills and business judgment.
Unlike traditional Excel courses that teach features without context, EDP training requires you to build complete flowbooks using real external data. It's the same data sources available to any potential employer or colleague. This creates something remarkable: a collection of working, executive-quality reflows that you can demonstrate to anyone.
"Your Golden Portfolio becomes your professional calling card. It's work you can show managers, use in interviews, and reference in promotion conversations."
Each flowbook in your portfolio demonstrates not just your obviously impressive Excel skills, but more importantly, your business thinking. With earlier help from AI, you can point out diverging trends, hidden patterns, incompatible metrics, reasons for volatility, and so.
Because the portfolio uses public business and economic data, you can share it freely. There are no proprietary concerns, and no confidentiality restrictions. You can walk into any organization and show them data they care most about — like their own data if they're a public company.
The result is a professional asset unlike anything traditional Excel training creates: proof that you can turn data into decision-making intelligence, delivered in the form that matters most, with working examples.
THE FINANCIAL CASE
You are already paying for this capacity. You just aren't receiving it.
Research reveals the staggering amount of analytical talent currently wasted on manually reporting with Excel.
If your analysts devote only 15% of their time to generate knowledge and understanding, as Accenture's research found, then you need 6.67 analysts on staff to produce the full-time equivalent of one Plumber. So each analyst on your current team has the equivalent of 5.67 additional analysts' worth of untapped capacity — if the burden of canned updating were removed.
At a $100,000 fully loaded salary, that untapped capacity represents $567,000 per analyst, per year in untapped capacity.
EDP training costs a tiny fraction of that amount. A Plumber keeps delivering more value every year, with no additional training cost after the first year.
"If you have a stubborn middle that's refusing to learn how to 10X their efficiencies and productivity, they're probably going to have to go."
— Gina Mastantuono, President & CFO, ServiceNow | Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal, March 2026
Manual report updating is precisely the work that AI, automation, and lower-cost labor will replace first. Analysts who continue doing it aren't building toward a more secure future — they're holding a position that's already being eliminated. Managers who reskill their teams now will have a uniquely valuable resource when that pressure arrives. Managers who don't will be managing a function that no longer exists.
YOUR MEMBERSHIP
What the EDP Institute gives you
Your $197/month Founding Member enrollment delivers three things directly, and makes three more possible.
What you receive
What you build
The EDP Curriculum — 12 months of structured training covering flowbook architecture, AI integration, report delivery, executive dashboards, and batch automation. Each month includes example workbooks, step-by-step PDF lessons, and GenAI prompts for the moments where your Excel knowledge has a gap.
The EDP Mastermind Forum — A peer community of working Plumbers. Bring unusual executive requests, unfamiliar data formats, new report structures, and delivery challenges. Your peers have faced similar problems. Included in membership, not a separate tier.
The EDP Substack — An ongoing publication translating the latest research from McKinsey, HBR, MIT Sloan, and Bain into practical flowbook approaches you can implement immediately.
Excel Ultra-Productivity — You stop spending most of your time manually updating canned reports and start spending it on knowledge production. That shift doesn't happen gradually. It happens the moment your first flowbook replaces your first Frankenbook.
Your Golden Portfolio — Executive-quality proof of skill and business judgment, built from public data as you complete each training phase. Work you can show managers, use in interviews, and reference in promotion conversations.
The Concierge Plumber Capability — As your skills develop, you become qualified to work directly with senior leaders. You give them precisely the knowledge and understanding they need, on their schedule, in the format they want.
Founding Member Enrollment
$197 / month · 12-month program · Cancel any time · 30-day full refund
Pricing will increase toward $500/month as the Institute expands. Founding members lock in today's rate. Each team member enrolls individually. No separate team checkout is required.
For faster implementation, a limited number of consulting engagements are available; contact support at EDPInstitute dot com.
30-day full refund · Beginner Excel knowledge is enough to start · Built on stable Excel features, not the latest releases
COMMON QUESTIONS
What people ask before they enroll
The most important questions prospects ask—and the answers that help them decide.
I already use Power Query. Do I still need this?
Yes — and the distinction matters. Power Query imports data. That's useful. But without a larger design strategy, it creates half-automated workbooks that still require manual interaction each period. You've automated the first step and left the rest unchanged. The EDP Strategy is a complete architecture. It designs how data flows through the entire workbook so the update step requires no analytical judgment. That's what makes admin-run updates possible. Power Query is a feature. EDP is the system that makes the feature fully productive.
Will automating my reports make my job redundant?
The opposite. Canned report updating is exactly the work AI, automation, and cheaper labor will replace first. When you stop manually updating and start producing knowledge and understanding, you don't remove yourself from the process. You remove the drudgery that prevents you from doing the work your leaders are glad to pay for. The EDP Strategy doesn't automate you out of a job. It automates you into a much better one.
Do I need advanced Excel skills to start?
No. A beginner's knowledge of Excel is enough. The strategy is built on features that have been stable for more than a dozen years. When you encounter a formula or Power Query step you haven't used before, the GenAI prompts included in your lessons help you close that gap quickly. So you keep moving instead of stalling.
Is this just another Excel course?
No! And the distinction matters. Excel courses teach features. You could complete every Excel course ever offered and still spend most of your time manually updating reports every month. The EDP Strategy teaches the complete workbook architecture: a complete design strategy for how recurring reporting work should be structured so it can run without you. That's a different category of skill entirely.
Is this right for my whole team?
Yes, for three reasons.
First, it teaches your team to produce dramatically more business value than they do now.
Second, it establishes a consistent, standardized approach. So any team member can maintain, update, or build on flowbooks created by anyone else. Knowledge stays with the organization, not just the person who built the file. Onboarding becomes faster. Turnover becomes less damaging. The team operates as a system rather than a collection of private methods.
Third, with your entire team following the same strategy, it benefits from Experience Curve effects. That makes your team collectively more productive than isolated members would be on their own.
What if Excel changes and the strategy breaks?
The EDP Strategy is intentionally built on Excel features that have been stable for more than a dozen years. Users shouldn't have to chase new releases in search of ways to become more productive. With EDP, you build on a dependable foundation and spend your energy on the business, not on adapting to whatever features Microsoft added in recent updates.
Your managers need better knowledge much sooner. Your analysts can deliver it — if they aren't buried in Excel drudgework.
The Excel Data Plumbing Strategy fixes the structural problem that's keeping your best subject matter experts from doing their best analytical work.
Founding price: $197/month · 30-day full refund · Cancel any time
© EDP Institute · Developed by Charley Kyd · Former CFO · 10-Year Microsoft Excel MVP · MBA
Contact: support at EDPInstitute dot com