Alteryx Data Preparation and Workflow Analytics Training Course

Course overview

Operational data is often spread across spreadsheets, CRM exports, finance systems, databases and shared folders, leaving analysts to repeat manual cleansing, matching and reporting tasks. This course helps professionals replace fragile, copy-and-paste processes with repeatable Alteryx workflows that can combine data sources, apply documented rules and produce trusted analytical outputs. It is designed for people who need to deliver data faster while making transformations easier to review, maintain and hand over.

Participants learn to build workflows in Alteryx Designer using the Input Data, Select, Filter, Formula, Join, Union, Summarize, Cross Tab and Output Data tools. They practise profiling data quality, standardising fields, parsing text, handling null values, removing duplicates, joining records with different structures and applying business rules through formulas. The course also covers workflow configuration, annotations, containers, macros, error handling, scheduling considerations and techniques for preparing analytical datasets for Excel, Tableau and database reporting.

Instructor-led demonstrations are followed by guided build exercises using realistic sales, customer, operational and financial datasets. Throughout the week, participants create, test and improve a multi-stage workflow that brings together source files, cleans and reconciles records, calculates measures and publishes a reporting-ready dataset. They leave with a completed Alteryx workflow package, reusable workflow design patterns, a validation checklist and a certificate on completion.

The course is suited to analysts and reporting professionals moving from spreadsheet-led preparation to governed, repeatable analytics workflows, as well as managers seeking to reduce the time and risk associated with recurring data preparation.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Build repeatable Alteryx Designer workflows that ingest Excel, CSV and database data
• Profile source data using field metadata, frequency analysis and data-quality checks
• Clean and standardise datasets using Select, Data Cleansing, Formula and Multi-Field Formula tools
• Join, union and reconcile records using key matching, join outputs and exception analysis
• Create calculated measures and business rules with Alteryx expressions and conditional logic
• Design auditable workflows with annotations, tool containers, configuration settings and validation checkpoints
• Produce reporting-ready output files and database tables with controlled field structures
• Package a documented end-to-end workflow for peer review, handover and operational reuse

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Data Analysts — who prepare recurring datasets for reporting, dashboards and business analysis
• Business Intelligence Analysts — who need reliable source data before building dashboards and semantic models
• Reporting Analysts — who spend substantial time consolidating spreadsheet and system extracts
• Operations Analysts — who reconcile operational records and investigate exceptions across systems
• Finance Analysts — who combine transaction, budget and actuals data for controlled reporting
• Data Engineers — who support business-led analytics workflows and require practical Alteryx capability

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable working with tables in Microsoft Excel, including columns, filters, basic formulas and CSV files. They should understand common data concepts such as records, fields, data types, unique identifiers and duplicate values. Prior Alteryx experience is not required; the course starts with the Designer interface and core workflow tools. Basic SQL awareness is useful when connecting to databases but is not essential. Participants do not need programming, statistics, data science or advanced database administration skills. Complete beginners to Alteryx should expect a practical introduction followed by progressively more involved workflow-building exercises.

Training methodology

The course combines focused instructor-led explanation with frequent hands-on work in Alteryx Designer. Participants build workflows against supplied business datasets rather than following isolated tool demonstrations. Exercises cover customer data cleansing, sales-file consolidation, transaction matching and exception reporting, with instructor review of workflow logic and output quality. Small-group discussions examine alternative join strategies, validation controls and maintainable workflow layouts. On the final day, each participant applies the methods to an end-to-end workflow scenario and identifies a suitable process to automate after the course.

Course outline

Day 1: Alteryx foundations and data profiling

• Alteryx Designer interface, canvas, configuration pane and Results window
• Workflow creation, saving, naming conventions and file dependencies
• Input Data tool configuration for Excel, CSV and database sources
• Field metadata, data types, record counts and browse results
• Select tool field management and data-type conversion
• Data profiling with Frequency Table, Field Summary and Browse tools
• Workflow annotations, tool comments and basic container use

Workshop: Build a source-assessment workflow that imports three operational files, profiles key fields and produces a data-quality findings table.

Day 2: Cleaning and transforming business data

• Data Cleansing tool settings for nulls, whitespace and unwanted characters
• Formula tool expressions, operators, functions and conditional statements
• Date, string and numeric transformation functions
• Filter and Record ID tools for controlled record selection
• Text to Columns, RegEx and parsing semi-structured text fields
• Multi-Field Formula and Dynamic Rename for repeated field transformations
• Unique, Sample and Sort tools for duplicate management and quality review

Workshop: Clean and standardise a customer extract, producing a documented master dataset and a separate duplicate-record review output.

Day 3: Combining, matching and reconciling datasets

• Join tool outputs for matched, left-unmatched and right-unmatched records
• Join Multiple and Append Fields use cases
• Union tool configuration by position, field name and manual mapping
• Fuzzy Match strategies for inconsistent names and addresses
• Find Replace tool for reference-data enrichment
• Summarize tool aggregation, grouping and distinct counts
• Cross Tab and Transpose tools for reshaping reporting datasets

Workshop: Reconcile monthly sales transactions against a customer reference file and produce matched, unmatched and summary exception outputs.

Day 4: Workflow engineering, validation and output delivery

• Tool containers for workflow structure, documentation and selective execution
• Workflow configuration, runtime settings and constants
• Error handling with test conditions, message tools and controlled exceptions
• Data validation checks using record counts, totals and key-field tests
• Output Data tool options for Excel, CSV and database destinations
• Output field ordering, formatting and reporting-ready data structures
• Workflow dependencies, packaging and handover with YXWZ files

Workshop: Enhance a sales-preparation workflow with validation checkpoints, exception messaging, structured outputs and a packaged handover file.

Day 5: Reusable analytics workflows and workplace application

• Macro concepts and reusable workflow components
• Batch macros and iterative macro use cases
• Analytic Apps and interface tools for controlled user inputs
• Preparing Alteryx outputs for Tableau and Excel reporting
• Alteryx Server concepts for publishing, scheduling and governance
• Workflow performance review and efficient tool sequencing
• Workflow review checklist, peer feedback and application prioritisation

Workshop: Complete an end-to-end workflow that consolidates, cleans, reconciles and publishes reporting data, then create an application plan for a live workplace process.

Tools & standards covered

Alteryx Designer, Alteryx Server, Microsoft Excel, Tableau

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions