Hi, I’m Eijaz.
For over two decades, I’ve been passionate about data and have developed a habit of automating manual processes. If I see someone rebuilding a report by hand each month, I’ll quietly start automating it.
This habit has become my career. For almost twelve years, I led a small team as a Business Intelligence Manager at NielsenIQ. We built Executive/Leadership and Service Dashboards and KPI Frameworks for major FMCG companies like P&G, Unilever, Nestlé, Kraft, and Johnson & Johnson. We also handled less glamorous tasks like ETL pipelines, data models, data governance, and data quality work. We automated about 80% of the global team’s manual processes, reduced reporting cycles by three quarters, and saved on full-time equivalents. Since 2022, I’ve been consulting independently.
Even before dashboards, I started as a VBA developer and Excel has always been my go-to tool. It’s still where most real work happens (think HR, Finance, Marketing, Analytics, Operations, etc.), where things quietly break at 10pm, and is arguably the most underrated skill in the building.
This site addresses a common issue with Excel writing: explanations either provide syntax but lack guidance on usage or offer videos solving non-existent problems. Ask Eijaz offers clear formulas, honest solutions, free workbooks, and no filler for those with two lists, a looming deadline, and a controller waiting.
I hold a BSc in Information Technology from the University of Mumbai and an AICTE-accredited two-year hybrid PGDM in IT Project Management from Welingkar Institute of Management, Development and Research.
If you’re struggling with a spreadsheet, feel free to reach out.
A mid-lease renewal moves two balances by two different amounts, and almost every Excel lease template on the internet only ever tracks one of them. Here's the classic PV + INDEX build, the Excel 365 SCAN engine that spills both schedules from three cells, and a free workbook that ties them to the cent.
One contract modification has three possible accounting answers, and the one you land on is decided by a ratio most workbooks never calculate. Here's the classic build that derives the classification instead of asking for it, the Excel 365 LET that spills all three treatments side by side, and a free workbook that ties every one of them back to total consideration.
Most amortization tables are a fragile ladder of copy-down formulas that shatter the moment you insert a row. Here's the classic PMT/IPMT/PPMT build that never chains off the row above, the Excel 365 spill that produces all 360 rows from one cell, and a free workbook that also prices what an overpayment actually buys you.
Excel's NPV function quietly assumes your first cash flow lands one full period in the future, so it discounts the whole project by an extra period and hands you a number that is 9% light. Here's the classic fix, the XNPV/XIRR way for real dates, and a free workbook that reproduces every answer from first principles.
Standard Data Validation dropdowns have no idea what's already been chosen elsewhere — which is exactly how the same meeting room, laptop or seat ends up double-booked. Here's the classic OFFSET trick, the one-formula 365 FILTER fix, the one hole neither of them closes, and a free workbook.
LARGE + MATCH silently repeats a row and drops a real entrant the moment two scores tie — a bug that hides in plain sight on every sales leaderboard, because the total still comes out right. Here's the classic RANK+COUNTIF fix, the one-formula 365 SORTBY+TAKE alternative, and a free workbook.
VLOOKUP and INDEX-MATCH always grab the first match — a silent bug the moment your data is a running log, and one that reports every order in the sheet as still sitting at step one. Here's the classic LOOKUP trick, the one-line XLOOKUP fix, and a free workbook that runs both side by side.
VLOOKUP hands the whole amount one flat rate. Graduated commission, tax brackets and bulk pricing need marginal maths instead — here's the SUMPRODUCT one-liner that works in every Excel, the 365 MAP version that spills the whole column, and a free workbook that proves both against a hand-built calculation.
