Excel University: Courses, Passes, CPE and Who It Suits

Excel University is an online Excel training company founded and taught by Jeff Lenning, a CPA and Microsoft Excel MVP, with courses aimed mainly at accountants and finance professionals. It sells a structured course catalog (Undergraduate 1-4 and Masters 1-2) through an annual Campus Pass, plus a separate CPE Pass for people who need continuing education credit.

If you landed here from a search suggestion, the rest of this guide covers what the courses teach, what each pass includes, what it costs as of November 2026, and how to tell whether it fits how you actually work.

One note on sourcing: the details below come from Excel University’s own pages, the NASBA sponsor registry, and public reviews. Excel University updates prices and bundles often, so treat every number here as a snapshot and confirm it on the official site before you pay.

What Excel University actually is

Despite the name, Excel University is not an accredited college and does not grant degrees. “Undergraduate” and “Masters” are course levels inside its catalog.

According to its help center, Jeff Lenning teaches the core Undergraduate and Masters lessons. His published bios describe him as a Microsoft Excel MVP and Microsoft Certified Trainer, and his articles have appeared in accounting publications such as the Journal of Accountancy. Most of those bios come from the company or course sellers, so they are self-reported, though the MVP status is repeated across several independent podcast and conference pages.

The content leans heavily toward accounting work: reconciliations, recurring reports, workpapers, and cleaning up data exported from other systems. Trustpilot reviewers mostly praise the practical, applicable lessons, and at least one points out that the material is geared towards accountants. That is a plus if you are in finance and a minus if you want general-purpose or data-science-style Excel.

How the course catalog is organized

The Excel University store splits the curriculum into two tiers.

Undergraduate 1-4: classic Excel

These courses teach classic Excel features and functions. Older Excel University material describes the series as volumes with these focuses:

1. Volume 1: foundations
2. Volume 2: formula-based reports
3. Volume 3: PivotTable reports
4. Volume 4: internal-use workpapers

The volume names come from older pages and may not match the current course titles exactly, but the progression from basics to reporting to workpapers appears consistent.

Masters 1-2: the “power” tools

The Masters courses cover Power Query, Power Pivot and VBA macros. One third-party listing also says Masters 1 includes Power BI. This is the tier to look at if your main pain is repetitive copy-paste work, combining exports, or building reports from several data sources.

The Excel Power Tools 6-Week Bootcamp is built from Masters 1 lessons. Its page says it requires Excel for Windows 2013 or later and does not support Excel for Mac. Mac users should keep that in mind across the Masters tier, since Power Pivot and parts of Power Query are limited or missing in Mac Excel.

Electives

The store page says both the Campus Pass and the CPE Pass include access to Excel University’s Electives, which it describes as AI and automation training.

Passes and pricing compared

These are the main ways to buy, based on Excel University’s pages as of November 2026. Prices change and promotions come and go, so check the current figures.

A few caveats:

• The monthly price appeared only on one store listing, and it was not clearly tied to a named plan. Confirm it at checkout.
• The Campus Pass trial pages describe paying $0 up front and being billed on day 7 if you do not cancel. If you start a trial, set a reminder.
• The CPE Pass works out to roughly $5 per credit hour if you use all 124 credits ($620 / 124). That is only good value if you actually complete the courses.

CPE credit: what to check

Excel University is listed on NASBA’s National Registry of CPE Sponsors (sponsor ID 124370), with group internet-based, group live and QAS self-study delivery methods approved. The registry also notes the standard rule: state boards of accountancy have final authority on whether they accept individual courses for CPE credit.

The bootcamp page gives a sense of how credit works for self-study: you earn the CPE after passing the final exam with a score of 70%, re-attempts are unlimited, and the course expires one year after purchase. Other courses may differ, so check each one’s details.

Before buying for CPE:

1. Look up your state board’s rules on self-study credit and any limits on technical or specialized-knowledge hours.
2. Check the field of study and credit count listed for each Excel University course you plan to take.
3. Note the access window (the CPE Pass is 12 months) and plan when you will complete the exams.
4. Download and keep your certificates as you finish each course, in case you are audited.

Who it suits, and who should look elsewhere

Good fit:

• Accountants, controllers and finance staff who build recurring reports and workpapers in Excel.
• CPAs who need CPE and would rather earn it learning something they will use daily.
• Teams standardizing on Power Query and structured tables instead of hand-built spreadsheets.

Probably not the best fit:

• Mac-only users who want the Masters tier, given the Windows requirement on the power tools.
• People who need an accredited academic credential rather than a training certificate.
• Learners who want broad data analysis, statistics or Python-in-Excel content; the accounting focus is narrower.

Also watch for name confusion: Excel Campus is a different company with its own courses and bundles. Do not mix up its pricing or lifetime-access terms with Excel University’s.

How to evaluate it before committing

1. Start with Excel University’s free material (its blog, podcast and the free trial if one is running) to see whether the teaching style works for you.
2. Pick one real task you do every month, such as a reconciliation or a management report, and check whether the course outline covers it.
3. If you are deciding between the Campus Pass and the CPE Pass, the main question is simply whether you need credit. The CPE Pass costs $140 more per year at list price.
4. Block time on your calendar. Annual passes only pay off if you work through the lessons within the access window.

For long-term fit, the real test is whether you are still using the techniques months later. Excel University’s approach of teaching tables, formula-based reports and Power Query maps well to recurring accounting work, which is where that kind of habit tends to stick.