PowerPivot and Linked Table Names

When PowerPivot creates a linked table, it appears to assign an arbitrary name to the import. The table name in powerpivot (Table1, Table2 etc) is then usually renamed as part of the design process. However, this practice is sloppy because the table name in excel is different to that of powerpivot and the name in excel is poorly defined (which may confuse anyone updating data at a later stage). This post looks at methods of managing linked tables in powerpivot and excel in order to provide more robust models.