CLUES
TO
KN
OW
YOU’V
E O
UTGROWN
EXCEL
& POW
ER
POINT
In businesses
today, Excel is the
most comm
only
used
program
for
fi
nancial
reporti
ng,
despi
te
the high likelihood
of error.
According to our studies, ni
ne in 10 spreadsheets contai
n
errors. In fact,
errors occur
in
1%
or m
ore
of
all
cel
l
s. In
l
arge spreadsheets with
thousands of formulas, the issue is not “if” an error exists, but
how
ma
ny.
Errors are just one problem users ha
ve with us
ing E
xcel f
or reporting.
Wi
th all that
can go wrong, i
t’s reall
y strange that Excel
remains such a
popul
ar
program
for
re
porting.
Y
our rep
ort is s
e
nt
from one
p
e
rson to t
he
next, to the
nex
t
, and to the nex
t. Every m
em
b
e
r
o
f your
t
e
a
m
s
a
ve
s
a slightl
y
d
i
ffere
nt ve
rsion and
by the e
nd
of the
h
ou
r,
there are at least five di
fferent vers
i
ons
of one rep
ort
floating around that y
ou need to p
i
ece togethe
r.
VERSION CONTROL IS
S
UES
People want to add in thei
r i
nformation the day of the
meeting, just hours before. Si
nce s
everal people
can’t
make change
s
at t
he same time, everyone is a
d
d
i
ng in
their i
nformation or maki
ng changes
as qui
ckl
y as
p
ossible, and then s
end
i
ng it off to the nex
t
p
e
rs
on
.
VERSION CONTROL IS
S
UES
Sometimes when changes are made, vi
tal data is los
t.
There’s no way to see who changed numbers, when
data
was lost, or how many othe
r cells and
sheets
are i
m
pa
cted.
VERSION CONTROL IS
S
UES
As you’re goi
ng through rep
orts in a meeting, you real
i
ze
that data has
been lost, making y
ou l
ook
and feel
i
ncompetent
.
VERSION CONTROL IS
S
UES
A
change to one sp
reads
heet coul
d
mean t
hat s
everal
numbers
in other s
p
reads
heets
al
s
o need to
be
changed
, but this doesn’t al
ways
happen whe
n multiple
people are adding to or are changing a rep
ort.
VERSION CONTROL IS
S
UES
There is no way to disti
nguish us
ers
, so eve
ryone has
access to everyt
hi
ng. Even if t
hey
’
re
no
t
s
upposed to,
people in s
al
es
can change i
nformati
on that only people
in accounts
s
hould be deal
i
ng wi
th, and
vi
ce ve
rs
a
.
VERSION CONTROL IS
S
UES
Templates are used
in hop
es
of maintaining consistency,
but s
om
etimes
, s
om
eone’s i
nform
ation won’t work with
the template constraints, requiring custom
updates.
TEMPLATE ISS
UES
: IT DOESN’T FIT
Managers w
ant to see a new
line item at ever
y meeting,
so you conti
nua
l
l
y
ha
ve
to
cha
n
ge and
updat
e
the
template. I
t's
never fi
na
l
i
z
e
d
.
TEMPLATE ISS
UES
: IT DOESN’T FIT
If the templ
ate you decide to use for reporting does
n’
t
fi
t
the need
s
of s
om
e p
eople’s i
nform
ati
on, they
s
cra
p
that template and make updates to fit their information.
TEMPLATE ISS
UES
: IT DOESN’T FIT
Someone does you a “favor” by cr
eating a custom
template every
one can pl
ug into. But whe
n
t
he
y
a
re
n
’
t
around, no one ha
s
a
ny idea how to input data
corre
ct
l
y
becaus
e they don’t know what the
form
ulas are
referring to, and
no one can get any
real
insight from the
numbers
.
TEMPLATE ISSUES
: ROGUE CUSTOMIZATIONS
When you’re working for l
arger compani
es, if a stand
ard
template isn't created for certain rep
orts
, then y
ou end
up wi
th a completel
y
d
i
ffe
rent re
p
ort a
cros
s
d
i
ffe
rent
busi
nes
s uni
ts
that bas
ical
l
y presents
the same data. I
t’
s
not effi
ci
ent
.
TEMPLATE IS
S
UES: ROGUE CUSTOMIZATIONS
When you’re working for l
arger compani
es, if a stand
ard
template isn't created for certain rep
orts
, then y
ou end
up wi
th a completel
y
d
i
ffe
rent re
p
ort a
cros
s
d
i
ffe
rent
busi
nes
s uni
ts
that bas
ical
l
y presents
the same data. I
t’
s
not effi
ci
ent
.
TEMPLATE IS
S
UES: ROGUE CUSTOMIZATIONS
Y
ou t
ry
to op
e
n up
a
s
p
rea
d
s
heet but
E
x
ce
l
t
e
lls you that
the docum
e
nt is locke
d for editi
ng by
another us
er. The
read
-only format doe
s
nothi
ng for you whe
n
y
ou
ne
e
d
to make change
s
.
TEMPLATE ISSUES
: THE LOCKED DOC
When you share a sp
read
sheet, s
ometimes it will l
ock
you out, even if someone
isn’t a
cti
vel
y editing it. The
re
are ways to work around it, but they j
us
t waste y
our
t
ime.
TEMPLATE ISSUES
: THE LOCKED DOC
I
t’
s
ea
sy
t
o
m
ake
a
ty
p
ogr
aph
i
cal
e
rror
and
not
even
real
i
ze
it
.
Even
just
one
i
ncorrect
nu
mbe
r
makes
t
he
entire spr
eadshee
t
an
d report
ina
cc
ur
ate
.
ACCUR
A
C
Y
When p
eople are in a rush to add in their i
nformati
on,
they can easily hi
t t
wo keys
when onl
y
o
ne
wa
s
supposed to be hit
—“fat fingering” it. It throws
off the
rest of the rep
ort.
ACCUR
A
C
Y
A
ccordi
ng to Raymond Panko, there a
re three kinds of
spreadsheet errors: qua
ntitative (the s
pread
s
heet
gi
ves
an i
ncorrect res
ul
t), logi
c (som
e
one
e
nte
ri
ng in the
wrong formula because
of a mistake in reasoni
ng), an
d
omission (
s
omethi
ng is l
e
ft out)
. In 88% of s
prea
d
s
he
ets,
at least
one of these errors occ
ur
s.
ACCUR
A
C
Y
Missing information within a sp
readsheet is the m
os
t
difficul
t error to detect, yet the most dangerous to a
busi
ne
s
s
.
ACCUR
A
C
Y
The ease of “cut and paste” has resulted in companies
los
ing si
gni
ficant revenue. Some businesses have lost
billions of dollars due to simple cut
-and-paste errors.
ACCUR
A
C
Y
People get so stuck in m
anual
rep
orti
ng in
E
x
ce
l
that
they will actually work with whatever the s
preadsheet
says—even something as ri
di
cul
ous as, “There were ‘.5’
people that s
igned up today.” Then you have to a
rgue
the point that “half of a pers
on
” can't
s
i
gn up
for
s
omethi
ng.
ACCUR
A
C
Y
Emai
l
updates or s
um
m
aries a
re s
ent
to t
he wrong
people, givi
ng them i
nform
ation that they are not
cleared to have
.
ACCUR
A
C
Y
The only way you can accurately check for err
or
s is to go
row by row, and cell by cell, checki
ng each and every
ent
ry
.
ACCUR
A
C
Y
The formatting changes
in P
owerP
oint as
new up
d
ates
are rel
eased. But, peopl
e like results to be displayed the
same way every
ti
m
e. A
nd
, when the format changes
, it
can distract from the actual results and
message
.
F
ORMATTIN
G
No matter how you format your cells, some of the
m
just
will n
ot print cor
rec
tly.
F
ORMATTIN
G
Y
ou s
pend a l
ot
m
ore time t
ha
n y
ou
shoul
d
on big and
li
ttle formatting fixes to make any s
preadsheet l
ook
more pres
e
ntable, taki
ng away from
time you coul
d
spend focusi
ng on the actual cont
ent of what y
ou’
re
worki
ng on.
F
ORMATTIN
G
Some people like
to see things laid
out horizontally
rather than verti
cally. Maybe they're used to s
eei
ng the
dates
on the top and metri
cs on the s
i
de
, but s
om
eone
li
kes it t
he othe
r way
around
. Y
ou can
't make
eve
ryone
happy so you s
wi
t
ch b
ack and fort
h a
fe
w times, m
a
ki
n
g
your previous
reports
impossible to compare
to.
F
ORMATTIN
G
Newer versi
ons
of Ex
cel are not compatible wi
th older
vers
i
ons
.
F
ORMATTIN
G
I
t’
s
eas
y
e
nough, but stil
l
an a
b
s
ol
ut
e
pain to embed
every cha
rt y
ou wa
nt to us
e from Exce
l
i
nto a
PowerP
oint presentati
on.
F
ORMATTIN
G
I
f
y
ou
nee
d
t
o
link
in
form
ati
on
from
one
s
p
re
a
d
s
h
eet
or
workb
ook
int
o
anothe
r,
th
ere
i
s
n
o
aut
o
mat
i
c
way
t
o
t
e
l
l
how
many o
r which c
ells
have
l
i
nks
.
C
OMPLE
XIT
Y
When you need to link information from multipl
e
spreadsheets and workbooks, circul
ar l
i
nk
i
ng can
happen (two or m
ore s
preadsheets cont
ai
n l
i
nks to ea
ch
other), res
ul
ti
ng in s
l
ow updates.
C
OMPLE
XIT
Y
Usually PowerPoi
nt or email is used to s
um
m
arize work
in Excel and contracts
.
But whe
n summarizing creat
es
unnecessary rework—you bring all thos
e thi
ngs
to a
meeting just to end up goi
ng back to the actual Excel
sp
readsheet.
C
OMPLE
XIT
Y
Functi
ons
don’t al
ways work.
C
OMPLE
XIT
Y
Compani
es are starting to swi
tch from Ex
cel
to Googl
e
Sheets for sharing and editin
g purposes. But Google
Sheets d
oesn'
t have near
ly the same
c
apabilities tha
t
Ex
cel
ha
s
, and
t
hei
r functi
ons
a
nd
formatting are slightl
y
di
ffe
rent
, whi
ch means m
ore of y
our time is spent
refor
matting.
C
OMPLE
XIT
Y
As the author of a crazy-complicated linked Excel
and
PowerPoint report, you’
ve
made
yours
el
f
i
ndispensable.
The good news: you’
re never going to be fi
red
. Th
e bad
news
: you’
re never goi
ng to be promote
d
, ei
t
her, s
i
nce
no one else knows
how to work thi
s
m
ons
te
r.
C
OMPLE
XIT
Y
A
fter doing hours and hours
of work, Ex
cel
cras
hes and
everything y
ou’
ve
j
us
t
d
one is
gone
.
TECHNICAL
IS
S
UES
Y
ou t
ry
to s
a
ve a s
p
readsheet you j
us
t
edited, b
ut you
get a “Not Responding” er
r
or
w
indow
, the pr
ogr
am
closes, and you’
ve
l
os
t all your up
d
ates
.
TECHNICAL
IS
S
UES
When you update a formula in one cel
l
, it s
hould up
d
ate
everywhere
, b
ut it does
n
’
t
.
TECHNICAL
IS
S
UES
A
fte
r add
i
ng up
y
our col
um
ns
m
anually, you come out
with a different number than Excel sh
ows you.
TECHNICAL
IS
S
UES
If any of these situat
ions des
cr
i
be w
h
at
’s
goi
n
g on
dur
i
ng yo
u
r
company’s reporting
process, you have some
pretty
clear
indications that
your pr
ocess is r
eady for some changes.
The longer you wait to improve your
reporting
process,
the
more
time and money you’ll waste. So, don’t wait! Start changing
your
repo
rting process
today.
We’d love to help
you find the best
solutions for
the problems you’re
facing with your report
i
ng proces
s.
