Everyone loves Excel. It’s the most commonly used financial analysis software product out there – and most of us have experience with it. A large numbers of businesses, unfortunately, have built their entire reporting process around it, and that comes with some serious challenges. Over time, the process of getting accurate data into Excel starts to accumulate errors in data, errors in formulas, and, eventually, errors in business decisions made on bad data. You can end up in a place we like to call “Excel Hell”.
Companies that do not invest in an accounting software solution with easy to use, strong reporting and dash-boarding capabilities will more than likely put themselves in a situation where they waste time losing documents, chasing down errors, or, worse, making decisions on bad data that they think was good. This type of situation that companies will find themselves in essentially backs the company into an inefficient corner and document overload. There is a simple solution for companies not wanting to go down this road – get accounting software that meets the needs of your company and management team. This will take your company to the competitive and efficiency level where data is not lost, and you are not overloaded with erroneous data and reports.
One of the biggest risks with everything in Excel is being unsure if you have the current version of the correct document. Over time, you end up with multiple versions and multiple contributors. Did someone change a formula on you? Did someone change a number that is now creating incorrect assumptions? It’s hard to tell without spending a lot of time chasing down possible situations that could impact your bottom line.
On top of all this, teaching excel is almost like an art form, and the majority of the pre-made products only track the most basic of accounting needs. Customizing the software to meet the company’s requirements can be time-consuming and painful to reproduce. If managers are training or in need of training, it can and will be time-consuming as to where software that is more user-friendly and has the proper support channels can save time and money. Leaving managers and everyone else time to do what’s really important; run the proper reports to make sound and educated business decisions.
To compound the problem, very few people have the same level of skill with Excel. So a complex spreadsheet created by an Excel wizard may work wonderfully for that person, but when handed off to someone without the same level of training and skill? That lovely spreadsheet may simply be too much to handle and get easily broken. Training new team members to use it may involve a lot of additional time and effort. Implementing a strong accounting and financial management system that handles this reporting effortlessly frees up your team members valuable time to do what’s really important – run your business on solid, reliable data.
