Excel

Clean up your data act.

What is Excel?

Excel is a spreadsheet software application developed by Microsoft and first released back in 1985. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite of applications, which includes other programs such as Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. 

Why is it used?

Excel was designed primarily for the creation, editing and analysis of tabular data and is commonly used for tasks such as financial modeling, budgeting, data entry, analysis and visualisation. Here are some other commons reasons as to why you might use excel as a database tool - 

What are the drawbacks?

Whilst Excel is a powerful and widely used tool, it also has some disadvantages, particularly in certain situations or for specific tasks. Some disadvantages of using Excel include:

What Are The Alternatives?

Whilst Excel usually begins as a convenient tool to manage data for many organisations, over time, these workbooks can grow in complexity and become difficult to manage, particularly when used as core systems or relied on heavily for operational processes.

An alternative approach is to replicate and transform these Excel based processes into a dedicated software system. This involves identifying the key functions, calculations, data flows and automation currently handled in Excel and rebuilding them in a more scalable and structured environment - often as a web based or desktop application.

For example:

By doing this, organisations are able to maintain the logic and structure they’ve already built in Excel whilst gaining the benefits of a more robust, secure and scalable system.

Best Projects for Excel

While it's increasingly easy to find alternatives to Excel for almost any type of project, there are still some strong use cases - especially for small businesses - where Excel remains a practical, cost effective choice -

Budget Trackers - Businesses can monitor income, expenses and savings with basic charts and summaries.

Invoice Generator - Some small businesses can create professional invoices with automated calculations that are perfectly adequate for their clients.

Inventory Management - Excel is often sufficient for small companies that need to track and manage their stock levels.

Shift Scheduler - For businesses with few staff, Excel can be an efficient tool for building staff rotas with availability, shift times and even conflict checks.

Mail Merge Data Source - Excel can be used as the foundation for managing email campaigns and bulk communications via Mail Merge.

Data Analysis - Of course no list covering use cases for Excel would be complete without data analysis. Tried and tested, Excel remains a go to tool for many, for sorting, filtering and visualising data quickly and effectively. 

How Can we Help?

Our developers have worked with Microsoft Excel for many, many years. From recreating excel databases in more up to date and modern technology solutions to replicating automated processes made possible by the use of macros - we can evaluate your current use of Excel and make recommendations on alternative options whilst guiding you through the transition process.

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