Spreadsheets are an important aspect to any business. With constant flow of data from customer records to daily task tracking, all businesses use spreadsheets to manage their lists of information. While can be an ideal method for small, one-off tasks, there is no way to assign rules sets or restrictions to how users enter the data into each cell. This means that its up to the human who is entering the data to be accurate. Well, i live in a real world, not a perfect one. I know that humans, including myself, are prone to making mistakes. '
Don't get the wrong impression. I'm not demonizing excel by any means. I use excel on a daily basis. Here are just a few time savings uses that can't go without:
Ever had that redundant tasks that eats up your time every day or week. Let's say, in this example, its a 10 or 15 minutes process. Every day when i arrive in the morning i need to download a document, format it, and them finally make a report.
This is where we bring macros into the equation. A macro is a predefined set of steps of code that can be run on your spreadsheet. Eliminating the need to do the same thing over and over again.
I would consider automating the formatting step in this process using a macro. Now my Involvement in this process is substantially less. I download the document, run a macro, verify that my report looks right, and send it out. This may only take me 2 - 3 minutes to run this process. What now was over an hour of each week is just under 15 minutes.
I've created macros that have brought 3-5 hour tasks down to just 5 or 10 minutes. There is no end to the possibilities of spreadsheets in business.
