Why Excel Causes Finance Teams to Waste Time
Excel Has Limited Application
If you’re using Excel
to do anything other than store data on spreadsheets, you’re hurting your
business. Excel wasn’t intended for tasks like capital resource management,
creating time sheets, or managing billing. A software tool specifically
designed for those tasks will be much more useful to you.
Spreadsheets Are
Full of Errors
Human error will creep
in any time people are responsible for data entry. Market Watch reports
that up to 88% of spreadsheets contain errors. No one wants to take the time to
manually check spreadsheets for errors, but even with checks errors often slip
by unnoticed.
When you’re handling
money in Excel, a simple error can cost thousands, if not
billions, of dollars. A misplaced decimal point, typing the wrong number,
adding an extra zero – those errors have wide-reaching effects. You need a
program that will capture and check data automatically and alert you to
anything that seems out of place.
Multiple
Spreadsheets and Conflicting Data
With a system using
spreadsheets, it’s easy to end up with different versions of the same file
These “dueling spreadsheets” make it difficult to tell which version is
accurate. Multiple people editing the spreadsheet at different times leads to
confusion. A centralized system that updates in real-time solves this problem.
Using Spreadsheets
Wastes Time
Excel is a step-up
from paper processing. But compared to business process automation software,
it’s still in the stone ages. Employees using Excel need to enter data
manually, which takes time, and check for errors, which takes even more time.
They spend hours doing tasks automated business software could
accomplish much more efficiently.
With businesses
process software handling tasks you used to do manually on Excel, employees
have more time to handle complex tasks like data analysis. This also speeds up
the closing process at the end of each month.
Your Data Isn’t
Secure
It’s impossible to
securely encrypt information in Excel. Even with password protection
spreadsheets can be hacked in a matter of minutes. This leaves critical
financial information in danger. On top of that, storing information on
employee computers means that if the computer crashes you might lose data.
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