Excel Is The Grown-Up Version Of A Kindergarten Sandbox

This article is co-written by Jesper Martin Jensen and Anders Liu-Lindberg

Using the quote “there’s no end to the possibilities!” from The Cable Guy seems to be very fitting when talking about Excel. We previously used the Swiss army knife as an analogy and indeed many names and phrases have been used about Excel. It seems fitting though given how many uses we have for it like we described last week.

It’s almost like being back in kindergarten and sitting in the sandbox. You have many different tools like shovels, buckets, etc. and you’re trying to mould the sand in many different ways. 

• The simple one where you fill the bucket with sand and turn it on its head to create a keep
• Another simple one where you build a mountain and knock it firm with your shovel
• How about the tunnel you dig or the lake you create and fill it with water
• You can also get more advanced and start to build a real castle where you combine many different techniques and use a lot of tools 

What do all these uses have on common though? They all crumble easily especially if you haven’t built them well. Why are we telling you this? Because it’s exactly the same with Excel! 

We need a builders-guide to Excel 

We should ask ourselves why is it that some build better Excel models than others and why is it that their Excel sheets have fewer errors and crash less often? It’s not because of a lack of tools. We all have the same tools just like back in the kindergarten sandbox. No, it’s the way they apply the tools and their knowledge of how to build models and use the formulas, formatting, and other features available. The question is: how can anyone tap into those best practices and why are they important? We will later share our 15 best practices for building models in Excel but here’s why it’s important. 

Excel models must be… 

• …easy to understand
• …user friendly
• …independent of specific individuals
• …documented
• …dynamic
• …robust 

Easy to understand and user-friendly…. Because if the users don’t understand the model you will not get the full benefit of it, and you might get the wrong outcome. Also, the users will eventually lose their patience with the model.  

Independent of individuals and documented…. Your model must be kept independent of individuals if possible. The knowledge should be anchored in the model and not with the users. E.g. by making sufficient documentation. 

Dynamic and robust…. few companies are static, so your model must be dynamic in a way, so it somehow foresees the future. Build a model to be expandable and dynamic, even if it takes an extra effort now. The extra effort now will pay back sooner or later 

If your Excel model is none of these we guarantee you that your model will crash just like the sandcastle in the kindergarten crumbled when you were a kid. 

It’s time to start building better in Excel! 

The thing is must of this stuff is not difficult at all, however, it does require a bit more thinking to embed it in your way of working. Changing habits is hard and that’s why we don’t progress further with Excel at large. That’s also why we wouldn’t recommend that you wait until we’ve shared all our tips and tricks before you get started. Instead, see every week as a short learning sprint where you try something new.

We call it the microstep approach which pushes you to go forward every week rather than aiming to catapult you many steps ahead (as we know that rarely works). If you’re ready to commit to becoming better at building in Excel then we’re ready to commit to ensuring your sandcastle doesn’t crumble. Deal?

This was the fourth article in our Excel series teaching you how to increase your productivity working in Excel. You can find previous articles below.

Are You Ready To Power Up Your Excel Game?

Here Are The Top 7 Mistakes You Make In Excel. Should We Try And Fix Them?

I Use Excel For Everything But Should I?

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Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder, COO (Chief Operating Officer), and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with more 8,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 40.000+ followers.