Here Are The Top 7 Mistakes You Make In Excel. Should We Try And Fix Them?
Anders Liu-Lindberg
Leading advisor to senior Finance and FP&A leaders on creating impact through business partnering | Interim | VP Finance | Business Finance
This article is co-written by Jesper Martin Jensen and Anders Liu-Lindberg
Raise your hand if you consider yourself a master of Excel? Okay, that’s one, two, three… No one else? We didn’t think so. The reality is that very few people master Excel and most use only a fraction of the functionality it offers us. Anders is one of those whereas Jesper is chasing mastery every day. So, we come at this issue from both angles.
What’s the issue then? Well, the simple issue is that our Excel deficiencies or not using Excel properly not even thinking about to the fullest extent is costing our companies money. Sometimes big-time money! We might not realize it but every day we’re working on the brink of disaster and it’s on us – not on Excel. It’s time we open our eyes to this issue so that we can start fixing it!
Okay, how much is it really costing us?
There are many ways you can go wrong with Excel and later we’ll share our top seven mistakes we see made in Excel. However, let’s first share some high-level examples also from the real world. Just ask yourself if you would want to be the person behind any of these Excel sheets?
Simple mistakes most likely but very costly. And then we’re not even talking about all the times that your Excel crashes as you’re trying to do too many things at once.
Let’s now look at our top seven of mistakes made in Excel that’s costing us time every day at best and millions of dollars every year at worst.
The list is not prioritized and in random order
- Lack of a comprehensive workbook structure
- Poor indication of what is no-touch-formulas and what is input
- Too long formulas - KISS
- Variables incorporated directly in formulas
- Poor validation of data input entries (typos)
- (Broken) links between workbooks
- Too heavy Excel-files
Let’s then do a little test, shall we? Count how many of these errors you have made and then post your answer in the comments. Anders will go first since he’s also just a simple user of Excel. He’s made a total of 7 of these mistakes. Quite embarrassing isn’t it?
Work smarter with Excel and avoid the losses
All these errors could likely be avoided by you working smarter in Excel. There are simple tips and tricks that can help you boost productivity significantly and avoid monetary losses.
We’ll get to those in later articles but for now, want to leave you with this. We’re not saying you should stop using Excel. In fact, we’re probably saying you should use it even more, however, you need stop ignoring all your deficiencies and start taking your issues seriously. Fix them and you’ll boost your career immediately!
If you dare, why don’t you tell us about some of the mistakes you’ve made in Excel in the comments and then Jesper will share his views on how you can avoid these going forward?
This was the second 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?
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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.
Head of FP&A | Budgeting | Forecasting | Business Controlling | Reporting | Financial Planning and Analysis | Certified Accountant (CC)
4 年Good list to pay close attention when working with Excel.
Enjoying Life
5 年May be I am a little olf fashioned. Check , double checked. Also from the fashion industry is sewn double keeps better. Make excel sheets according to the KISS principe For example Contract overview made according to KISS principle. The KISS principle (short for keep it simple, stupid) assumes that things work best when kept simple rather than made complex. Simplicity should be a primary goal when creating. As a result, it works faster, fewer mistakes are made and management and maintenance is also easier. You can make such an Excel sheet very complicated, but it is about the principle that you map out when contracts expire and have to be canceled, so that you know when to renew or look for an alternative. No more! An Excel sheet must fit on 1 A4 and you must have everything in one view after opening.
Group Data Controller @ Intive
5 年Biggest mistake in Excel is using it when you should be using something else.
Analytics Leader. Data Lover. People Person.
5 年Here's where self-service data preparation tool can come in handy. Such tools allow a user to move all the formulas and blending of spreadsheets into a visual workflow... in essence turning a string of manual steps into a button!
Graphic Designer @ Soorty Textile BD Ltd | Merchandisers & Development Team | Specializing in Logo & Branding, Print-on-Demand Designs I'm creating branding designs and marketing solutions to grow your business.
5 年https://www.fiverr.com/share/ZmQ12Q