Spreadsheets Are Making You Miserable. Here’s Why.
The introduction of the VisiCalc electronic spreadsheet by Apple in 1979, and advancements by Lotus 1–2–3 and Excel in the mid-1980s, fundamentally transformed what personal computers were capable of. These tools opened a door of practical possibilities for computers that rapidly accelerated their adoption by both consumers and businesses during that time.
Spreadsheets provide users with a clean foundation for all kinds of uses beyond its core function as an accounting tool; status reporting, project management, inventory control, address book, fillable form and a whole lot more.
It could be argued, then, that spreadsheets are the perfect application. Except they’re not. Unless you’re massaging numbers, you are misusing spreadsheets. It’s time to stop! You’ll be so much happier when you do.
Spreadsheets are basically repositories of data that can be manipulated. That’s all well and good until you need more than just data and calculations. What’s the history of a particular row? Was it updated? When? Who updated it? What happens if data raises a red flag? How are stakeholders notified? Did your team follow through? Out of breath yet?
It begs the question. Why would anyone manage these kinds of things in a spreadsheet? All that checking and double-checking. And nagging. And following up. And checking in. How much time is lost manually updating cells, copying and pasting rows to keep a history, emailing colleagues for updates? It’s so painful. It must make you miserable!
There are tools in the market today that address the problems of spreadsheets. CRM applications for contact management and revenue tracking. Project management applications that facilitate and streamline collaboration. Accounting applications that simplify bookkeeping. And even, a Management Automation Platform that takes all the best parts of those other tools and combines them in to a single dashboard with intelligent updating.
And, yet, so many of us are still stuck plodding through noisy, clunky, inefficient spreadsheets. Why?
Spreadsheets sparked a revolutionary leap in the accessibility and functionality of computers. For most uses cases, however, they have outlived their usefulness and, in fact, are making life worse for those who still use them. Cast off the chains of rows and columns. Lose the spreadsheets and reclaim your happiness!
