How can Excel make you more efficient?

If you want to be more efficient, ask yourself this question: Who does more of the work in Excel – You or Excel? With all of the advances in Excel, if your answer is you and NOT EXCEL, then I can help!

Repeated Actions

If you are doing the same thing in Excel every day, week, or month, why not have Excel do the work for you by creating a macro (a little program)? For example: at my last job every time I downloaded information from our ERP system I wrapped the data in row 1 and then auto fit all the columns so there were no ### signs in any of the columns. I created a macro to do these actions for me. So instead of taking about ten steps, I only had to press one key and it would be completed for me.

This may not sound like a big deal, but I would do this 15 times a day and over time, the savings becomes enormous!

Create Consistence and Data Accuracy

Do you have a problem with processes being done differently by different employees? This can can cause unusual results in the data outcome and make analysis difficult. By creating a macro to do the process, it will always be done efficiently and consistently, no matter who runs the program.

For example: for one client I created a program to automate shipments downloaded into Excel from their ERP system. Prior to using the program I created there would be several items that would slip through that had different amounts in the made and shipped columns. This would cause problems for the vendor receiving the shipments. Because the items also came back to us later in the week, there were issues in the receiving department and in accounts payable.

After the program was implemented the errors were eliminated, receiving did not have issues, and the accounts payable department reduced processing time from three to four hours per day to less than two hours per day. That’s a 5 to 10 hour savings per week in just one department. That’s over 6 weeks of time savings in one year!!!What could you do with over 6 weeks of extra time?

Efficiency Example

Watch the short video below to learn how Excel makes you more efficient, by doing more work for you! What are you currently losing? Profits, time, accuracy… What do you have to gain? Profits.