# What do you use Excel / Google sheets for?



## leolondon (Jan 22, 2017)

If you use Excel/Google Sheets, what do you use it for? Do you manage your business using spreadsheets? I'm interested to know if and how Excel is used and if I can help business saving time and money.


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## Barry Cook (Feb 14, 2012)

(i) Costing a product. By entering costs into a spreadsheet you can make sure that your profit margin is correct.

(ii) You can feed hourly figures into it to get a better/accurate figure of when your busiest times are instead of just picking those figures from your own head. Helpful if you have to go to someone else with those figures, e.g. bank manager.

(iii) General sales data. Instead of entering data into your accountancy package every day or paying a book-keeper to do this simple task, you can just enter data as a monthly figure. Saves time and money.

Just some examples for you.


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

Strange early post so a few questions

I'll assume that this is for yourself, otherwise its a pretty random post

What are your current issues ?

What processes do you feel are inefficient / could be improved via a spreadsheet ?

What systems do you currently have in place ?

Having managed the reporting team as part of my previous life, the power of Excel is not realised by most. Couple it up with VB and it can do some pretty impressive stuff. I removed 12 heads through automation of one process through Excel and some system integration


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## leolondon (Jan 22, 2017)

Sorry, I didn't go into more details, but I'm not from coffee industry. I'm a coffee lover, IT professional and would like to help coffee businesses automate and reduce costs. I think Excel is largely used as a tool but as you said, sometimes people not realise how powerful it can be if integrated with other softwares...

That's why I asked more generically about the usage of Excel / Google Sheets.


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## Missy (Mar 9, 2016)

I use it to inventory my nappy library and to keep the accounts for my holiday let. I can just about make it total a row up...


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

I did foolishly think that I could use Excel to manage the company accounts when we started the business. Come the end of the first quarter with little activity and filling in the VAT return I quickly realised that this wasn't a great idea without some serious work on the spreadsheets.

At that point I purchased accounting software, thinking that there is no need to reinvent the wheel for standard stuff.

I now use Excel to track enquiries and work in progress. I have put some analytical stuff in there to show month on month turnover, year on year growth - financial stuff that can sometimes prompt investigation.


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## les24preludes (Dec 30, 2017)

leolondon said:


> Sorry, I didn't go into more details, but I'm not from coffee industry. I'm a coffee lover, IT professional and would like to help coffee businesses automate and reduce costs. I think Excel is largely used as a tool but as you said, sometimes people not realise how powerful it can be if integrated with other softwares...
> 
> That's why I asked more generically about the usage of Excel / Google Sheets.


It's still not very clear - is this just for your own research or are you intending to sell services or a product? It's best to be clear and up-front about your intentions.


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## leolondon (Jan 22, 2017)

I'm trying to understand the usage of Excel in the coffee industry and how I could help businesses improve processes and make more money. I don't have any product/service at the moment, but if I can identify a trend/need, I'd be able to offer a service or product. At the moment, just research. My aim would be to offer IT services to the coffee industry. I don't have any knowledge in regards to coffee apart from drinking, but I do have knowledge in general business because I created an IT company and know a bit about cash flow, employees, HR...


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## Drewster (Dec 1, 2013)

I use excel to "run the world" - vary rarely in a retail/stock context (although I have done).

I am amazed (even in financial & analytical areas) how little the "average" excel user actually knows...

Many of them claim they are expert users (because they can press a few buttons to) produce a "pivot-table" but in reality they have no idea about what's going on.

Although to be fair many senior managers are quite content to have a pretty picture with nice colours and labels no matter what is actually shown!!!


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## Barry Cook (Feb 14, 2012)

Drewster said:


> I use excel to "run the world" - vary rarely in a retail/stock context (although I have done).
> 
> I am amazed (even in financial & analytical areas) how little the "average" excel user actually knows...
> 
> ...


I make you right there, Drew.

I can remember going on computer admin courses when I went from car workshops into an office, only to find that the little numpty spanner monkey knew more about utilising Excel properly than the "experts" taking the courses.

Hope you're doing well wherever you are now Drew


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

My knowledge of Excel 20 years ago was to use F11 to create a graph. Its moved on a bit since then but still limited to pivots, vlookup and suchlike.

If I need more than that I call on one of the guys who used to be part of my team.


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

leolondon said:


> I'm trying to understand the usage of Excel in the coffee industry and how I could help businesses improve processes and make more money. I don't have any product/service at the moment, but if I can identify a trend/need, I'd be able to offer a service or product. At the moment, just research. My aim would be to offer IT services to the coffee industry. I don't have any knowledge in regards to coffee apart from drinking, but I do have knowledge in general business because I created an IT company and know a bit about cash flow, employees, HR...


Are you going out and speaking to owners of coffee shops, identifying areas of pain ?

You may find a common issue that can be rolled out to many. You may also find that they have different needs which wouldn't be as lucrative

I would map out the activities performed and look for areas where you think you could help with technology and then speak to the shop owners


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## Drewster (Dec 1, 2013)

working dog said:


> My knowledge of Excel 20 years ago was to use F11 to create a graph. Its moved on a bit since then but still limited to pivots, vlookup and suchlike.
> 
> If I need more than that I call on one of the guys who used to be part of my team.


VLOOKUP - That (almost) makes you a guru! 



Barry Cook said:


> Hope you're doing well wherever you are now Drew


Fine thanks Baz

I hope you and Mrs Baz are well?


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

Drewster said:


> VLOOKUP - That (almost) makes you a guru!


Its helped me out no end when Ive unwittingly updated two versions of the same spreadsheet

Does CONCAT move me to Ninja level ?


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## Drewster (Dec 1, 2013)

working dog said:


> Its helped me out no end when Ive unwittingly updated two versions of the same spreadsheet
> 
> Does CONCAT move me to Ninja level ?


Unfortunately CONCAT drops you down a long way in my estimation....

It might be because I am old school and have used spreadsheets since Lotus 123 v2, Paradox, Symphony, Excel, 20/20 and a few others but why on earth would anyone use a function instead of concatenating strings with &... Just WHY?

NB When building command strings for scripts (DOS, *nix and various other languages) you need to be very careful with "pairing" quotes (') and double-quotes (") using & can be tricky to read =A1&"'-x'"&b1.... etc but WORKS.... using CONCAT doesn't (well not always)


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## Drewster (Dec 1, 2013)

Next you'll be telling me you use Powershell not (proper) DOS batch scripts!


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

I just mess about with Excel really. Its helps me but its not something that I could class as a skill that I have.

I remember early versions of Lotus with the \ commands was it \g\e to close the app ? The only reason I used the commands was to shut down PCs when I went to repair them. Before that it was supercalc which really was white mans magic to me.

Luckily those days are long gone. I got out of the field engineering game when it was moving towards replacing rather than repairing


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## Drewster (Dec 1, 2013)

working dog said:


> I just mess about with Excel really. Its helps me but its not something that I could class as a skill that I have.
> 
> I remember early versions of Lotus with the \ commands was it *\g\e* to close the app ? The only reason I used the commands was to shut down PCs when I went to repair them. Before that it was supercalc which really was white mans magic to me.
> 
> Luckily those days are long gone. I got out of the field engineering game when it was moving towards replacing rather than repairing


\qy I think (\ = Menu, Q = Quit, Y = Yes (I do want to quit even if there were changes))

I think in 123-V3.1 wish it might have even been \qyy - No I really am sure I want I really want to quit.. Please...

Even nowadays if you know the buttons you can do pretty well anything via the keyboard...

Alt (or cmd on a Mac) replaces the \ and the Menu structure is different but still generally "do-able"


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## Snakehips (Jun 2, 2015)

In the right hands, Excel is a powerful tool. Most users will only not even be aware of, let alone utilise, 90% of it's capability.

It requires varying degrees of knowledge and time to set things up but it can facilitate custom solutions that are not otherwise provided within dedicated software.

I haven't done anything for months and months but in recent years I must have spent 1000's of hours enjoying the challenge and satisfaction of solving, other peoples, problems with Excel, as a hobby.

Over 4,500 posts on MrExcel forum and I love a bit of VBA.

Sad I know!


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