Why do you think Microsoft Excel is important in any business organizations

The blog is about Why MS Excel Is An Essential Tool For Every Organization. When you hear about Microsoft Excel, you might start thinking about an old working office scenario, like the one in the ’90s. Loads of papers piled up, cubicles around, people going through endless lists of data, and scrolling across the screen of a traditional computer. It has been around since 1982, and MS Excel is still going strong. In fact, it has become an integral part of every business.  

No matter if it is a startup, small business, or a well-established business running on a large scale, this amazing tool plays a vital role in managing the important data of organizations large and small. 

Microsoft Excel is surprisingly flexible and extremely useful. 

From managing payroll to project allocations to finances to HR to employee records and so much more, Excel is an excellent solution! And, with over one billion Microsoft Office users worldwide, it has become the professional standard in offices across the globe for pretty much anything that requires the management of large amounts of data.

The following are some ways that Microsoft Excel solutions can be used in your business.

MS Excel Is An Essential Tool: MANAGE FINANCES EFFICIENTLY

Whether you run a business on a small scale or have a company with over two hundred employees, expenses are a part of every organization. When it comes to managing the expenditure or the finances, MS Excel is second to none. With the help of various templates, spreadsheets, etc., accountants can easily enter important data. Also, there is a customization option through which you can categorize the different areas at your convenience and keep track of things accordingly. 

STORE CONTACTS 

One of the most valuable parts of any company is its employees, customers, and clients. Having a solid and easy-to-reach contact list will make your work much easier than you can imagine. Though there are other options for saving contact information such as notepad, MS Word, etc., Excel Spreadsheet is a more efficient way to save the contact information. You can also put the required data under different headings like:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Email ID
• Phone Number, etc.

It is a widely used program for organizing essential data, and if you want to import the lists into other databases, it can be easily done using MS Excel. 

ANALYSIS OF THE BUSINESS

Business Analysis is required in every workplace. Gathering data on a daily basis including product sales, website traffic, rankings, insurance claims, etc. needs to be managed effectively to help you make better decisions. For instance, with the help of business analysis, a profitability report can be run at the end of the month, and the areas that lacked performance can be worked upon. This will not only help in keeping the data in place but will also enhance the growth of your organization by making sound decisions. 

SCHEDULING TASKS
Managing and allocating the various tasks to different team members is one of the most important jobs of a manager. Instead of sending personalized emails or messaging to different employees to inform them about their respective schedules, a spreadsheet can be prepared in MS Excel and shared with the entire team. Also, the software has a great scheduling feature in which tasks can be color-coded and designed in such a manner that they get automatically updated if there is a change in the schedule.

TRACK ROI

Microsoft Excel solution providers can help you track the Return on Investment accurately. As a business owner, it will give you a clear indication of how much investments have been made into the business and how much is the profit earned. Plus, with the proper track of sales, you can know how long will it take to get additional profits or reach the break-even level. 

Bottom Line

Microsoft Excel has been proven to be highly beneficial for day-to-day business activities. It has been evolving over time and ensures to offer its users to manage their work seamlessly. If you still haven’t made this outstanding tool a part of your business, get in touch with an MS Exel development company, and enjoy its endless perks.

What are the uses of Microsoft Excel in the workplace? The list of ways that business uses MS Excel is long. But we’ve broken it down to a top 10 list.

At a basic level, MS Excel is using for storing information, analysing and sorting, and reporting. It’s extremely popular in business because spreadsheets are highly visual and fairly ease to use.

Some of the most common business uses of MS Excel are for business analysis, managing human resources, performance reporting, and operations management. We know this for a fact after analysing job data (using MS Excel).

1. Business Analysis

The number 1 use of MS Excel in the workplace is to do business analysis.

Business analysis is essentially using collected data to inform decision making. Businesses naturally gather data in their day-to-day activities, which may be data on product sales, website traffic, spending on supplies, insurance claims, etc.

Business analysis is the activity of converting data into something useful to the people who run the business. For example, you could run a profitability report by the day of the week. If the business always loses money on a Sunday, then that’s information management could use to make a decision (such as closing on Sundays).

Job examples: business analyst, business planning analyst, business solutions analyst, claims analyst, collections analyst, credit officer, data analyst, data and audience analyst, finance business analyst, investment operations portfolio analyst, junior data analyst, regional finance analyst, senior data analyst, senior finance analyst, senior portfolio analyst.

2. People Management

You may be surprised to learn that one of the top uses of Excel in business is to manage people.

MS Excel is a powerful way to organise information about people, whether they are employees, customers, supporters, or training attendees.

Using Excel, personal information can be stored and retrieved efficiently. A spreadsheet row or column can be used for an individual record that may include information like name, email address, employee start date, items purchased, subscription status, and last contact.

Job examples: client growth coordinator, client management and administration, client relationship manager, client service manager, client service specialist, employer service consultant, HR administrator, human resources administrative assistant, human resources administrator, human resources adviser, human resources officer, junior HR analyst, reconciliation and payments officer, relationship manager.

3. Managing Operations

Excel is relied on heavily to manage the day-to-day operations of many businesses.

Business activities can often involve quite complicated logistics. Inventory flows need to be controlled so that you can keep operations running smoothly – and without overstocking on particular items. That means keeping track of supplier and client transactions, listing critical dates, and managing times and schedules.

While Amazon uses sophisticated custom software for operations management, MS Excel is an important tool for many smaller businesses (or parts of larger businesses). An advantage of Excel is that it’s relatively low tech, allowing it to be used by many people and without the risk of programming bugs.

Job examples: business operations analyst, data operations manager, graduate program – supply chain and operations, in market supply chain analyst, operational business analyst, operational enablement associate, operational knowledge management specialist, supply chain associate, supply chain specialist.

4. Performance Reporting

Performance monitoring and reporting is a specialised type of business analysis that can be done effectively using MS Excel. For example, many accountants still use Excel (partly because it’s compatible with cloud-based accounting software).

A common way to convert data into a performance report in Excel is to create a pivot table. By inserting a pivot table and linking it to data, you can extra useful information from the dataset quickly. Pivot tables have numerous in-built functions that allow for tasks such as counting and summing certain types of data within the dataset.

Job examples: financial accountant, forecast analyst / sales support, performance analyst, performance analyst – procurement, professional services operations analyst, reporting analyst, reporting development analyst, sales coordinator, sales operations analyst.

5. Office Administration

Underlining the importance of Microsoft Excel, office administrators use Excel to enter and store key administrative data. The same data may be subsequently used for accounting and financial reporting, as well as business analysis and performance reporting.

Apart from recordkeeping, Excel is useful in office administration for supporting day-to-day tasks such as invoicing, paying bills, and contacting suppliers and clients. It’s an all-purpose tool for keeping track of and managing office activities.

Job examples: administration assistant, administration officer, administration supervisor, administrative assistant, business operations and office manager, junior clerical and administrative officer, office admin manager, office support – maintenance / general duties.

6. Strategic Analysis

With respect to uses of Excel, strategic analysis is where business decisions are closely connected to the data and formulas on spreadsheets. You apply Excel to guide actions such as investments and asset allocations.

As an example, based on an Excel model, you may decide to take out currency insurance. Spreadsheet analysis is designed to inform business decisions in a specific way.

Job examples: asset manager – realty management division, mergers and acquisitions valuations – analyst, membership and campaigns strategist, portfolio administration associate, portfolio analyst, portfolio associate – wealth management, portfolio management officer – asset finance.

7. Project Management

Although project managers have access to purpose-built project management (PM) software, an Excel Workbook is often an effective alternative.

Projects are business activities that typically have a budget and start and end dates. Project plans can be placed into a workbook, which can then be used to track progress and keep the project on schedule.

An advantage of using Excel is that you can easily share the project workbook to others, including to people who are unfamiliar with, or lack access to, custom PM software.

Job examples: project analyst, project assistant / officer (IT), project business analyst.

8. Managing Programs

Excel is a good platform for managing programs. It can be adapted to handle the specific characteristics of a given program. And, because MS Excel is widely known, program records can easily be managed by multiple people and, when the time comes, handed over to a new manager.

A program is like a project, but may be ongoing and can depend on participation by users. MS Excel helps managers allocate resources, keep track of progress, and maintain participant records.

Job examples: event coordinator, learning and development officer, learning and development coordinator, manager – internships, programs and office coordinator, records and results coordinator, training administrator.

9. Contract Administration

Contract administrators like to use MS Excel because it provides a no-fuss means of recording contract details, including dates, milestones, deliverables and payments.

Many different contract management templates are available, and these can be adapted to suit the particular contract type or stage of the contract lifecycle.

Job examples: building contract administrator, contracts administrator, estimator / contracts administrator, graduate contracts administrator, lease administrator, quote and tender administrator.

10. Account Management

Account managers are generally required to be competent MS Excel users since they receive and need to maintain customer records.

The job of an account manager is to nurture relationships with existing clients of the business. Key goals are to achieve customer loyalty and repeat sales. It’s a marketing kind of role and a popular career for MBA graduates.

Excel is commonly used in account management since it provides a simple way to share and maintain client files.

Job examples: account coordinator, advertising manager, design studio account manager, digital account manager, junior account manager.

Why You Need Excel Skills in Business

If this list hasn’t convinced you already, MS Excel skills are very useful in the workplace.

Not all jobs use Excel and those that do are often considered ‘middle skill‘ jobs. However, Excel is widely used. Having good spreadsheet skills therefore gives you the ability to work on all sorts of different tasks. And you can more easily get value out of information that’s being shared in workbooks.

Once you know how to use Excel, you’ll find yourself using it more and more. It’s an accessible platform that can be used to do both simple and highly sophisticated business tasks.