How have spreadsheets changed your work?

[Brendazona]

The spreadsheet has been around for a long time. Even in the electronic form, it has been around for over a quarter century. How has the electronic spreadsheet improved or changed your job?

I'm taking a course in computer applications and will be using any information I get in replies to this thread in my term paper.

Thanks in advance for all replies,

[Brandtrock]

When I started using spreadsheets, I did some really simple add, subtract, multiply and divide sheets that helped the backroom operations at the bank that I worked for keep their accounts reconciled, figure the cash position at the Fed, and track employee sick days and vacation days.

As I got more familiar with Excel, I eventually developed spreadsheets that would reconcile multiple General Ledger accounts in a fixed assets department, schedule drivers for an over the road trucking company, score a wrestling tournament, and interact with other software applications.

I currently develop solutions for clients as diverse as an international vacation seller's call center to fast food restaurants, to small businesses doing a variety of activities.

Hope this helps you out,

[Charlize]

One application I use on a daily basis, holds the outgoing invoices, the incoming invoices, the partial payments of outgoing invoices and some graphs. This started out as a simple invoice reminder system (way to much work, so I tried to make my life somewhat easier).

Originally, I had to put in every invoice into the bookkeeping system and once again in the excel sheet. Since I don't like it to do things twice, I created a first macro that imported the invoices from the bookkeeping system that were ready to be booked but needed a final approval. So one hour of ridicilous work was reduced to 10 minutes of importing. And some flags are set that you can't import an invoice twice.

Second step was to lighten up the invoices that were due and not paid.

The next one was the ability to track partial payments for an invoice in a certain case. When invoice was paid, all the partial payments are removed from the sheet and the invoice is marked paid. With a doubleclick on the invoice amount, a popup shows the partial payments made with the date, who paid it and the amount. (That can be improved by importing the payments ... need some time to think how I would do that.)

Now I'm working on the automatic reminder system. I've got the interaction (based on clientno) with the bookkeeping program that works but it's still in a testfase. In the past I needed to look up the case, take a look at the clientno, go into the bookkeeping program and generate a reminder for that no.

So for the moment I use it to make my life easier and to get my work done in half the time as normal (so I can do the other stuff that they throw into my office ...)

[matthewspatrick]

Of course, while I take the most pride in automation, I do in fact do all of the first four items. (That said, I often cringe when I have to use spreadsheets built by co-workers or clients :jawdown: )

[rory]

Depending on when you asked me, I could have picked almost any of those six options!
Although these days I don't tend to use spreadsheets my colleagues have made until I've redesigned them... ;)
Rory

[Bob Phillips]

I have been thinking about this topiv quite a while, and my initial reaction was a flippant answer along the lines that I spend each and every day of my working life either building or changing spreadsheets that are largely pointless, and would not be missed if they disappeared into the ether.

Being more serious, I guess it has changed my job enormously. After all, I quit my paid employment a few years ago to go freelance, and have no intention of going back.

But there is seriousness to it, because it never ceases to amaze me the number of things that people do on/within spreadsheets that they really should be using a corporate enterprise system to do. By building ANOTHER spreadsheet, the information is getting spread thinner and thinner, being distorted more and more, and is probably depriving the key systems of the data that is really needed to help run the business (I worked for a company that used SAP for all of their financial data, and then built a completely independent Basel report system (sic!)).

Although I love spreadsheets, both the Excel side and the VBA side, I do wonder how much of it is actually necessary.

And someone please tell me why we all think we are the only one capable of building a decent spreadsheet.

[JonPeltier]

Spreadsheets first changed my job, by making it easier to compile and analyze data. Then spreadsheets became my job, because I was good enough at tailoring them for my own use, that I started tailoring them for more general use, and I switched careers.

[Jan Karel Pieterse]

Jon just wrote my CV <grin>.

[Wolfgang]

Strictly ?non-commercial??
I?ve been using MS Excel when it was called ?Multiplan? back in the good old days and ?CalcStar? was still around (from a company that brought ?WordStar? to us, namely MicroPro).
The attached file shows an example of how to investigate a housekeeping-data file which was generated daily by a satellite, file size up to 11 MB ASCII-format?
Best,
Wolfgang

[shades]

I had not voted, because the first four have applied to me, but I guess the development of spreadsheets for others is where I am now. I was in my 50's before coming into contact with Excel, and then was hired as an analyst for a Fortune 50 company - knowing nothing about either XL or Access. Guess my Math background 40 years ago paid off. ;)

I first did everything manually on my own spreadsheets, because that was how the previous person did it. Gradually I discovered that there had to be an easier way! Then I began trying to automate a few of the tasks - much thanks to Jon Peltier, John Walkenbach, and MrExcel.

I appreciate what Bob (XLD) wrote about proliferating spreadsheets and the lack of consistency/control in the enterprise environment. The past 18 months most of my work has been to automate data feed directly from our mainframe systems, to XL data setup workbook, to to XL setup and charts, to live links to Powerpoint (data is not stored on the spreadsheets, but is live to the database). That means that most of the time I am setting up spreadsheets for others, and automating all data pulls, with all automated charts (not one pie chart!). The biggest influence in this area was Charley Kyd (Exceluser.com).

Thanks to everyone here (and MrExcel and OzGrid) for all the help and encouragement over the years.

:hi:

[Ken Puls]

I actually could have voted for 1-4, but voted for the "development" route.

I still come across the occasional spreadsheet in our company that I have not redesigned. So long as it works, it usually gets left alone, unless it is not intuitive. The only exception to this is our budget package. Developed by a consultant, it is a tangled mess of external links that needs to be re-worked, but is so complex that we haven't had the time yet.

As for the 2-3 options, I still do all of them regularly. :)

I will say that they have changed my life. They've allowed me an incredible opportunity to learn, and have also given me the ability to make a great many friends in the online community. While I haven't thrown my entire career to them (yet), as have Bob, Jon and Jan Karel, they have also allowed me to supplement my income as well.

[andrewvanmar]

I voted 1 because I don't think I should take credit for creative copy/pasting.
I'm fairly new in the spreadsheet developing biz, and I just completed my first project: an automated orderform that prints, pdf's, disallows certain actions and checks certain fields plus some other stuff.
I wouldn't have been able to do this without ken puls here, nor the help of others like charlize, xld and rory.

so option 1 it is.

[JonPeltier]

Andrew -

One has to start somewhere, and that's a good start. We all rely on the help of others, and Google is one of my favorite programming tools. You could probably take more credit than you've allowed yourself.

[austenr]

I didn't vote but if I were allowed multiple votes I would have chosen 1-4. I really have not been using spreadsheets to do complex things until very recently. Maybe 10 years. Most of what I have learned has come from a variety of sources but at the top of the list is this board. Bob, Zack, DRJ, Malcomb, well I could go on but I would probably leave someone out and thats not right.

To say I am an expert is far from the truth but at least I am willing to give things a try and if I get stuck there is always help. Sometimes it small and sometimes I have no idea how to do what I want. But persistance pays off. Like the song says, " I get by with a little help from my friends". Thanks to everyone. Still learning and probably always will.

[andrewvanmar]

Jon, thanks for the flattering ( and uplifting) words, reading these boards make me feel like I just figured out how copy/paste works; there's a bunch of geniuses around here, and i'm never to proud to try and learn from them :)

[Ron Coderre]

In 1985, I was in charge of consolidating the income statements of 47 stores and 4 warehouses. I'd enter the last numbers into the 18 column accounting paper around noon on the 1st of the month. Then, out came the calculator. 10 hours and a whole roll of calculator paper later, I got the spreadsheets to cross-foot. I'd spend the next 2 days writing up journal entries.

Later that year, my company ordered me an IBM PC and the popular (and pretty much only) electronic spreadsheet. While waiting for it to arrive I read a book on it and discovered macros. My first ever use of that program was to automate the consolidation process. I'd still finish entering the numbers at noon on the first day of the month....BUT...then I'd hit the [CALC] command and 2 minutes later the month end journal entries started cranking out of the dot matrix printer....2-1/2 days early!

I've been developing automated spreadsheet solutions ever since.

-------------------
Ron Coderre
Microsoft MVP (Excel)

[asingh]

I would have chosen options 1--4. With 1 being less overall..since I usually redesign the spreadsheet once I receive it from someone else.

Around 6 years ago..my first job..after a couple of month of joining I was given a simple task of maintaining daily production [files processed],which used to get summed up for weekly roll-ups. Once by accident I deleted the sum formula for 2 employees. For the next two month I would "add" their daily production manually, cause I did not know a thing about excel.

Then slowly I learnt about excel. Am doing a lot of development work/analysis in excel now. Specially making end-user models.

This site has been an excellent place to learn excel too.

regards,

asingh

[OBP]

I could have voted 1 to 4 but settled on 4 as that was what I did last before retiring and now help to do on forums. I go all the way back to Visicalc.
Like XLD I am amazed at how diluted and repeated data gets in independent Workbooks, (with the subsequent losses, errors, differences and level differences that it brings) when a shared Central solution ensures that everyone works with the same data.
I am also shocked at how many people struggle with Excel "Databases" rather than use Access or some other database program.

[lalbatros]

I use Excel mostly for one purpose:

a convenient user-interface for performing all kinds of calculations

These calculations can be of any length or any level of complexity. A few examples:

- calculating a surface including a drawing (simple thing involving surfaces in my home)
- large statistical analysis like for example Principal Component Analysis (custom VBA module)
- large scale optimisation for good manufacturing and distribution (10k+ variable, custom VBA and custom C++ DLL)
- production planning for several plants together with a central SQL server database, distribution of the models and the results by customizing an Excel model for the various recipients
- mid-cale optimisation for multi-plant multi-level production recipes (1k+ variables, custom VBA and custom C++ DLL)
- thermodynamic process simulation interfacing Excel to a custom java (j++ or j#) class library, models are totally user-defined by listing devices, connections and streams and their properties, the model simulation is controlled in Excel and the results can be browsed in Excel as an object hierachy, each numerical result has a unique adress and can be retrieved with one single UDF making it simple to document any results on a flowsheet in Excel (I have not automated the flwosheet drawing!)
- many thermodynamic models like 2D cross-current heat exchanger and other types of exchangers, burning models, chemical equilibrium (including solid-state equilibrium for 20+ component, silicates for example), heat exchange by radiation, ...

I started with Excel on a Macintosh in the late 80's. At that time it was good for publishing graphics, not more, and I did most of my work in Fortran. I have not used Fortran since very long now, I use mostly Excel and VBA, but sometimes I need to use Java and I will soon use C#. My first use of Java (J++) was a funny story because I taught the best solution for my needs should be based on COM, but after testing VB, C++, I finally came -by chance- upon a special version of J++ that solved all difficulties: what an irony that only SUN and Microsoft together could match my needs! We know the rest of the story too well ... (what a shame!)