Microsoft Excel has grown to become an integral part of businesses today. Businesses use it for various purposes depending on what they do. One of the most significant uses businesses put it into is tracking sales trends. Some use it to generate memos and analyze sets of business data.
Businesses continue to adopt and use Microsoft Excel because of its benefits. It’s worth noting that the best way to maximize on this program is by mastering it. According to reports, 12% of spreadsheets contain mistakes. Taking an Excel course can help you avoid costly errors and enjoy its benefits.
But why is Microsoft Excel worth adopting for your business? Well, this article looks at the reasons why you might need it.
Here’s the first reason.
1. It Simplifies Work Scheduling
Work scheduling isn’t as easy as you might think. It is a daunting task, and it can consume so much time. Managers need to assign work to everyone in their team. Microsoft Excel is the program to help do this without struggling. Excel has a scheduling feature that you can use for this.
The good news is that scheduling using Excel isn’t daunting. You can do it even as a beginner as long as there’s a tutorial to guide you. Besides, you do not have to start from scratch if there are any changes. Microsoft Excel will auto-update the new schedule and activities in one click.
2. It Helps With Basic Financial Accounting
Financial accounting can be a difficult task for a beginner. Established businesses do not find it challenging. They have the finances to hire the best accountants in the industry. But small and mid-sized companies might find hiring expensive. Excel is the best solution for their accounting.
Microsoft Excel comes with features that support financial accounting. But you need to know the basics of accounting to maximize them. It’s best to start by knowing the basics like deposits and expenditures. Also, you should know how to work with charts and graphs.
Such basic financial accounting knowledge will simplify your work. Also, a good understanding of how Excel works will make using it even better.
3. It Boosts Product Sales Tracking
Businesses, big or small, need to keep records of their transactions. If you run a business and would like to profit, you should track every sale. You can do this manually, but it will be a tiresome experience. Thus, it is an excellent idea to automate it using software like Excel.
Microsoft Excel has the tools you need to manage your sales. You can use it to record and store details of every transaction you complete. This will then make it easy for you to identify various trends. For instance, you will quickly identify periods when you have had high and low sales.
4. It Boosts Business ROI Tracking
Every investor aims at getting a good return on investment. But you cannot be sure that you are getting it if you don’t track your profits over time. That’s one reason why you need Microsoft Excel in your business. You can use it to record and store profits earned for a specific period.
If you are running a startup, such records can be significant to you. For instance, you will use them to know when your business breaks even. It will also help you know when it starts making additional profits. This will help you make critical decisions that will help you scale your business.
5. It Stores Sensitive Information
Businesses hold a lot of sensitive company and customer data. It is vital to ensure that this data is secure and not accessible by malicious people. Large organizations have various ways of storing and protecting this data. But that’s not easy for small businesses with meager budgets.
Microsoft Excel comes in handy for startups looking to store data. Excel spreadsheets are easy to organize, and you can enter the data into the fields. For instance, you can enter your customers’ names in one column and their contact information in another column.
Then, you can save the spreadsheet in a hidden location on your computer. You can also update it anytime that you want to. You won’t lose any previously saved data. This makes Microsoft Excel one of the best business and customer data storage programs.
6. It Improves a Business’s Organization
As mentioned earlier, Microsoft Excel has columns and rows. If you have data, you can enter it into these fields. One spreadsheet can carry vast sets of data making Excel efficient. You can use the program to record everything from the work schedules to employee or customer details.
Now the most significant benefit this gives a business is boosting organization. You don’t have to draw tables because it has readily drawn ones. Also, it is easy to find data stored in Excel whenever you need it. Besides, Microsoft Excel can help make your data presentable.
7. It’s Useful for Human Resource Management
This is another reason all businesses need to use Excel. It’s not only the accounting department that can benefit from Excel. The HR department can also use it in various ways. For instance, HR professionals can use Excel to store employee data and also access it quickly any time they need it.
Also, a HR department can use Excel to manage its payroll. Excel is the perfect tool for payroll management because you can use it to perform trend analysis. Also, you can use it to calculate the company’s expenses on human resources faster than any other tool.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that businesses are reaping significant benefits from Excel. It helps them streamline their day-to-day activities. This is by assisting them to schedule work and with tracking of product sales. Besides, it helps them do basic financial accounting and organize customer data.
But Excel might not be easy to use if you come across it for the first time. That’s why you need a bit of background knowledge to use it. As said earlier, it’s common to come across spreadsheets that contain mistakes. Consider taking a Microsoft Excel course to know how it works.
