Excel at Excel (Or Google Sheets)
Hello All,
So, perhaps it won’t be surprising that I’m a bit of an excel nerd. It’s capabilities are impressive and it can used by pretty much anyone who knows how to use a computer. Understandably, many business owners that I have spoken to are intimidated by it or are unaware of its functionality. The good news is that it is fairly simple to use and there are a limitless number of resources available to become better at it.
In my view, every business owner needs to have at least a working knowledge of spreadsheets. It is essential for almost any type of financial analysis as it can provide powerful insights and save you a great deal of time. There are numerous other types of ways in which excel (or google sheets) can help. Some of the ways in which small businesses can use excel include:
Basic calculations: Rather than using a calculator, excel is often better as you can see your inputs to verify accuracy and change them easily without having to redo the calculations.
Accounting (per my last newsletter and blog post below): If you are small and your business is fairly straightforward you can track your revenues and expenses in excel.
Pricing analysis: Determining the actual cost of your products is much easier when you do it in excel. I recommend getting as granular as possible with this. Once set up, you can change the inputs as more information becomes available or changes.
Sales and cash flow forecasting: Listing your expected sales and expenses can be invaluable exercise especially for business owners who have to ensure that they have enough cash to meet their needs in the future.
Sales Analysis: Slicing and dicing your sales in various ways to see what trends emerge and how you can leverage the data to serve your customers better.
Inventory management: I usually recommend accounting software for inventory management as this can become complex and difficult to manage, however, in the early stages of your business a spreadsheet can at least help you understand your products, what is selling well and what needs to be ordered.
Set up invoices: If you aren’t using an accounting or invoicing software, I actually prefer excel to word for this. You can format your invoice templates, import your logo etc. Excel is better in that it does the calculations automatically. I have often seen invoices generated with Word with calculation errors.
Create reporting dashboards: this is a bit advanced but there are various templates online that can help you see your business at a glance.
Track your customer or client info: by using tables in excel, you can set up names, addresses and any other pertinent info relating to your client. You can then query the data much more easily.
Charts: See your data visually by means of charts and graphs. Infographics are also very easy to create in excel. There is a significant amount of design functionality.
Basically, if you have any type of data that you want to be able to analyze or set up templates with, spreadsheets are the way to go. If the thought of using spreadsheets makes you a bit queasy, I recommend taking a few minutes to open up a YouTube video (or simply search for excel for beginners ) and start playing around with it. If you have some knowledge already, know that excel /google sheets can automate a swathe of tasks that you might be doing manually right now and provide you with insights to help you run your business more profitably.
Blog Post
An overview of specific functions and formulas that are useful for small business owners
Excel for Small Business Owners
As a confirmed excel nerd, there is something about large amounts of data that I am inextricably drawn towards . I suppose it has something to do with an affinity for organization combined with a love
Want more clear, actionable guidance on Canadian small business finance and taxes? Subscribe to my newsletter
