Escaping Excel Hell - Planning, Forecasting or Budgeting?

In marketing, there are a number of words that illicit a positive response. "Profit" "Free" and "New" are just three examples

So what reaction do you give to these three words: [...read more...]

Escaping Excel Hell - Unlocking Business Growth

Excel's a great way of making simple lists. So if you are trying to track sales orders or purchase orders, it's tempting to do it in Excel if you only have an accounting system.

Then the business grows a little. Two people are now trying to share a spreadsheet. That proves impractical so it is split into two halves. Then they are pulled together to report. Then a third person is needed ....

Before you know it there is a spider's web of spreadsheets, with links that sometimes work, and a whole raft of manual processes to control the business. Sound familiar? [...read more...]

Management Reporting – “SparkLines” and “Tweets” to Deliver Concise Information (in one cell & in one hundred and forty characters or less).

Senior management want relevant information quickly, clearly and concisely. Graphics are a great way. A picture can paint a thousand words.

A dashboard with graphs can convey so much. But a single screen view? Aren’t a few words needed to explain the “why” to go with the “what”? [...read more...]

Escaping Excel Hell – Using Graphical Add-Ins

If you’re familiar with my articles on Escaping Excel hell, then I’m often suggesting you replace Excel with a proper database-backed system.

This can be for planning/budgeting or a host of other business applications.

But one area where Excel remains extremely useful is for management reporting. Whilst there’s a key role for structured dashboards, Excel also [...read more...]

The gauges are available under a free 30-day trial from the Camwells website.