Sleeter Group, has a similar take on the
demise of the spreadsheet. “Spreadsheet
tools today are more of an ‘endpoint’ for
data, rather than the beginning for data.
Spreadsheet tools like Excel were once the
tool for things like creating invoices, budgets
and reports.”
Sleeter pointed out that the way people
use spreadsheets has changed greatly: “The
spreadsheet is no longer where we create
data, but instead where we analyze and vis
ualize data. In many ways, spreadsheets are
where data goes to die. But on the way, we
get some really interesting, useful and visual
information from the data.”
He also doesn’t see spreadsheet use going
downhill all that quickly. “Accountants still
consider Excel one of their most important
business tools. Even when other applications
do a particular task, quite often the accoun
tant will use Excel because it’s what they’re
most familiar with. Most accountants would
say you’d have to pry Microsoft Excel from
Spreadsheet
FROM PAGE
22
‘their cold dead fingers.’”
When spreadsheets first appeared, they
were used to construct rapid solutions for all
sorts of business problems. Martin Winston,
editor of the Newstips service for tech jour
nalists, admits that he’s more of a “words guy,
rather than a numbers/charts guy” — but that
orientation doesn’t stop him from using Ex
cel for text/numeric data tablebuilding, and
performing complex calculations.
Even experienced users like Richard Op
penheim, CPA, principal at The Oppenheim
Group, an early adopter of technology, often
turn to a spreadsheet, rather than a set of ded
icated applications, for everyday tasks. When
he first started using VisiCalc back in the late
1970s, he performed analyses, audit sched
ules, tax projections, transaction summaries
and computed complex tax formulas.
But life changes, and so does the way peo
ple use applications. These days, Oppenheim
still uses Excel for analysis, but he also uses it
for information capture, small databases and
lists. “The key for my use of spreadsheets is
to gather data — names, numbers and fields
of information about the number or the per
son,” he explained. “This includes tracking
hours of work done, future dates, information
analytics of every size and shape.”
The same is true of Roman Kepczyk, direc
tor of consulting at Xcentric. “The spread
sheet originally was the tool used for all
projects, reporting and analysis. But practice
management and CRM tools have improved
dramatically since then,” he said. His firm still
uses a spreadsheet, but feels that its use has
“decreased significantly as the reports from
QuickBooks have improved.”
MAKING THE MOST OF IT
The wealth of features and functions that
today’s spreadsheets offer, and the increas
ing capability to funnel data in and out of the
cloud, points to a long and healthy life for the
venerable spreadsheet.
However, not every expert sees the need
for the complexity that today’s spreadsheet
products provide. “We fully respect what is
getting done with spreadsheets, but suspect
much wasted effort and errors. Better ways
to do the job are available,” said Randy John
ston, executive vice president of consulting
and training firm K2 Enterprises.
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