When It's Time to Drop Excel

Remember those early days of starting your business? When you were cutting every possible corner, outsourcing nothing and just trying to do the best you could do all from one computer?

Maybe you were managing every contract on your own, sending out every follow-up by yourself with no CRM to back you up annnd maybe you’re still even tracking expenses and income in an excel spreadsheet?

As you scale your business though, there comes a time when (we love to say it) it’s time to drop Excel.

And we love to say this because while excel was great in the beginning, dropping it to something that's more robust in it’s support for you will be nothing but an uplevel!

But if you’re not sure you’re ready to cut the cord just yet, here’s some red flags to look out for:

Too Much Data

As a growing business, it’s likely that your expenses are getting bigger which means that when you’re sitting down to manually go over the numbers, you’ve got a lot of different areas to be pulling your data from. If you’re being overwhelmed by data when trying to create the right financial goals for your business, this is not a proficient and effective way to be charting your business!

Are Your Files Updated?

Another big issue that comes up with using standard Excel spreadsheets is that the program is constantly being updated. If you’re utilizing Excel, sharing it across users and also keeping up with your own program updates, there will come times when the program needs to be updated that can then cause inability to open previous files as well as causing new errors in current files in it’s attempt to keep up to date. These small issues can become in-the-moment headaches as you try to take care of these small fires when attempting to take care of your budgeting.

Wasting Time...

Have you clocked how much time it’s taking you to put all of this information together just to come up with a budget? In addition to pulling your files, you’re also tasked with coming up with formulas in Excel while also having to troubleshoot formulas that are not working. After doing this, if you’re still struggling with putting together your outlook/goals in a digestible format for both yourself and your team, budgeting in your business can become a real pain to you and something you don’t look forward to.

It really doesn’t have to be this way!

Not Efficient

If your budget/excel spreadsheet is something you have to share, this is another reason that it’s time to drop Excel. Because of the understandable mistake of human error, trading editable spreadsheets back and forth can cause real errors and miscalculations. When one number gets thrown off, many other things can as well which can ultimately lead to an completely erroneous budget. With this in mind, it’s easy to see why audits might also become nerve-wracking!

Who Did You Send That To?

Human error strikes again! When it comes to using Excel, you’re doing everything on your own. Nothing is automated and you’re responsible for entering everything in. This means you’re also responsible for where you’re attaching the document and who you’re sending it out to. Slight overlook can mean a spreadsheet with valuable information goes out to unauthorized eyes and puts you in a heap of privacy information trouble!

Trust us when we tell you, this is not a situation you want to deal with!

You’re Getting Behind…

Yet another reason to drop excel! As a business owner, your days are FILLED. We know this! So stopping to send out a spreadsheet may very well be the last thing on your mind and/or to-do list. Or perhaps, because you haven’t had the 2-3hrs yet to set aside time to collect all the data, dissect it and plug it in, maybe you’re behind on even having a completed spreadsheet to send over to the people that need it.

Wouldn’t it be easier to just have something that collected the data on its own?

We know you cringed at everyone of these topics because you’ve either dealt with them before or you’ve been so anxious about making the mistake that you take even more time when dealing with your spreadsheets to make sure they don’t happen!

As a business owner, this headspace and valuable time is not something you have room to spend!

Our solution is a simple one: NetSuite!

With NetSuite as your solution, you get a seamless, effortless and automated solution. One where your financial data (after properly being setup) is able to be automatically pulled so that you no longer have to waste time but instead sign in to see all your up-to-date data gathered in one place!

Additionally, with the ability to authorize access to certain users, NetSuite takes away the pressure of having to send spreadsheets to the right person or even having to send them at all!

If you’re ready to work smarter and not harder, try out NetSuite!