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Here's the
Proof
Ray Panko. At least 20% of all Excel spreadsheets are
incorrect. Here's a scientific paper from the University of
Hawai'I by a
Ray Panko. If you read his
paper you'll be shocked to discover the inaccuracy of
spreadsheets. When is the last time you performed an audit
of your company's important spreadsheets?
The Pareto Law. Originally
an economic theory, Pareto's Law has been applied to many
endeavors. It's also known as the 80/20 theory. For
example, 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients.
80% of your management headaches come from 20% of your staff.
And, you guessed it, 80% of your spreadsheet headaches come from
20% of your spreadsheets. The Pareto Law is never perfect,
but it's very useful.
Experience. My name is Richard Kraneis and I've taught
over 10,000 people how to use computers in the last decade.
I've seen many Excel spreadsheets, fixed many spreadsheets, and
taught many clients. Before I read Ray Panko's research on
spreadsheet errors I decided the error rate was around 20%.
But my generalization is broader. I believe 20% of all
spreadsheets have errors of some type and another 20% of all
spreadsheets are poorly designed and could be optimized for better
use.
Decision Makers
You have the power and insight to bring accuracy and
optimization to your Excel spreadsheets. Here are a few
questions to ask yourself or your staff.
1) When is the last time your company audited its
important spreadsheets? Or, does your company use the "hot
potato" theory. When one staffer leaves he or she "hot
potatoes" their complex spreadsheets to lesser experienced staff
without any explanation or audit trail. Do you think your
staff has the expertise to perform an Excel audit or do they need
guidance and training?
2) What are the 10 most important spreadsheets in your
company? Are they safe? Have they been audited?
Who controls those spreadsheets?
3) How well did last year's budgeting process perform?
Did participating departments have trouble again from not
understanding their role and spreadsheets in the budget process?
Was the budget off due to user errors? Or, did budgeting
take the usual excessive amount of time? Why not bring in an
expert to learn your budgeting process and
teach the Excel budgeting process to your staff?
Excel Power Users
Your job is often a thankless one. You constantly solve
the Excel problems of staff members and re-explain for the 20th
time how your spreadsheets work. Why not become an Excel
spreadsheet hero and promote your career?
At this moment, 20% or more of your company's spreadsheets are in error.
You alone can't fix or optimize the spreadsheets around you. People less skilled than you are wasting time on spreadsheets that
could be used more efficiently. And finally, precious
insight into your company's success or failure is being lost
because Excel spreadsheet users don't know how to utilize their
data at a high level.
Propose TechSpectrum's spreadsheet auditing and advanced
courses today. Our goal is to make you the Excel spreadsheet hero for your
company.
Email us today with a training request:
rkraneis@techspectrum.com
Advanced Excel Auditing and Training
TechSpectrum is a
www.MrExcel.com affiliated
trainer. In fact, we are the course designers for his
training.
Our courses are listed below for your research. We are
hoping that you will contact us for at least 2 days of training at
your site. But you are really interested in the Excel
spreadsheet auditing course so here's some partial information.
Excel Spreadsheet Auditing. We have designed the
course to take place over one day. The first half of the day
we teach you spreadsheet auditing techniques. The 2nd half
of the day we help your staff begin their own auditing process.
Here are a few questions from the course.
Question 1: Simple.
Time: 1 second (if you know it).
Excel software since 1995: This is a
classic and one of my favorites. Less than 1% of my
clients know the answer. In
Excel, how do you instantly display all of your formulas so they
display not as values but as logical text?
Question 2: Intermediate.
Time: 5 minutes.
You are distributing an Excel budget spreadsheet to different
departments. What techniques would you perform to ensure that
the departments don't alter the spreadsheet? Can you list half a
dozen quality control measures?
If you'd like to know more about the Excel auditing course
please email
rkraneis@techspectrum.com .
Other Courses. You can receive beginner Excel training
almost anywhere in the U.S. But for advanced Excel training
that helps you audit your spreadsheets, optimize existing
spreadsheets, and utilize your spreadsheet data in new ways, you
need TechSpectrum. Here is a listing of our advanced Excel
courses. Each course is 3 hours in length.
- Excel Refresher Course
- Advanced Formulas
- Data Mining.
- Excel Spreadsheet Auditing.
- Your Excel Spreadsheets Explained.
- Charts.
- More modules coming...
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