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Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

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Re: Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

#411

Post by outsideoflife »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #170
anakic wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll join in with a bit of show-and-tell of my own, if I may. I'm working on a plugin for Excel for dev's and other technical people. It lets the user use SQL and C# in Excel, connect to various types of databases and move data in either direction, and provides a runtime for automation. The idea is basically to let tech users use their existing skills to make life easier. Main areas of use are: - process (live) data…

.NET and ODBC already provide C# and SQL, no?

Yes...but. You can't do a SQL join between the data in an excel table and a remote database via a nice GUI front end using just .NET and ODBC. I am evaluating this product at the moment, and it looks really useful for Finance/analyst types

Re: Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

#412

Post by allenz »

jbergens wrote: post #398
allenz wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Logging: I just save a copy of the spreadsheet every time I make a tax filing. Do I need anything more fine-grained? Validation: I'm confident that I can catch duplicated rows and mistyped amounts because Excel formulas verify that the sum of all transactions for each account equals the account balance, and that transfers between accounts add up to $0. Do I need anything more? Point-in-time doesn't work because I nee…

This doesn't scale well. If only one person edits the spreadsheet and that person knows how to save copies and make sure there is only one latest version it may work. If you give this to 10 people they will start making copies, saving those with different names ans save the copies on some server or on their own machines and after a while you don't have a single source of truth anymore. And you almost never have loggi…

That's true. Currently I handle scaling by automating nearly all the work. Most routine transactions are automatically categorized without manual input; I just skim the report. We modify 0-2 transactions/day, which is low enough for Dropbox to work well. This wouldn't work for a Fortune 500.

Re: Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

#413

Post by AimHere »

njarboe wrote: post #233
barrkel wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a reason chefs don't use multi-tools; purpose-built tools always beat generic tools when you need to maximize efficiency on a task.

I would say a chef's knife is the ultimate kitchen multi-tool. Having one great knife you really know how to use for cutting everything is much more efficient than a bunch of different knives.

Of course the multitool is the single point of failure. If the chef isn't careful, that one great knife can be the vector that means ALL the customers get salmonella, not just the ones who ordered the chicken!

Re: Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

#414

Post by rtpg »

R_haterade wrote: post #134
Gustomaximus wrote: post #5

The core complaint of not having a single source of truth seems more about how the company handles data/filing rather than Excel itself. Maybe I'm a bit bias having used Excel my entire career and very dependent on it, but everytime I've seen companies steer away from the desktop application with 0365/sheets/tableau its simply not as useful for adhoc data analysis and reporting.

>its simply not as useful for adhoc data analysis and reporting. You wanna know what's even more useful? Code notebooks. I store everything from my sql queries to my processing pipeline to my models, and my vizualizations. Most notebooks have slide-show modes now so your presentation to business stakeholders is simple to prepare as well, and with the right plotting packages you can draw interactive charts that do all…

I use jupyter a good amount, but even in a low user environment there's a big worry about version control and code sharing/review

I know there's " automatically check stuff into git" sort of models but would really like an integrated Jupyter + GitHub + Google Drive system so that it's easier to track what's happening and to find older versions of stuff.

Re: Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

#415

Post by nihonde »

ggg9990 wrote: post #300
sheetjs wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my career in business software has still mostly been about converting spreadsheets into more "proper" applications. Still true for many people in 2017. @patio11 probably said it best: > Every spreadsheet shared in a business is an angel announcing another SaaS app still needs to be built. https://twitter.com/patio11/status/655674551615942657 FWIW we ended up in business software after one of our open source librari…

A nice quote but getting data between SaaS apps is much harder than between Excel sheets, and modifying a SaaS app with that one little thing you need for your particular case is of course impossible.

Getting data between SaaS apps is not only easier, but formats like JSONAPI are far more powerful than pushing csv binaries that may or may not adhere to a spec.

Re: Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

#416

Post by jasonmaydie »

They had me until the part where they complained about using old versions excel. Then upgrade it, and while you are at it upgrade your windows XP machines too. Why are these companies complaining about using old software when they are the ones who are always last to upgrade?

Re: Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

#417

Post by rbg246 »

allenz wrote: post #405
rbg246 wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know the account balance total they you are validating your line items against is correct? Is that coming from another accounting system?

I validate account totals against the balance reported by the bank.

Oh I see so you are only reporting on cash receipts, so presumably there is an accounts receivable ledger to track the invoices raised with your cash received etc. Thanks for the reply

Re: Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

#419

Post by rhelmer »

mabbo wrote: post #18

I would argue that the most commonly used programming language is Excel. But few of the people using it realize they're programming. It's a brilliant reactive data programming model that makes intuitive sense to non-technical users. They feel empowered to use it to solve problems right now with a computer. They experiment with it, try things, Google how to do more things- just like any programmer does. And they feel…

In the book "A Small Matter of Programming"[0] (1993), Bonnie A. Nardi makes the case that there are really only two successful end user programming systems - spreadsheets and CAD.

I think that's just as true today, at least as far as business software goes.

0 - https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/small-matter-programming

Re: Stop Using Excel, Finance Chiefs Tell Staffs

#420

Post by eru »

mabbo wrote: post #18

I would argue that the most commonly used programming language is Excel. But few of the people using it realize they're programming. It's a brilliant reactive data programming model that makes intuitive sense to non-technical users. They feel empowered to use it to solve problems right now with a computer. They experiment with it, try things, Google how to do more things- just like any programmer does. And they feel…

Compare "Improving the world’s most popular functional language: user-defined functions in Excel" https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/improvi...
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