3 Ways You Can Use Excel Effectively

Some of the most versatile and useful technology out there might already be installed on your infrastructure. One such tool is Microsoft Excel, Microsoft 365’s spreadsheet building platform. You might be surprised to find out that Excel can be used in some interesting ways—including these three uses.

Financial Management

Excel can be used to build budgets, track expenses, and invoice clients in a simple way.

Excel offers real-time visibility into your cash flow, which helps your business make better financial decisions. You can create detailed budgets, track expenses as they occur, and generate professional invoices with automated calculations. These spreadsheets are also backed up in the cloud, so you can move forward with redundancy, accessibility, and collaboration in mind.

While there are dedicated accounting solutions out there, Excel offers an alternative path to the same outcome.

Data-Driven Decision Making

You’ll need to make some tough calls, but Excel can make it a little easier.

You want all of your decisions to be made through the lens of data; this helps you make better, more intelligent decisions that are grounded in reality rather than speculation. Excel can help you collect, organize, and analyze data, all of which can drive insights that help your business grow. Some of the ways you might use this data include tracking sales performance, analyzing customer demographics, monitoring inventory levels, and even creating dynamic dashboards to help you show off key metrics.

Excel might be a spreadsheet tool, but you’d be surprised by how well it can be used to strategize, seek out trends, and figure out how to get the most value out of your operations.

Productivity Through Integration

You can make great use of Excel through integrating it with your other tools, like your CRM, marketing automation, or accounting software.

Consider that most of these tools will require you to import Excel files with important data to make for easier data entry. This is super helpful, as it decreases the risk of user error that could come from manually entering in these records. These solutions are also connected to the cloud, so you will have an easier time sharing files, integrating the data into your project management tools, and so on.

With all this in mind, it’s easy to see how Excel is a staple in the workplace.

Microsoft 365 has plenty of other tools available to help your business thrive. Learn more about how you can make smart use of business technology by reaching out to us at (780) 409-8180.