

Nevertheless, errors occur when it’s used inappropriately. Excel is an excellent tool and is easy to use for many functions, from forecasting to analysis. Errors occur when it’s used inappropriately.īut let’s step back for a moment because the problem isn’t the functionality of the software itself. The problem isn’t the functionality of the software itself. What’s most shocking about these horror stories and statistics is the over-reliance by major organisations on spreadsheets and their willingness to base significant decisions on them, even though they understand that dependencies can and do lead to serious consequences. However, 17% of large businesses had also suffered financial loss because of poor spreadsheet governance. Spreadsheets seem to underpin elementary financial processes. Furthermore, 78% of British companies say that spreadsheets support key financial decisions. A YouGov study, commissioned by F1F9 found that 72% of medium and large businesses use them for budgeting or forecasting. It’s not the only time in recent years a large organisation has missed a small error in a finance spreadsheet that has, in turn, led to a significant and negative impact on its operations. An easy-to-make, small slip it might have been, but it led to a damaging outcome for the company’s quarterly performance.ġ7% of large businesses had also suffered financial loss because of poor spreadsheet governance. A simple double-counting mishap in the spreadsheet. The mistake was put down to a summing miscalculation. This inaccuracy led to a drop in share price and numerous articles spreading damaging news of the company’s error. However, just a few hours later, it issued a statement saying that sales had in fact, fallen. So, the big question is, how reliant, or perhaps, over-reliant on spreadsheets are you? And should you be worried? A few years ago, a leading UK retailer announced that its quarterly sales had grown by more than 1%.

Couple this information with the fact that Microsoft recently stopped support for Windows 7 and will cease mainstream support for Windows 10 this year it seems many finance departments are walking a very slippery slope in terms of the tools they use to underpin critical business practices.

Yet in our European Tax Technology Survey, only 11% of businesses believed they can still rely on manual processes and spreadsheets. Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting Blog, Corporations, ONESOURCE March 10, 2020Ī recent Deloitte survey found that 73% of companies used Microsoft Excel to prepare VAT returns.
