Businesses have numbers; spreadsheets are great at numbers. Spreadsheets have the flexibility of a great notebook, with room to sketch and dream and play. As a digital medium, they’re perfect for asking what-if questions without making you re-create the whole picture. They will always be better at math than you are, which can be a relief. You can use a spreadsheet to figure out how to solve a problem once, and then use it to keep solving that sort of problem over and over without repeating the ‘figuring out’ effort.
Spreadsheets are also stellar at helping you make sense of data. Ever downloaded a CSV (comma separated vales) file, opened it and then despaired? You were probably trying to answer a question and a Pivot Table is exactly the right tool to filter and summarize that data into an answer. Ever wish you could SEE what mattered in a sea of numbers and words and dates? Conditional formatting is here to give you highlights based on anything in your data that drives your decision making.
Then there is the magic of DATE and TIME MATH. Got some things that happen every two weeks and some that happen twice a month and some that happen when the moon is full but only if you’ve paid your bill within the last ten days? Spreadsheets do not have to chant to themselves “30 days hath September, April, June, and November” … they just know. They also know what day of the week a date is and can help you sort out a sequence of events you haven’t assigned to exact dates yet. If you need to keep track of recurring tasks at odd intervals, or you want to compare your average daily sales on Saturdays, spreadsheets are here for that.
As with any creative medium, spreadsheets reward the time you invest into leveling up your skills. However, unlike most mediums, going from zero to confident beginner doesn’t take a lot of practice or time, and you don’t need to build muscle memory. If you’re new to spreadsheets, lucky you! You’re about to unlock one of the most satisfying learning experiences of all time.
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