Microsoft Excel is typically used for data entry. It is used to organize data and perform various analyses. It is commonly used across business functions and small to large companies. The knowledge of Excel worksheets can benefit individuals in various career paths. These include; business analysts, sales managers, market research analysts, and financial analysist, among others (Ragsdale, 2021). Such careers depend on Excel to perform their core responsibilities.
I am more specifically in doing financial analysis as my future career. Excel knowledge will be used for complex analysis and computing features. In addition, excel skills are used for financial analysis because of their unmatched capabilities in mathematical calculations, formatting and VBA/macro tools (Mayes, 2020). As a financial analyst, I need Excel skills to create several financial models and estimate the future performance of businesses. Excel simplifies calculations through automation, providing real-time calculations. Computations normally take hours and can be presented in spreadsheets in seconds. On the front end, reports and dashboard summaries still on the back end provide data stored and retrieved for calculations.
Further, excel makes financial modeling easy and improves efficiency by automating routine tasks. In this case, excel automates data entry by importing data. This would save time and reduce human errors that would significantly impact finance. Additionally, automating workflows to route tasks from one person to another can improve efficiency even in the approval processes (Kalwar et al., 2022). The potentials for data transformation are unlimited. In this case, automation in Excel can help integrate external data recorded in other programs into databases and combine with Excel. Similarly, generating higher volume reports on a schedule allows self-service and generates financial reports on demand.
Microsoft Excel helps me get all my stuff done. It helps me save time. For instance, instead of adding up many monthly expenditures columns, I can use Excel to compute the math for me correctly. It makes it easy to compile personal data and simplify much data. By using free printable expense trackers, excel helps me stay on budget. Finally, I use Excel for basic computations. For instance, I rely on Excel for accurate computation when doing mathematical additions, multiplications and subtractions.
A personal spreadsheet is useful in financial analysis careers. A personal spreadsheet can reduce the amount of setup work required. The spreadsheet contains cells that denote starting balance, income and expenses. This also estimates the projected end balance (Anderson et al., 2020). In addition, activity tracking spreadsheets are used by sales managers to track sales by team reported weekly, monthly and yearly.
Similarly, marker research analysts combine SPSS with Excel spreadsheets to summarize marketing data. Through these spreadsheets, market researchers investigate monthly sales volume for different products. The spreadsheets help analyze the impact of festive seasons on market sales volume and examine the influence of marketing promotion on sales.
In general, excel is used for data entry, analysis and interpretation. Also, it is used in forecasting in marketing, tracking sales and reporting financial statements. Various careers that utilize Excel skills include market research analysts, financial analysts, sales managers and business analysts.
References
Anderson, D. R., Sweeney, D. J., Williams, T. A., Camm, J. D., & Cochran, J. J. (2020). Modern business statistics with Microsoft Excel. Cengage Learning.
Kalwar, M. A., Shahzad, M. F., Wadho, M. H., Khan, M. A., & Shaikh, S. A. (2022). Automation of order costing analysis using Visual Basic for applications in Microsoft Excel. Journal of Applied Research in Technology & Engineering, 3(1), 29-59.
Mayes, T. R. (2020). Financial analysis with Microsoft Excel. Cengage Learning.
Ragsdale, C. (2021). Spreadsheet modeling and decision analysis: a practical introduction to business analytics. Cengage Learning.