When you run a business, there are always some tasks that simply scream “INEFFICIENT!” and most business owners will generally not waste any time seeking a solution to those tasks; however, spreadsheet dependency just sort of sneaks up on you at one point or another.
Being lured into spreadsheet dependency is an easy and almost transparent event. For many small contractors just starting out, spreadsheets are the first and seemingly only solution they need to get their company up and running…..quickly.
On almost a daily basis, we talk with contractors or their bookkeepers about our AIA Billing program and when we tell them that it is designed to work off the Estimating and Progress Invoicing features in QuickBooks they tell us — “oh, but we don’t do our Estimating in QuickBooks, we use Excel” — our immediate response is “how do you handle your job costing?”
Because spreadsheets are flexible and easy to use there is little to no learning curve and no need to learn anything at all about bookkeeping and accounting. Contractors frequently create spreadsheets to create and track estimates, invoices, payroll, basic job costing, financials and more. The next thing you know the business is growing and here comes the creation of more and more complex “WORK”sheets to analyze job costs.
If you are one of those folks who is still addicted to spreadsheets take the final plunge and conquer spreadsheet addiction once and for all!
Using spreadsheets does not provide you with the ability to integrate data between all aspects of your business, provides no ability for multiple users, and offers no protection against data loss.
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