It’s time to sidestep Excel

Evolving technologies

In today’s world of ever evolving technologies, you may not expect that some businesses still use Excel spreadsheets to help manage daily business processes. However, an estimated 71% of companies still rely heavily on these outdated methods to track budget and spending (FSN, 2019), which not only hampers your efficiency, but also increases the likelihood of mistakes through human error.

It has been researched that 88% of spreadsheets have mistakes (PSP IT, 2021). Some mistakes are obviously less impactful than others, however for business owners, any mistakes can be incredibly costly. Spreadsheets also rely on key individuals for maintenance and updates, and in terms of stability are a risk to any business, particularly the larger more complex spreadsheets where there is a reliance on data from other sources or other worksheets. Sage negates the need for Excel spreadsheets by having a wealth of relevant information in one piece of software that is designed to improve business processes, and offers one point of data entry with instant company-wide visibility.

Reducing human errors

Sage helps businesses reduce the number of mistakes made by human error. With no need to flick between spreadsheets to input or copy data, there’s no more risk of inputting or copying down the wrong data or using the wrong spreadsheet. Additionally, businesses won’t have to worry about employees duplicating and saving multiple versions of the same spreadsheet, which again only leads to incorrect/outdated information and amendments to prices, stock lists, customer records not being shown to all. In Sage changes are published immediately and made visible to every user that has access.

Sage also allows businesses to restrict the user rights, meaning only elect users can make/approve changes or access certain records/information.

Saving time

Without having multiple Excel spreadsheets to check between, Sage drastically reduces the time it takes to complete various business processes. When a business uses Excel for finance, accounting, and/or sales processes, so much data is stored within a single spreadsheet that it often takes too much time to load, or the spreadsheet simply crashes. With a single system that has been created to hold a significant amount of complex information, businesses no longer have to worry about saving multiple spreadsheets, waiting for multiple spreadsheets to load, or having a spreadsheet crash and losing a catalogue of important data.

Some businesses that work from spreadsheets will also have a dedicated spreadsheet manager, however if that person is ever on annual leave, has a sick day, or leaves the business, this can cause a serious slow down in accounting and finance operations. Utilising an accounting and finance management system will remove the limitations of having a single spreadsheet owner, saving your business valuable time that can be repurposed to other tasks.

A more suitable CRM system

Using Excel for customer relationship management isn’t only open to multiple mistakes, it is also incredibly time consuming and can lead to serious consequences if not kept GDPR compliant. In addition, with the amount of information that needs to be stored for an effective customer relationship management system, it’s likely that these spreadsheets will also have inefficient loading times to open.

Sage CRM is an intelligent piece of software that allows businesses to hold lead, opportunity, and customer information in a GDPR compliant way. It also allows necessary users to have a more in-depth view of the lead and opportunity pipelines. With simple dashboards and adaptable reports that can be run at the click of a button, Sage CRM offers thorough insights to better support key business decisions, such as where to place budgets.

If you’re unsure as to how your business can benefit from a modern business management solution, or you would like help or advice choosing a solution that will best fit your business needs, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can contact Techsol by phone on 0330 024 5447 or email at info@techsol.co.uk.