Microsoft Excel is a powerful program which can be used to perform many tasks. From drawing graphs to simple data entry, forecasting sales growth to performing detailed business analysis, projection of net income for 10 year-long financial budgeting to manipulation of raw statistical data, you can use it to carry out any complex task related to your business’s financial planning and data-keeping.
Introduction to Microsoft Excel
A little introduction to this magnificent data wizard is that MS Excel was developed by Microsoft Corporation for being used by Operating Softwares such as Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS. It comes in a package with other MS Office programs like MS Word, MS PowerPoint, and MS Outlook, etc. It was first launched in 1985 and consists of spreadsheets for users to enter and manage data. A spreadsheet is made up of rows and columns and stores data in tabular form.
Since its release, Microsoft Excel became a necessity for all scale organizations because of its ability to carry out a variety of scientific functions which helps in smoothing out the process of conducting business analysis which is the complete research of your business’s current and past performance, evaluation of results and future goal-setting based on the results.
Use of Microsoft Excel in Business
With its abilities to handle larger amounts of data, simplifying complex data patterns and performing operations on large collections of data within seconds, MS Excel is essential for an organization’s existence in today’s world.
The mathematical functions and formulas installed in it help organizations to execute projects related to their business’s operations, performance and future planning easily. After the data has been processed, businesses can use charts, tables, and graphs to present the results within Excel sheets.
Other uses of MS Excel in businesses include building competitor profiles, making market intelligence reports, collection and storage of large amounts of data related to any industry, creating growth models, financial projections, data representation, revenue forecasts, creating sales target, predicting future market trends based on past performances, recording employees’ payroll, summarizing details of customers and tracking invoices, scheduling tasks, setting up calendar, creating checklists, time-logs, making budgets, keeping evidence of expenses, analyzing data of research surveys, tracking employee performance appraisals, managing loans, taxes and interest payments, calculating Return On Investments (ROI) and break-even points, calculation and projection of Net Income/Loss, and depreciation and performing various other functions related to marketing planning, strategic management, and accounting and financial analysis.
Additionally, MS Excel can also be used to create animations, creating and maintaining the mailing list and analyzing an online business’s social media performance.
Almost every other organization uses MS Excel today and expects its employees to have a thorough understanding of its usage. Using MS Excel for commercial purposes saves time, simplifies complex data for lay man’s understanding, helps in keeping data record, build information systems, store a large amount of customer database, makes financial reporting easier and carry out a plethora of functions and tasks related to the business.
