5 challenges we face using spreadsheet documents in business and how to solve them

Office packages are standard in business. We write articles, compile projects, and plans in Word apps; we compile calculations and do analyses in spreadsheets. But these tools are not omnipotent. A tool that will keep up with business needs, speed up the process and make work easier is always welcome. Below we bring you 5 challenges that we face every day using spreadsheet documents. Keep reading to discover them and see how our new S2A solution copes with these problems.

1. Slowness and messiness

A spreadsheet document is not meant to be a database, therefore, keeping various records in spreadsheet documents is slow and clutteres after 1000 entries. Yes, there are filters. But how much can they help for thousands of rows of data and who knows how many columns?!

2. Double work

Each company must fill out certain forms. Table records are kept in spreadsheet documents, and forms with the same data are filled in separately. It's double work. This double work is especially visible as there are more data that need to be filled.

3. Inability for multiple users to work at the same time

We can save a spreadsheet document to a location that will be available for multiple employees to work on, but not everyone can work at the same time. A person working in a spreadsheet document must close it before another person can work in it. It is necessary to constantly check who has the spreadsheet document open and how long it will take for them do finish what they were doing. What if a person accidentally forgets to close the spreadsheet document and is not currently in the office?

4. Inability to work in another physical location

In addition to the inability for multiple users to work at the same time, there is also the inability to work in another physical location. That is, it is possible. The document is transferred to a USB stick or Google drive, Dropbox, etc. and accessed from the field or from home. The document is then transferred to a local computer the next day or sent to a colleague and everything is fine. The data is available to everyone again. But what if someone in the meantime typed something into a locally saved document? The more users there are working on such a document, the harder it is to keep track of what the latest version of the document is and whether it can be accessed if someone in the field or at home has already changed something.

5. Document safety

As far as document security is concerned, spreadsheet documents have the ability to enter a password, right?! But what if the person forgot the password? A document can be accidentally deleted or lost in a sea of ​​other documents, or a virus can be picked up. How do you find it then? If there is no backup, the data is lost.

The S2A solution is a database in the cloud, therefore, it is fast and clear. There is no double work. With S2A, specific forms can be designed and filled or they can be imported from a spreadsheet document. In fact, if you are going to design forms in the application itself, you don't even need spreadsheet documents! The created form is filled in with the necessary data, the data is stored in a database and can be accessed at any time. In addition, it doesn’t matter if someone has already accessed the app or not, because the app can be accessed by multiple users at the same time. Is there certain information that certain employees are not allowed to see but still need to have access to the document for some reason? Are they allowed to fill in only certain fields? Assign rights as you need! The application can be accessed from any location with internet access, all you need is a username and a password. The data is always stored and secure in the database, and if the password is forgotten, it can be changed.

Do you face these challenges? Do you face other challenges that are not listed in this article?

Write to us at inin@inin.hr!