How to Escape Spreadsheet Hell

Do you have trouble keeping track of data? Are there people in your office who are begging for information and just can’t get it? Has multiple versioning maxed out your Excel program? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you, my friend, are in Spreadsheet Hell.

Everybody has experienced Spreadsheet Hell at one time or another. Keeping track of vital information is difficult when you have too many spreadsheet versions floating around. Managing all that data and the people who need it is a nightmare. And losing control of those versions and data in the quickest way to create a spreadsheet snowball and send your project into chaos. It’s not a pretty picture.

So, how do you regain version control and get all that data working for you again? Well, first we have to understand how people use the spreadsheets themselves.

Look, everyone enjoys the simplicity of opening a spreadsheet and putting a list together. It could be for anything from contacts to project details. It’s so easy to add a column for notes, dates and dollars, but what happens when you need more? What happens when you get tired of e-mailing spreadsheets around in search of updates? Even worse, what happens when they update the wrong data and send you the old version? Suddenly, you’ve become the point person for fixing all that incorrect data. Luckily, there’s a way out.

Spreadsheets are great for number crunching, but it takes a true web database like Inuit’s Quickbase to provide the collaborative features that spreadsheets don’t. Tools like dashboards display your important reports, charts, graphs and timelines. Data is always current and you don’t need to compile, merge or plead for updates. In short, you always have version control.

Quickbase database software lets you import data from Excel or Access files, enter it through customized, web-based forms and integrate it onto other software systems. It eliminates the need for IT resources, costly purchases or time-consuming downloads and installs while allowing you to import your spreadsheets and be instantly productive. Quickbase even offers hundreds of application templates to build a solution that meets your team’s needs. All so you can work faster and have access to the information you need when you need it.

Say goodbye to outdated versions, double data entries and those dreaded snowballs. With Quickbase, you can go from Spreadsheet Hell to Version Control Heaven.