Spreadsheets
When Should You Automate a Spreadsheet?
Excel is not the enemy. The question is whether a person repeats the same twenty operations every day.
Spreadsheets are flexible and useful. Keep Excel for the work it is good at. The opportunity is when a person repeats the same twenty spreadsheet operations every day: remove columns, fix dates, copy a range, save as, import.
Signs it is time
The same steps every time. A predictable input file. A predictable output format. Errors that show up later. One person who knows the routine. If most of those apply, automate the repetitive work around the spreadsheet and keep the spreadsheet for analysis.
