Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Brand Logo

agnos.is Forums

  1. Home
  2. Technology
  3. $16bn health agency managed finances with Excel spreadsheet.

$16bn health agency managed finances with Excel spreadsheet.

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Technology
technology
61 Posts 42 Posters 6 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • S [email protected]

    Only those with no experience in corporate finance will find this surprising.

    Excel is a powerful tool. The only ones who ridicule it are idiots who don't understand anything.

    E This user is from outside of this forum
    E This user is from outside of this forum
    [email protected]
    wrote on last edited by
    #22

    It's not... Try to write a formula range which covers only lower half of the column which is typical setup in summing numbers( avoiding headers ), limits in columns and records, ever changing formats across versions... You asking for a disaster to happen which happens very often

    S 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • E [email protected]

      It's not... Try to write a formula range which covers only lower half of the column which is typical setup in summing numbers( avoiding headers ), limits in columns and records, ever changing formats across versions... You asking for a disaster to happen which happens very often

      S This user is from outside of this forum
      S This user is from outside of this forum
      [email protected]
      wrote on last edited by
      #23

      Try to write a formula range which covers only lower half of the column which is typical setup in summing numbers( avoiding headers )

      You can literally label ranges to use them as variables in Excel formulae, not to mention Excel Tables has more operations and features than you'll ever need.

      limits in columns and records

      Unless you are working with an unfiltered, un-aggregated ledger dump straight out of your database (in which case you shouldn't be let anywhere near an office computer), it's rather hard to cross 1M+ rows and 16.4k columns in corporate finance.

      ever changing formats across versions

      The .xlsx format was introduced in 2007 (18 years ago) and hasn't changed since. Not to mention you can still use all kinds of plaintext formats whenever you want.

      E 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • S [email protected]

        Try to write a formula range which covers only lower half of the column which is typical setup in summing numbers( avoiding headers )

        You can literally label ranges to use them as variables in Excel formulae, not to mention Excel Tables has more operations and features than you'll ever need.

        limits in columns and records

        Unless you are working with an unfiltered, un-aggregated ledger dump straight out of your database (in which case you shouldn't be let anywhere near an office computer), it's rather hard to cross 1M+ rows and 16.4k columns in corporate finance.

        ever changing formats across versions

        The .xlsx format was introduced in 2007 (18 years ago) and hasn't changed since. Not to mention you can still use all kinds of plaintext formats whenever you want.

        E This user is from outside of this forum
        E This user is from outside of this forum
        [email protected]
        wrote on last edited by
        #24

        Anybody who used ANY library to process xslx knows MS keeps changing it ๐Ÿ™‚ About ranges... can you give me the range for whole columns minus 6 first records and 9 last records?

        N S 2 Replies Last reply
        0
        • S [email protected]

          Only those with no experience in corporate finance will find this surprising.

          Excel is a powerful tool. The only ones who ridicule it are idiots who don't understand anything.

          C This user is from outside of this forum
          C This user is from outside of this forum
          [email protected]
          wrote on last edited by
          #25

          Excel is a powerful tool.

          You typoed 'popular'?

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • 4 [email protected]

            And they all suck ass

            B This user is from outside of this forum
            B This user is from outside of this forum
            [email protected]
            wrote on last edited by
            #26

            It's because you're supposed to customize them, not use as-is. We've had a lot of happy customers. Some send us gifts! But for the first year or maybe even couple of years, you probably pay more to your partner for implementation, customizations and advice than to the ERP developer for licensing.

            ERPs aren't for every company, different ERPs work best for different companies and different partners themselves have their own specializations. The one I work through (used to work for, but now I have my own company and just contract for them), does small to medium sized production companies. Think 5-200 employees usually. The ERP we work with is meant to cover every imaginable use case - which is why it doesn't have enough depth. We add a bunch of stuff that isn't there OOTB, sometimes remove things in default modules, etc.

            But first you NEED an ERP partner to make the most of it. At ours the CEO is also the biggest salesman. He's not afraid to tell you if he doesn't think it's a good fit. A bad partner will still try to sell you and that's going to end up in disappointment for everyone.

            X G 2 Replies Last reply
            0
            • alphane_moon@lemmy.worldA [email protected]

              Not if there is a BACKUP folder with daily copies of all your spreadsheets.

              Sifting through the backups is so much fun when you're trying to find when a particular issue started.

              P This user is from outside of this forum
              P This user is from outside of this forum
              [email protected]
              wrote on last edited by
              #27

              My backup is ctrl+z ๐Ÿ˜Ž

              1 Reply Last reply
              1
              0
              • B [email protected]

                It's because you're supposed to customize them, not use as-is. We've had a lot of happy customers. Some send us gifts! But for the first year or maybe even couple of years, you probably pay more to your partner for implementation, customizations and advice than to the ERP developer for licensing.

                ERPs aren't for every company, different ERPs work best for different companies and different partners themselves have their own specializations. The one I work through (used to work for, but now I have my own company and just contract for them), does small to medium sized production companies. Think 5-200 employees usually. The ERP we work with is meant to cover every imaginable use case - which is why it doesn't have enough depth. We add a bunch of stuff that isn't there OOTB, sometimes remove things in default modules, etc.

                But first you NEED an ERP partner to make the most of it. At ours the CEO is also the biggest salesman. He's not afraid to tell you if he doesn't think it's a good fit. A bad partner will still try to sell you and that's going to end up in disappointment for everyone.

                X This user is from outside of this forum
                X This user is from outside of this forum
                [email protected]
                wrote on last edited by
                #28

                Setting up an ERP can also be completely botched if the company's representatives don't fully grasp all the functions needed. What I've been going through as a customer of an ERP suite is that the "stars" of the software don't actually understand the other 50% of functions outside their department. That remaining 50% is distributed among 4 other departments, so representation wasn't exactly prioritized. Add in high turnover circa 2021 and the whole thing is logistical nightmare that finally at least has a goal in sight.

                The other underlying issue is the existing forms usually lack what we need and have too much fluff. Once our ERP partner modifies it, the ERP developer drops all support for that form. We get zero help when it gets mystery glitches.

                So yeah, I can get why some places say fuck it and stick with excel. Half the workforce knows excel well enough to write what they need. Take 10% of them to format and lock down spreadsheets so the other 50% of the workforce can just fill in boxes and pick drop downs. It just works.

                All that to say, I both expect more form a Healthcare company but also am not surprised.

                B 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • E [email protected]

                  Anybody who used ANY library to process xslx knows MS keeps changing it ๐Ÿ™‚ About ranges... can you give me the range for whole columns minus 6 first records and 9 last records?

                  N This user is from outside of this forum
                  N This user is from outside of this forum
                  [email protected]
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #29

                  Would you like this in excel formula, VBA, or python?

                  It can be done in all. You're only proving the other poster's point. Excel isn't necessarily the best option for tech literate people but given the tech illiteracy of many offices, it isn't surprising they use excel for stuff like this.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • tea@programming.devT [email protected]

                    It's just one of 6,000 apps that New Zealand thinks might be best tamed with ERP

                    R This user is from outside of this forum
                    R This user is from outside of this forum
                    [email protected]
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #30

                    Excel isn't a problem unless all of it was done on one sheet and the only function used was sum()

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • 0 [email protected]

                      Honestly, that's fine. This may be a wild take, but they grew and their usage of excel obviously didn't hold them back, what's the issue?

                      C This user is from outside of this forum
                      C This user is from outside of this forum
                      [email protected]
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #31

                      The fact that excel lacks any sort of auditing or access controls. The fact that any corruption in the file could lead to the company not knowing what money goes where and who's been paid and who owes them money.

                      L 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • E [email protected]

                        Anybody who used ANY library to process xslx knows MS keeps changing it ๐Ÿ™‚ About ranges... can you give me the range for whole columns minus 6 first records and 9 last records?

                        S This user is from outside of this forum
                        S This user is from outside of this forum
                        [email protected]
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #32

                        Anybody who used ANY library to process xslx knows MS keeps changing it ๐Ÿ™‚

                        I highly doubt that, also, people in corporate finance do not use libraries to process excel files.

                        About rangesโ€ฆ can you give me the range for whole columns minus 6 first records and 9 last records?

                        =OFFSET(first_cell, 7, COLUMNS(range_name), ROWS(range_name)-9-7) where range_name is the label given to the whole table and first_cell is its first cell.

                        asap@lemmy.worldA 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • C [email protected]

                          The fact that excel lacks any sort of auditing or access controls. The fact that any corruption in the file could lead to the company not knowing what money goes where and who's been paid and who owes them money.

                          L This user is from outside of this forum
                          L This user is from outside of this forum
                          [email protected]
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #33

                          Excel or not, they should be using backups.

                          B 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • tea@programming.devT [email protected]

                            It's just one of 6,000 apps that New Zealand thinks might be best tamed with ERP

                            P This user is from outside of this forum
                            P This user is from outside of this forum
                            [email protected]
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #34

                            Probably should get a dedicated ERP system, mainly to just have official support.

                            But anybody in finance (like me) knows that everybody from low level accounting assistants, to CBOs use excel daily, even if they have an ERP system. For instance, the one I am using is complete shit with outrageous inexcusable 'features' (can't even describe them because they sound made up). So we all just export data to excel so we can format the reports/data into an actual useful format.

                            driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.brD 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • S [email protected]

                              Only those with no experience in corporate finance will find this surprising.

                              Excel is a powerful tool. The only ones who ridicule it are idiots who don't understand anything.

                              A This user is from outside of this forum
                              A This user is from outside of this forum
                              [email protected]
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #35

                              Is it powerful? Yes

                              Is it fast when dealing with large volume of data? No

                              Are the "powerful" features intuitive to new users? Also no.

                              Source: I use Excel, Python, SQL for job

                              L 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • tea@programming.devT [email protected]

                                It's just one of 6,000 apps that New Zealand thinks might be best tamed with ERP

                                pelya@lemmy.worldP This user is from outside of this forum
                                pelya@lemmy.worldP This user is from outside of this forum
                                [email protected]
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #36

                                Should have used three spreadsheets. Excel tends to run slowly when a spreadsheet has more than a million cells in it.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • S [email protected]

                                  Only those with no experience in corporate finance will find this surprising.

                                  Excel is a powerful tool. The only ones who ridicule it are idiots who don't understand anything.

                                  M This user is from outside of this forum
                                  M This user is from outside of this forum
                                  [email protected]
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #37

                                  au contraire. We know the abuse Excel has to go through. And MS even added features to make abusing it easier.

                                  abuse means incorrect use here. incorrect means, there are better tools for the job.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • K [email protected]

                                    For a non-joke answer. ERP in this context means Enterprise Resource Planning. It basically allows you to do everything an enterprise requires with one software system instead of using several different ones.

                                    amputret@lemmy.dbzer0.comA This user is from outside of this forum
                                    amputret@lemmy.dbzer0.comA This user is from outside of this forum
                                    [email protected]
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #38

                                    Ta, I was curious.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • L [email protected]

                                      Excel or not, they should be using backups.

                                      B This user is from outside of this forum
                                      B This user is from outside of this forum
                                      [email protected]
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #39

                                      'Why do we need a backup when we have a RAID?"

                                      The accounting head when you try to explain that your backup systems are woefully insufficient.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • P [email protected]

                                        Probably should get a dedicated ERP system, mainly to just have official support.

                                        But anybody in finance (like me) knows that everybody from low level accounting assistants, to CBOs use excel daily, even if they have an ERP system. For instance, the one I am using is complete shit with outrageous inexcusable 'features' (can't even describe them because they sound made up). So we all just export data to excel so we can format the reports/data into an actual useful format.

                                        driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.brD This user is from outside of this forum
                                        driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.brD This user is from outside of this forum
                                        [email protected]
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #40

                                        Also in finance, hate excel, use python for everything, all my scripts still end with pd.to_excel() because I'm not the only person on the company.

                                        P 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • S [email protected]

                                          Anybody who used ANY library to process xslx knows MS keeps changing it ๐Ÿ™‚

                                          I highly doubt that, also, people in corporate finance do not use libraries to process excel files.

                                          About rangesโ€ฆ can you give me the range for whole columns minus 6 first records and 9 last records?

                                          =OFFSET(first_cell, 7, COLUMNS(range_name), ROWS(range_name)-9-7) where range_name is the label given to the whole table and first_cell is its first cell.

                                          asap@lemmy.worldA This user is from outside of this forum
                                          asap@lemmy.worldA This user is from outside of this forum
                                          [email protected]
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #41

                                          Such a weird argument that you've responding to, as the answer (as you provided) is so easy and well known.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
                                          0
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups