Spreadsheets

Introduction

A basic spreadsheet is a table or grid of information often, but not exclusively, financial.

In any business you strive to make a profit and in order to do so you need to ensure that your income exceeds your outgoings. Whilst you are paying your suppliers, labour costs, overheads, taxes and the like you need to charge enough for your products and services to meet these costs, add a reasonable profit margin and all without pricing yourself out of the market altogether.

In the bad old days (before spreadsheets) these calculations needed to be done by hand and any update to one figure meant that updates also had to be done to any dependent figures. Very time consuming and subject to many mistakes.

Computer Spreadsheets

In a computer-based spreadsheet, the row and column categories have to be defined. In each cell the appropriate value, or formula is typed. The formula specifies how the number is derived and the dependencies to other numbers. For example summing columns, calculating VAT and other more complex numbers.

Once the relationships have been defined and the initial data added, the bulk of the work has ben done. When a number is updated, the new value is entered in the appropriate cell and the spreadsheet performs all the necessary recalculations.

Garbage In - Garbage Out

You have probably heard of the adage, garbage in - garbage out. It is really important to get the spreadsheet set up correctly. If your formulae is incorrect or one of your figures incorrect, the spreadsheet will reflect this throughout and the reults will be compromised.

Spreadsheet Basics

All spreadsheets basically consist of a grid of cells. The columns are labelled across the top alphabetically. The rows are numbered down the side. Even simple spreadsheet programs let you have at least 256 columns and at least that many rows. The more powerful spreadsheets can have thousands of columns and rows.

Each cell in the spreadsheet is uniquely identified by its cell address, which is the intersection of the column and row. For example, the first cell in column A is called A1. The 4th cell in column B is B4 etc. When you click in a cell, you'll see its address displayed in the address box, usually near the top left of the window.

Real Options would be happy to help, advise or to build a spreadsheet to your specifications.
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