7 Excel Myths Busted!

You may have seen some blogs about Excel being a detriment to your business. Apparently, it’s “useless for growing businesses”… it “isn’t sophisticated enough”… and according to one blog… “The limitations of Microsoft Excel are, at best, inefficient, and at worst, potentially dangerous”.  

Well, we are here to bust those myths wide open. 

The truth is, Excel is a simple yet sophisticated solution and that’s why we have chosen to integrate our product with Excel. 

Here are 7 myths busted! 

Myth 1 – Spreadsheets are susceptible to human error. 

As businesses grow, the data collected increases. Managing large amounts of data and using it to create reports is vital for your business needs. With Velixo, we have simple functions that retrieve real-time data from your ERP. You don’t have to do any manual exports/imports, complex calculations, use VLOOKUPS, or set up complicated data models.

Manual operations are error-prone and inaccurate reports can have a big impact on your business’s success. Velixo turns Excel report generation and distribution into a one-click process, saving you time and reducing room for error.

Myth 2 – Spreadsheets are difficult to troubleshoot. 

Reconciling the data in Excel spreadsheets with your ERP is easy thanks to Velixo and Smart Drilldown.

You can select any cell referencing ERP data, even formulas, and calculations, and drill all the way down to the original documents and transactions linked to these cells. In Acumatica, MYOB Advanced and CEGID, drill-down even gives you access to notes and attachments linked to the document – it’s a virtual filing cabinet at your fingertips!

Myth 3 – Spreadsheets are not agile enough. 

You can make data come to life in Excel and go far beyond basic two-dimensional spreadsheets by using pivot tables and the functions included in Velixo Reports, that allow you to filter and refine your calculations to look at different accounts, sub-accounts, companies, ledgers, projects, cost codes and more. 

Our simple functions remove the need for manual processes, giving you 100% accurate and fully drillable data without the need to manually update the spreadsheets to reflect the most current data. Everything is live, real-time, and interactive.
Watch a demo here.

You can even set up dashboards and reports that can be viewed on almost any device, thanks to Excel Online and the Excel application available for iOS and Android devices.

Since Velixo is backed by a very fast in-memory database, your spreadsheet will not become bloated as your ERP system accumulates more data.

Myth 4 – Spreadsheets are not collaborative. 

With 750 million Excel users, Excel has a large community that requires collaboration. 

With the newest versions of Excel, you can use the co-authoring function, which basically means numerous people can be working on a spreadsheet at once and the changes are instantaneous. Similar to Google Sheets, you can work as a team in one spreadsheet. Find out more about co-authoring here.

Threaded Comments are also available in the latest version of Excel for Microsoft 365 subscribers, enabling discussions within the workbook.

Comments have a ‘reply box’. When people reply, you can see several comments connected together, showing a virtual conversation in the workbook. If you need to discuss data with other people, then use a comment.

Myth 5 – Spreadsheets are not supportive of quick decision making. 

Quick decision making? With our Excel-based reporting solution you can get the answers you need, through highly accurate and detailed reports, using LIVE DATA, in less than 5 minutes!!

The theory that using excel will take too long to get you quick and correct insights, is incorrect. In fact, it is quicker than using ‘sophisticated’ reporting tools or BI solutions, which often require you to have the IT department on speed dial!

With our Excel-based solution you can independently work, and get answers from a system you already know how to use. It’s that simple.

Myth 6 – Spreadsheets are not intuitive for the average business user.  

Everyone knows Excel, and that’s all you need to know to use Velixo, and through our solution make better business decisions. You don’t need to be an expert in data models, DAX, SQL Queries, or speak klingon to build a spreadsheet with real-time ERP data thanks to the power of Velixo and Excel.

Myth 7 – Spreadsheets have security risks. 

All around the world people are worried about security.

The Velixo security model is fully integrated with your ERP and you need to login using your credentials before you can refresh the data. The permissions set in your ERP account also control what you can see in Excel. Advanced security features such as restriction groups, row-level security, 3rd party identity providers and multi-factor authentication is even supported.

You can also password protect your spreadsheets and lock out important sections for editing. Excel 2016 employs 256-bit key AES password protection, which is currently labeled as sufficient to use in the US government for the transmission of TOP SECRET/SCI information. That’s pretty much the highest classification level they could clear it for, so the US government is pretty darn confident that nobody can break AES-256 on the timescales required to protect our nation’s greatest secrets. Don’t forget to always use a strong password to secure your ERP account and sensitive spreadsheets!

Contact us at [email protected] to find out how Velixo can help your business.