Experts who see the problems of 'something wrong with Excel sheet' are saving the world
Excel, a spreadsheet software developed by Microsoft, is used by companies and governments around the world that handle large amounts of data. Sometimes the mistakes contained in an Excel sheet can cause serious problems, but WIRED summarizes Excel experts who can solve the mystery of 'something wrong with an Excel sheet' and prevent damage.
Meet the Excel warriors saving the world from spreadsheet disaster | WIRED UK
Excel, which calculates when you enter a numerical value according to a preset formula, is a convenient tool for accounting work and handling a large amount of data. On the other hand, calculation results may shift due to quoting mistakes in numerical values, mistakes in mathematical formulas, careless rewriting, etc., and there are cases where important processes are advanced without noticing the mistakes and develop into a big problem. thing.
For example, Canadian cannabis company Canopy Growth was forced to revise its quarterly earnings due to a calculation error using Excel, causing its share price to fall by 2%. Also, when Tesla tried to acquire SolarCity , a solar power company, in 2016, the investment bank doubled the debt of SolarCity on the Excel sheet, and the valuation was 400 million dollars (about 42 billion yen). ) Also underestimated .
In 2020, the Public Health England (PHE) was unaware of Excel's line limit and was found to have inadvertently lost 16,000 case records.
16,000 case records of the new corona failed to import Excel and disappeared temporarily --GIGAZINE
More than 90% of spreadsheets used around the world have errors, and half of the spreadsheets used by large companies have 'serious flaws', according to research findings . Mistakes are a global problem. In order to deal with such an Excel crisis, Excel experts consisting of accountants, accounting inspectors, and heavy Excel users are playing an active role in the United Kingdom.
David Lyford-Smith, Technical Manager at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) , runs a user community of Excel professionals and consults with a variety of companies. At one point, Lyford-Smith was consulted by a company that 'the number' 40335 'is randomly displayed in the payroll form.'
The company's salary department speculated that this number 'may mean that the employee's contract amount is £ 40,335 (about 5.5 million yen),' Lyford-Smith said. He said that he found out that the numerical value represents 'date'. Excel records the date as a specific serial number, and '40335' is a serial number that means 'June 6, 2010'. Lyford-Smith said this number was not a contract for new employees, but a date that represented the date of hire.
Excel sheet-related failures can sometimes cause great damage, but many companies don't pay attention to it. 'Many companies don't expect Excel issues, so they ignore the warning,' said Patrick
Experts dealing with Excel sheet problems from companies and organizations not only work for ICAEW like Lyford-Smith, but also private accounting firms, audit firms, financial and insurance institutions, risk consulting companies, etc. , Exists in various organizations. The clients are mainly major banks, regulators, and multinational companies, and they also deal with Excel sheet problems that can sometimes lead to losses of hundreds of millions of yen.
Excel sheets that are asked to be checked by experts include those that the person in charge feels 'something is wrong' as well as those that handle a large amount of money. Dean Buckner, an Excel expert who worked for financial services, found a flaw in the way interest was calculated when he was checking an Excel sheet that manages derivatives created by a major bank. I found. 'If this continued to be used, it could cost millions of pounds,' Buckner said.
Software tools that look for inconsistent formulas and structural problems are also available to investigate Excel sheets, but this is 'the cost of the product is incorrectly recorded multiple times' and 'the formula for calculating interest rates'. I can't identify a logical problem such as 'I made a mistake'. Therefore, Excel experts need to be familiar with not only how Excel sheets work, but also the industry that operates Excel sheets.
Also, when conducting the survey, it seems that we will talk to the administrator and creator of the Excel sheet, but about the point such as 'what is being done on the Excel sheet and from what data a specific numerical value is quoted'. It seems that there are not many people in charge who can answer clearly. In one case, a specific team rewrote their Excel sheet, causing a problem with an Excel sheet operated by another team in charge of the downstream process. Since the downstream process team used the upstream process Excel sheet as a data source, it seems that the result of the Excel sheet changed due to rewriting.
In general, executives who discover defects or potential dangers in important Excel sheets are more likely to overlook the risks and continue to use the raw Excel sheets or to order expensive software specially. That is. However, it is difficult for companies and institutions in developing countries that are looking at Excel as a cheap option to customize the software. Therefore, the experts say that the third option is to 'ask an Excel expert to reduce the risk of the Excel sheet'.
People will become more repulsive to Excel when the mistakes related to Excel sheets spread in the news etc., but Lyford-Smith said, 'Excel is available all over the world and is very accessible.' Pointed out. After all, the problem lies not with the Excel sheet itself, but with the person who runs Excel, so Excel experts argued that it could help people get better at running Excel.
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