Spreadsheets Are Terrible, But We Still Use Them

We’ve all used them, spreadsheets, whether it’s to do a simple list of items, or whether you are looking to create advanced sums for business forecasts. Despite being a pain to use and not having all our required features, we still use them for our work. No doubt that is because they are bundled into our operating systems and we would rather use something that’s not quite perfect instead of buying a decent one.

Even though spreadsheets come with a number of problems, they do have some useful features. The main ones are that they can handle simple calculations, they can create graphics, create business forecasts to see how much money you will lose. We generally find use of these at some point. However, because they do have their downsides, they are not suitable for some tasks such as tracking your UK fixed assets.

Although it may sound appropriate for storing information about your company assets, it’s simply not as advanced as an asset tracking software UK package.

To a certain extent, a spreadsheet is useful for asset management, however, as you increase the amount of assets your company has and the amount of data you want to store, they become useless.

Here are some features you should look out for when buying an asset management software suite.

• They are required to store enough in-depth data about your items. Even though the amount of data a spreadsheet can store is enough for some tasks, in asset management it tends not to be. The information stored may also not be detailed enough.
• They must be able to match the complex structure of the company. If there is an asset that can be placed in a number of categories within a business, a simple spreadsheet will not be able to reflect this complex structure.
• It should be flexible enough to be restructed quickly a easily. Once a spreadsheet becomes very complex, it’s difficult to try and modify the data and especially the structure.
• It should be able to calculate a number of depreciation rates on several items. If a number of assets has been purchased all at different points in time, but they are linked together, like a computer, keyboard, mouse and monitor. The software should be capable enough to store individual price depreciation levels.
• It should be able to cope with re-lifeing of assets. If an asset is re-assed and is found to be of use, the depreciation level on the item must be altered.
• Must be able to create structured reports. Spreadsheets are not good for creating structured graphical reports.

Those are just a few features that should be contained within any software package designed for asset management. Also it’s the reason why a spreadsheet is not good for adding asset data to a fixed asset register.

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