Finance organizations rely too much on spreadsheets

Pretty much every finance organization in London (97 percent of them) is worried about how reliant it is on spreadsheets. These are the results of a new research by finance function solutions provider, Accountagility.

The worry stems from faults experienced when using it for both planning and reporting, as four out of five (80 percent) of organizations have had such experiences. Just under half (49 percent) also consider a problem the fact that manual effort is needed to both validate and analyze Excel data.

"Our research reveals that this problem is not just limited to The City, but is an issue for finance departments nationwide. Nearly three-quarters of firms in the North of England (72 percent) also felt that they have too many spreadsheets on their systems", says Robert Gothan, CEO and founder of Accountagility. "Every firm knows that financial planning, forecasting and reporting is essential for commercial success, but the time and money committed to this area is often not well invested. Spreadsheets are clearly the go-to tool for finance departments, but with four in five CFOs citing problems with them, businesses must be wary when relying on this software alone".

The results have been published shortly after retail giant M&S had to re-issue its quarterly financial results due to a spreadsheet error. "With human error and complexities being a drain on key resources, removing these obstacles and utilizing alternative software to tap into more insightful data will drive performance in finance departments across the country", the company says.

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