What Is Excel Used For? The Top 5 Applications Explained
As of 2019, Microsoft (MS) Office 365 had over 200 million monthly active users. Of their varying services, Excel has become one of the most dominant amongst businesses.
So, what is Excel used for? And, how can it benefit your business? To learn how to better your business efforts, follow along to explore five of its most common applications.
1. Storing and Analyzing Data
One of the best benefits of Excel is that it can store as much data as your computer allows. This will vary depending on your computer’s memory and computing power. With that said, Excel is a great way to enter and store data.
Using graphs and charts in Excel you can track and analyze data trends. Its large storage capacity makes it easy to store a lot of data that can be referred back to at any time.
In its most basic form, it allows you to summarize your data into easily digestible material. This feature allows any type of business to accurately and efficiently manage its finances.
2. Spreadsheets and Data Recovery
Spreadsheets are one of the most common uses of Excel regardless of the industry. This feature allows you to display information in an organized and detailed manner for colleagues and clients to view.
Also, Excel has an efficient method of recovering data. With the newest edition of MS Excel in XML format, you can retrieve lost or damaged company files.
One way to create these files is through Excel net. The new edition also allows you to reduce the size of your spreadsheets to make the presentation more compact and easy to view.
3. Mathematical Formulas
Other ways to use Excel include experimenting with the varying Excel functions such as formulas. In general, these help you calculate values without using much effort.
The most frequently used types of formulas include calculations for sums and averages. Excel’s function capabilities go much farther beyond these so be sure to explore them to see how they can aid with your business.
Mathematical formulas help save lots of time especially for businesses that work with large sets of data. Once mastered, these formulas can summarize massive amounts of information in just a few clicks.
4. Forecasting
When combined with external software there are several other Excel uses that you will discover. One of these includes making predictions about your data set based on past inputs.
You can also use these data sets and Excel’s mathematical formulas to help you predict future values. This application would be ideal for businesses interested in tracking their financial spending and profits.
5. Reporting
Outside of its calculating abilities, Excel offers a professional way of displaying reports for presentation purposes. However, using your raw data or Pivot tables, you can display graphs or charts to your clients in a visually aesthetic way.
Excel offers many customizable templates to help you organize your information and personalize it for clients. Some features that you may consider changing include text type, colors, or axis values.
Read Next:
Summarizing the Basics: What is Excel Used For?
As you can see, answering the question is not as simple as it may seem. Besides its basic data entry and reporting features, you can use it for a variety of other applications.
These applications barely scratch the surface as to what Excel can do for your business. So, if you want to know more about this application, feel free to check out the Windows section of our site.
[…] What is Excel used for […]