'How many spreadsheets and graphs do you have?' blog discussion.

tgroom57

I just added another spreadsheet to graph up the recent earthquakes in Japan
Things on that front are looking quieter today but still not settled - averaging 3 quakes an hour around the 5.0 mark.

dcg67

Spreadsheets are definitely things of beauty.

As a financial analyst, the ability to plug in hundreds of variables and then apply stress tests to see the outcomes is invaluable.

I also use them to maintain strict control over all my bank accounts and credit cards.

However, the one I really enjoy playing with is the annual financial forecast, which builds in all income and expenditure and allows me to adjust my daily "fun money" spending. It really encourages you to spend a little less today, knowing how much money will be saved at the end of the year!

Eco_Miser

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

Incidently there was a question earlier in this thread about totals at the bottom of a sheet and viewing them easily without scrolling down. Freeze panes and putting the totals at the top or on a different sheet were suggestions.

After I bit of fiddling around (and looking at the help function) I've done the following:-

1) Created a dummy copy of my spreadsheet
2) Created a named Data Range (for the cells in which the summary information is located)
3) Recorded a macro that used the 'Go-to' function. The Go-to was to the Data Range
4) Created a Button and assigned the Macro to it
5) Tested it and once I was happy repeated the actions in my real spreadsheet

Other than a few simple forumlas I'm not that brilliant with Excel however after looking up these things in 'Help' It took me 15 mins to do the above and I found it fairly easy. I now have a Button at the top of my huge spreadsheet that when pressed takes me straight down to the totals and analysis

And I just built the spreadsheet with the totals in line 3. Total extra time: Nil.

I was the person who asked the original question. I wasn't looking for help, just to find out who did it the same way as me, and mabe give others a hint.

plumtreebabe

1. Financial management - all credit cards, savings and current account - daily spends forecast for six months as well as historical, headings show account balances a year and two years previously - one sheet, also sheet with list of direct debits, standing orders, monthly spends etc with summary income and expenditure to ensure realistic monitoring, also sheet with mortgage payments for total life of mortgage (each year a column) and with proposed overpayments built in alongside, also sheet with expenditure and spending if I lost my job, and one if my hours changed
2. Electricity - daily readings for last five years as when we moved in we only had fan heaters for heating and i got a bit paranoid! Have reduced consumption year on year and have graphs to show, measured as rolling twelve months, and monthly spend and kw
3. Weight management - only when i know I'm doing ok!
4. (Not to mention recording and charting monthly cycles (I've always been irregular) for the last 25 yrs, but I suppose this is too much information?)

I am a data analyst and I've found that all the other data analysts i know also chart home stuff as well!

billythestickboy

loving all this chat, I've always thought the world made more sense in excel

One question I have... does anyone have a way of making a spreadsheet available online (and editable) for a group of people?

e.g. a group of friends to combine their film libraries into one sheet?

Racheya

billythestickboy wrote: »

loving all this chat, I've always thought the world made more sense in excel

One question I have... does anyone have a way of making a spreadsheet available online (and editable) for a group of people?

e.g. a group of friends to combine their film libraries into one sheet?

Google Docs! It's an amazing tool that lets you create word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations online through your browser and share them with others (all they need is a docs account). Then they can edit the spreadsheet, even at the same time as you! I use it for Uni collaboration work, it's much more powerful than people would expect for a browser program.

MSE_Martin

billythestickboy wrote: »

loving all this chat, I've always thought the world made more sense in excel

One question I have... does anyone have a way of making a spreadsheet available online (and editable) for a group of people?

e.g. a group of friends to combine their film libraries into one sheet?

If I had space for another signature on here it'd be this - brilliant phrase

"I always thought the world made more sense in excel!"

Oldbiggles

I took a City & Guilds course to learn how to use Excel Spreadsheets, Word Documents, Access etc. and then started a spreadsheet of shares I held to keep track of their performance. Then I discovered that in ‘Google’:
(Click: More/Finance/Portfolios) you can enter the name of the shares into an on line portfolio and they are kept up to date automatically with latest share price every 20 minutes. I haven’t made much use of spreadsheets since.


:cool:

Martinslovechild

curlygirl1971 wrote: »

Although it takes time one of the things I like about it is that I'm able to forecast where I will be in months, years time. Is this something you can do in MS Money? How would this work with a Database?

MS Money is a database - with brass knobs on!! Unfortunately, it's also no longer available, as Microsoft decided to discontinue it a few years back (details here). There is a freebie version available using the same link - but with no product support.

Intuit's 'Quicken' was the main competitor to MS Money, however this is no longer available in the UK either (it is still available in the USA - go figure!). I've been using Quicken ever since 1997 and I absolutely love it. It does a lot of the stuff mentioned here by the RDBMS guy - forecasts, comparisons, graphs, net worth calculations, reports, spending analysis, savings goals etc. I use the Quicken 2002 version and it works perfectly on my Windows 7 machine.

There is another option - a product called 'Home Accountz' from a company called Accountz (the mis-spelling is correct). Click here for details. It costs £40, although I think it's available on the likes of Amazon and Play.com cheaper than this.

The RDBMS guy is correct in that a database offers far more flexibility than a spreadsheet, unless you're building some highly complex multi-tabbed formulae into your sheets to allow you to track spending across months or years. It's so much easier to query a database than a spreadsheet which means that you have much more control. A spreadsheet's great for a snapshot of 'now', but isn't so clever for spending comparisons between now and last week, last month, last year, last decade etc.

There's nothing to stop you writing your own RDBMS, but £40 is hardly going to break the bank. If that's too much, then the freebie MS Money 'Sunset Version' link above should keep you happy.

SusanC_2

Martinslovechild wrote: »

unless you're building some highly complex multi-tabbed formulae into your sheets to allow you to track spending across months or years.

:whistle::whistle: