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Software vendors offer hundreds of specialized programs designed to simplify much of the complexity of running a business with your personal computer. But you can usually do as much--and do it more cost-effectively--with your simple spreadsheet program than with all of these more specialized applications.
Do More With Your Spreadsheets
Software vendors offer hundreds of specialized programs designed to simplify much of the complexity of running a business with your personal computer. But you can usually do as much--and do it more cost-effectively--with your simple spreadsheet program than with all of these more specialized applications.
What's more, running a business with your general spreadsheet can be extremely simple, because you won't have to load or learn a new program every time you want to crunch numbers a new way. Instead, you can simply load one of the hundreds of commercially available "templates,"
"add-ins," or supplemental software packages that enhance and expand the already hefty power of your general spreadsheet software.
The difference between a "template," an "add-in" and a "supplemental" software product is quite simple. A "template" (or pre-existing worksheet requiring only the addition of your unique data) is a standard data file you load into your spreadsheet program. It then uses the spreadsheet's own functions and key sequences to perform a specially programmed task. In contrast, an "add-in" is extra code that actually joins with the spreadsheet's original code to create a totally new program. The spread-sheet itself may disappear from your display. Once you load the "add-in," your computer may be able to do all sorts of work that stretch far beyond anything you could do within a standard "worksheet." Finally, "supplemental" software remains entirely separate from the spreadsheet, but--like a printer control program or a Lotus tutorial--provides new features and capabilities that make the original spreadsheet program better or easier to use.
Some of the best templates, add-ins, and supplemental software products are delivered as "shareware." You can get it from a local spreadsheet user group or a mail-order "shareware" distributor for less than $5 per disk. While "shareware" is fully operational when you first get it, the original developer often requires that you pay a "registration" fee (usually between $20 and $100) which gets you a manual, access to future updates, and (most important) the legal right to use the software.
The most obvious category of spreadsheet add-ins and templates create a whole accounting system on your PC. There are many such systems available. Most contain a set of templates that work together to provide the accounting functions and features a small business typically needs. But some of these systems are designed for specific businesses, such as general contracting, retail sales, manufacturing, trucking, consulting, a medical office, or the like.
This kind of accounting system will usually come with a complete chart of accounts, and may also include--besides a general ledger--an accounts payable system, an accounts receivable system (both often come with automatic aging), a cash-management system for both disbursements and receipts, and a payroll system (which may or may not calculate withholdings).
More elaborate accounting systems for your spreadsheet can give you even more capability. For example, one popular system for construction contractors includes worksheets to do job costing and labor summaries.
Each of these accounting system is different, and usually unique. But you can select and use the combination of pre-programmed templates and worksheet macros that's right for you. With a little experimentation or advice, you can quickly give your personal computer exactly the capabilities you require to help you manage your business, right down to your bank accounts, cash-flow projections, and income statements.
For financial management decisions, templates exist to let your spreadsheet calculate loan amortization schedules, figure internal rates of return, produce ACRS depreciation schedules, and help you analyze price/volume parameters and break-even points for each element in your product line.
Other sets of templates are designed to track the performance of your stock portfolio, and to generate reports on profits, losses, and net worth. Many stock tracking worksheets will do these calculations both as percentages and as actual dollar gains and losses. Once you enter your trades, most of these worksheets can produce a summary listing of your holdings, with paper profits and losses duly noted. If you wish, you can load other worksheets that perform trend-analysis, project market action, and even recommend buy and sell decisions. Some packages will calculate moving averages based on historical data you can purchase on disk or punch in from printed listings.
A popular "real estate analysis" package provides spreadsheet templates that do all the financial calculations and record-keeping associated with owning and managing commercial and residential real estate. These templates will print property-by-property cash flow reports and generate amortization tables for many different loans. They will also help you construct annual operating statements for each property, and project future operating costs based on previous years' data or based on estimates for property not yet acquired. Some of these templates allow you to combine data for many different properties into consolidated operating statements.
There are literally dozens of other templates available to calculate everything from biorhythms and family budgets to time and billing reports.
While most worksheets are usually set up to ask for input values and calculate "bottom line" results, it doesn't have to stay this way. Supplemental software exists to make your spreadsheet operate in reverse.
That is, you enter the bottom-line results you want to achieve, and the spreadsheet calculates the exact input values--such as sales or list prices--that will achieve them for you.
To top all this off, you can even start from square one. Supplemental programs provide spreadsheet (and personal computer) tutorials that assume you know nothing and teach you how to make full use of your general spreadsheet software.
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About the author: This complimentary resource is (c) 1995 by Robert Moskowitz, who is available for consulting, speaking and strategic planning on a wide variety of white-collar productivity and technology issues. You can reach him via fax (818) 224-4343, email:
robertam@knowledgetree.com or by mail to Box 6375, Woodland Hills, CA 91365.
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