How yours truly used technology to save $5,000 a year

One of the guiding principles in my business is I show business professionals ways they can use technology to save time, lower costs or generate revenue.

Here's a real life example, based on an Excel project I was working on this morning.

Project overview: This project involves updating a 290 row, 10 column spreadsheet. Just for grins and giggles, I decided to try updating the sheet manually, and then using Excel formulas to get the job done - just to see how much time and money I would save.

The old (expensive) way: It took 1 hour and 57 minutes to update 63 rows, at a typing speed of 80+ words per minute. At this rate, it would have taken another 7.02 hours to complete this project. (I started at 8:36 am and finished 63 rows at 10:33 am).

The smarter way: Through modifying and combining a couple of Excel formulas, I was able to finish the remaining 157 rows in 13 minutes!

This included the time spent:
  • modifying the formula,
  • copying and pasting it throughout the spreadsheet,
  • creating a formula to test my results, and
  • correcting 4 errors.
    Note: I made the errors while updating the report the slow and expensive way. Without formulas, I wouldn't have been able to test my results and catch errors.

The bottom line: Let's assume this report is generated once a month. By properly using Excel, I will save $4,908 of my time each year. If this is a weekly report, the annual savings are a whopping $21,268.

My point: Properly using technology not only saves time and money, it may also save your reputation (by enabling you to check results).

For additional information, see Learn Excel Formulas from A to Z - Atlanta Excel Training Class.

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