Advantages of Spreadsheets

What is a Spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet is an interactive
computer application program for
organization, analysis and storage
of data in tabular form.

Main Advantages of Spreadsheet.

1. More effective data handling
2. More flexible presentation

Summary
Most business people use Spreadsheet to calculate the data of their
products, income or outcome due to all the advantages it provides
such as using formulas which can reduce the time taken to calculate
each amount. Moreover, it can also helps them to predict the outcome
if they change their rules in business. For example, a man who sell
electronic machines use spreadsheet to calculate the possible income
by calculating the possible number of customer he might lost and see
if there's still much incomes compare to before.

How Spreadsheet Works:

A spreadsheet appears as a grid, each row has its own number and each
column its own letter. This labelling of rows and columns is used to give
each cell a cell address or reference, for example, C5 means column C, row
5.It is also possible to refer to a range of cells collectively, ie E4:E12
includes E4, E12 and all of the cells in-between.
Cells can contain numbers, text or formulae.

More flexible presentation:

Formula

Formulas are the equations that perform all the calculation in a

spreadsheet. All formulas must start with an equal sign (=).

Example: = A1+A2 means adding the values in cell A1 and A2. One
advantage of calculating this in a spreadsheet is that if you change the value
in A1 or A2, the result will be re-calculated immedietly.

Advantages of Using Spreadsheet :

People often use spreadsheet rather than a calculator or pen and
paper which offers the following advantages:

More Effective Data Handling:

Formulae can be used to instantly recalculate totals. For example, if the

builder changed his call-out charge, the total cost would be instantly
recalculated taking the change into account.
You can carry out what if? investigations. For example, the grocer
could increase his prices to see the effect on sales and the builder could
increase his hourly charge to see the effect on his daily total.
The information can be presented in different ways. For example, the
grocer could produce a graph of fruit and vegetable sales by choosing the
ranges A4:A10 and E4:E10 in order to make the graph.
It is easy to make these changes, save your work.

Alter column widths and easily delete or add columns and rows.
Underline, embolden text and use different fonts and graphics.
Justify your data to the left, centre or right.
Control the types of numbers you enter - for example you can choose percentage,
currency or set the number of decimal places.
A spreadsheet can be used as a modelling tool.
The model is controlled by a set of rules introduced by formulae. These rules can be
changed easily to vary the model and, for example, provide information about running
costs and profit margins.
A company could use a spreadsheet to find out what would happen if they reduced the
price of their product, and the effect it would have on their income from sales.
To do this they lower the value in the price column and the data in the income from
sales column will be automatically recalculated (downwards).
If the lower price resulted in higher sales, by adjusting the data in the number of sales
column, the income from sales data will again be recalculated (upwards).
Being able to answer "what if?" questions like this is vital and allows a company to
predict future trends in its income and outgoings.

Why use computer models?

As well as financial modelling, spreadsheet software can be used for many other kinds of
computer model:
modelling supermarket queues
modelling the stresses which will be borne by a new bridge
modelling traffic flow in a new road system.
Computer models are cheaper to setup than alternative methods that could be used to
predict what will happen in a system, eg building a prototype. Other benefits include being
able to:
make alterations and quickly see the outcomes
repeat tests several times over
learn from "what if?" scenarios
model dangerous situations safely.