This document discusses research done on spreadsheets over 4 years analyzing over 3 million spreadsheets from 50 companies. The research found that spreadsheets often contain errors and are complex, leading employees to waste time figuring them out. It provides tips to improve spreadsheets such as splitting complex formulas into smaller parts and using one formula per row or column to prevent confusion.

1. Spreadsheets support strategic decisions in more
than 90% of all companies. Spreadsheets can be
complex and this often leads to errors, and causes
employees to lose time figuring them out.
How to lose less money and energy on your
spreadsheets?
Over the past 4 years we have done research
at TU Delft. We have published several
scientific papers. We have analyzed over
3 million spreadsheets of more than
50 different companies and used the results
to fine tune our analysis tool. That's why we
know what we know.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT SPREADSHEETS
THE WORLD OF SPREADSHEETS
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE CORPORATE USERS
THERE IS A SOLUTION
TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR SPREADSHEETS
Split complex formulas into smaller parts:
this way you limit the number of operations
Use one formula per row or column:
this helps to prevent confusion
Avoid the use of fixed numbers in a formula:
put constants and assumptions in one central place
Sources
B. Rittweger and E. Langan (2010), Spreadsheet Risk Management in Organisations
M. Hall (1996), A Risk and Control-Oriented Study of the Practices of Spreadsheet Developers
F. Hermans et al. (2011), Supporting Professional Spreadsheet Users by Generating Leveled Dataflow Diagrams
F. Hermans et al. (2010), Automatically Extracting Class Diagrams from Spreadsheets
C. Scaffidi et al. (2005), Estimating the Numbers of End Users and End User Programmers
Created by
Powered by
Spreadsheets can have a long lifespan:
An average spreadsheet stays in use for 5 years
5years
of the American companies use spreadsheets
for financial reports
of the total amount of spreadsheets contain errors
Spreadsheets can grow large, they have 11
worksheets on average, and contain about 500
formulas
10,000,000,000
As a result of this
is lost every year
11tabs
88%
formulas have missing values
3of1000
95%
61% of the American workforce, which accounts
to 90 million people, use spreadsheets
55million
The average employee spends 2 days a week
working on spreadsheets
2days
of all the financial decisions are based on
spreadsheets
50%
Your spreadsheet database Infotron spreadsheet analyzer A well organized and error
free spreadsheet database
1 32
1
3
2