From VisiCalc to Excel, the spreadsheet has played an important role in helping accountants, financial analysts, and management understand and run their businesses.

But while spreadsheets are ideal for some tasks, using them as quasi business systems for gathering, consolidating, and reporting on large volumes of data from numerous sources is counter-productive. It’s like cutting wood with a hammer.

This paper explains when spreadsheets work well, and when they don’t. It describes the negative consequences for business when spreadsheets are used inappropriately. And it puts forward a simple, cost-effective alternative that increases the reliability, completeness and speed of business reporting, freeing up time for more insightful analysis.