In 2013, a Forbes opinion piece declared that Microsoft's Excel Might Be The Most Dangerous Software On The Planet. It’s been ten years since that declaration and Excel errors are still causing havoc for many organizations. Following are just a couple examples of how sloppy use of Microsoft Excel caused major headaches in the workplace.

​How many spreadsheets do you think are floating around on your workplace system? Does it make your head spin to even think about it? You’re not alone. Spreadsheet overload is a very common workplace issue.

This Forbes article might date back to 2013, but no one seems to be heeding the warnings. Spreadsheets are becoming notorious for errors. It’s not only a problem for our financial markets, but it also affects your organization, and your ability to make trustable decisions.
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One of the biggest reasons spreadsheets have errors is a tendency for users to copy/paste data from one spreadsheet to another. This Forbes article discusses the copy/paste problem (and how it impacted our financial markets) in very stark terms.

A few months ago, your co-worker retired, and you’re the one who ended up with all her spreadsheet applications. Yes, she took the time to teach you what she was doing with her spreadsheets, but it’s all pretty cumbersome and time consuming.
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Just to maintain it all, you have to regularly export a lot of the data out of your proprietary records management system. Then, of course, there are all those columns of information that have to be hand entered, because your records management system doesn’t have the data.

When a Spreadsheet Makes Your Head Hurt it's Time to do Something Different:
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One of the biggest reasons spreadsheets get out of control, is because they are not being used as they were designed to be used. To be specific, Microsoft created Excel to analyze data. Very often folks use Excel to store data. This is not what spreadsheet applications are designed to do.

For data storage, the best tool is a database. The best selling desktop database application on the market in Microsoft Access. Access complements Microsoft Excel very nicely. It is quite easy to move data back and forth between MS Access and MS Excel.