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The 5 questions to ask your controller 6 Are we still using Excel? If so, why? The continued use of Excel may reflect a sort of "inertia" based on inexperience with other tools, or just plain comfortable familiarity. While there are many reasons to limit Microso Excel use in corporate accounting—such as its inherently breakable models, security issues, and lack of shareability—it can still be useful to controllers in certain situations. Love it or hate it, Excel has been—and will likely remain—one of the go-to components in every accountant's toolkit. Just make sure you're clear on why you are using it� Some of the best practices for using Excel include: • For isolated tasks: No company should rely on Excel as its financials backbone. However, for tasks such as manual journal entries, sub-ledgers, prepaid expenses, deferred revenue, and support schedules, Excel can serve a limited purpose—so long as you base these activities on data from your primary financial system. • As an ad hoc reporting tool: It's OK to use Excel as an ad hoc tool to accept data exports from your financial system for some off-program analyses, modeling, and simulations. But a company's financial "truth" should always come from a system that stores all data. When a colleague emails you a spreadsheet that has conflicting or outdated data, you'll spend more time reconciling the numbers than acting on the information� • For ancillary reporting: Multi-user corporate accounting systems have their own native reporting facilities, but sometimes controllers prefer the familiarity of Excel for reconciliation reports, creating flash reports at period end, modeling various forecast scenarios, and similar forward-looking reports. There's li le downside to doing so. Key takeaway: Excel can be a valuable tool for specific, limited purposes. Q4

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