Much of the world’s most critical business data is still held in, or moves through, spreadsheets. But when busy people meet spreadsheets, mistakes get made.
Finance teams know this: they spend more time in spreadsheets than almost anyone else. We’ve surveyed 250 finance leaders – and Ledgy customers – to understand the risk spreadsheets can pose to business data. We even ask the unthinkable question: could the age of the spreadsheet be coming to an end?
31% of respondents said that data entry errors were the most common kind of mistake made in finance teams, a higher proportion than those who mentioned communication, security or strategic errors.
Focusing on too many things concurrently was the most frequently cited reason behind mistakes being made. Multitasking was more commonly cited than competing factors like tiredness and focusing on speed over precision.
60% of respondents said that a mistake made on spreadsheets had cost their business money.
48% of finance leaders think task-specific software will result in fewer data errors than spreadsheets, compared to 42% who think spreadsheets still reign supreme.