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There are those who think Excel is outdated, but they are clearly unaware of all the different uses for reporting with Excel. From sales, to trends, to accounting, to personal use, the possibilities are nearly endless. Here are a few of our favorite Excel uses:

• Keeping track of sales: By tracking sales, you can see patterns within your company. Even better, sales professionals can track their individual sales to see where they can improve their performance. With helpful charts and graphs, as well as spreadsheets, Excel is an extremely useful tool.
• Managing inventory: With a rudimentary understanding of Excel, you can create an inventory management system for your business that tracks stock in hand, while projecting sales and delivery times. This will give you better control over the reordering process, and make your inventory more efficient.
• Watching the trends: By tracking your own company’s sales, you can better plan for the future. By watching the market trends, you can stay ahead of the curve. BizNet offers software that allows you to utilize real time data in your Excel reporting, giving you a competitive edge.
• Managing your accounting: By learning to use Excel formulas, you can make the process of accounting much easier. Additionally, because so many people use Excel, it is easy to share information, or give multiple users access to documents, in order to keep records that are more accurate.
• Managing your life: Many people become so comfortable with Excel at work that they begin to apply it at home as well! From planning a family budget, to keeping track of your insurance information, to meal planning, there are a multitude of ways Excel can work for you personally as well as professionally.

Do you want to know even more about utilizing Excel reports for your business? BizNet Software helps you create and manage reports using real-time Excel data. Want to know more about reporting with Excel? Or do you have some of your own uses you’d like to share? Join BizNet Software on LinkedIn and let us know!

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Recently, there has been a lot of buzz about the cloud – what is it? What does it mean? But, more importantly, how can it help my business? Here are some key benefits of the cloud and how you can utilize it with Excel to make it even more powerful for your business. To find out how we use the cloud and Excel, visit our website.

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BizNet Software, Inc., a leading provider of Microsoft Excel® based  reporting and analytics solutions,  won K2 Enterprises’ 2011 Quality Award  for Financial Reporting for a second straight year.

K2 Enterprises is the premier provider of technology continuing professional education (CPE) in both the United States and Canada. With seminars in over 46 states in 2010, 1,000+ presentations, special events, they are the largest provider of technology CPE in North America.

2011 represents the 10th year for the K2 awards and the second year Financial Reporting has been included as a category. Awards are determined by a poll of K2 Enterprises’ nine instructors, drawing on end-user feedback and their own consulting and teaching experience in ranking competing providers in each of 20 categories.

BizNet had earned previous recognition from K2′s executive VP, Randy Johnson. In the April/May 2010 issue of The CPA Technology Advisor, he named BizNet a “company to watch in 2010 and beyond.”  In an article entitled, “How to Get Great Reporting”, Johnson wrote, “The vision and roadmap of [BizNet] is brilliant, and the product can solve many problems of the market. This offering is certainly a viable alternative for FRx users and shows the promise of being a general reporting tool beyond the financial reporting that it already does well.”

“We are extremely honored to have won this award for a second straight year,” said BizNet president & CEO, George McMann. “K2 is one of the most respected and knowledgeable names in technology CPE, so earning their experts’ continued recognition is validation of our ongoing commitment to delivering the best in Excel®-based financial reporting and analysis tools. BizNet Software, Inc., leading provider of Microsoft Excel® based reporting and analytics solutions, announced today that is has won K2 Enterprises’ 2011 Quality Award for Financial Reporting for a second straight year.

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The business world moves at a rapid pace, and today’s companies need faster business reporting in order to stay ahead of the curve. Along with business intelligence and analysis, your company needs real-time information, especially when reporting with Excel, in order to stay competitive. BizNet can help, with an easy to use analytic and reporting platform that enhances your Excel capabilities, in order to give your company a competitive edge.

• BizNet delivers real-time Excel data to your Excel reports. You can draw directly from different databases and systems to create a customized report. For example, you can combine information from your ERP system and sales system.
• Cutting and pasting is outdated. Using existing Excel reports and skills, your team can integrate real-time data into current reports by populating current Excel sheets with live data connections. This means less time wasted with cutting and pasting stale information.
• BizNet can be fully implemented within a day. Existing skill sets and familiar platforms are utilized in training your team, so your company can be building live Excel reports within hours. You can also connect with BizNet in many ways for any assistance you need along the way.
• The live data enables you to drill down directly in Excel. You can examine individual transactions or changes without looking through mounds of data. With on-the-fly drill down, you gain the ability to get the detail behind the numbers with a simple mouse click.
• Lightning-fast performance with in-memory analytics means better intelligence. If you are given a report that is due in a timely manner, you will be able to provide decision-makers with detailed business intelligence without the stress of crunching numbers in a rush.
• The point-and-click menu makes it easy to generate customized reports. A single Excel template can be utilized to generate multiple reports. This ensures that all of your reports are streamlined.

The software BizNet offers gives you a business reporting and analysis platform that provides real-time Excel data. Need more help with faster business reporting when reporting with Excel? Visit BizNet Software on Facebook and Twitter to connect and learn more!

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In 2009, Microsoft announced that the popular FRx Financial Reporter software was going into “sunset” status.  In other words, the software will have limited support and the product will not be updated to work with new operating systems.  For tens of thousands of accounting department, this was crushing news as, for many of them,  FRx Reporter was the only accounting software they had ever used.   One constant among accountants is that they are resistant to change, so as companies begin the search for an FRx replacement, it is important to keep five key points in mind before choosing an FRx alternative.

Excel Compatibility

Excel currently has well over 500 million users and has become the standard in accounting reporting.  Excel offers the ability to report financial data in multiple languages, customize reports to make data more readable, and the ability to use various tools to highlight important information for non-accounting staff.  Financial reporting software should allow users to design reports in Excel due to the versatility and global recognition that the software offers.

Global Economy Means More Complex Financial Reporting

Businesses need a financial reporting solution that addresses the evolving financial reports required in today’s global economy.   Growing companies require an ever-changing list of reports in order to meet federal reporting standards and to keep company officials informed about the businesses financial picture.  Quality financial reporting software should be able to generate consolidated financials, virtual roll-ups, multi-currency, cash flow analysis and a host of other reports.  For this reason, it is important to keep in mind the reports your company will need before choosing an FRx replacement.

Easy to Learn

One complaint many companies had about FRx was that it was difficult to learn.  In fact, the program required a 2-day training class to learn the product thoroughly. When evaluating your options, make sure the solution is initiative and requires little or no training. Employees should be able to use the system easily no matter how seldom they needed to do so.  Therefore, the FRx alternative you choose should not require you to hire special programmers or reporting specialists in order to create reports.

Real-Time Information

Many financial solutions require data to be updated in multiple databases before reports are run to get the information needed.  In other cases, users are required to continually rerun reports in order to get current information.  In the financial world, current data and information is critical to adequately analyze a company’s financial well-being.  When choosing an FRx replacement, be sure that the program can provide interactive real-time data, from multiple systems, if needed.  Getting information in real-time is critical for decision-making.

Plan for the Future

Good financial reporting software should not only deal with a company’s financial picture today, but should be able to handle any reporting requirements the company will require in the future.  In addition, FRx replacement software should be able to handle large volumes of data as well as the complex needs that may occur as your business grows.

Despite the popularity of FRx Reporter, the program did have shortcomings.  For this reason, the fact that the software is being retired gives your company the ability to not only update your financial reporting process but to evaluate what was working with FRx and what could be improved.  This evaluation could lead you to an upgrade of your software rather than just a replacement.  For a more extensive list of items to consider in replacing FRx, download a free copy of our whitepaper at www.biznetsoftware.com.  To share what you’re looking for in an FRx replacement, join us on LinkedIn!

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With over 500 million users worldwide, Excel is the number one reporting and analysis software and is second only to email in daily use by companies worldwide.  However, many companies do not use this program for anything other than reports and analysis; they choose other solutions for business tools, such as executive dashboards.   By implementing a few simple ideas, you can begin creating interactive executive dashboards in Excel.

Interactive Executive Dashboards in a Familiar Format

Even advanced users are unaware of the many robust functionalities Excel offers.  By learning a few new steps within Excel, anyone in your company can create real-time executive dashboards in Excel, a program they are familiar with and understand.

Real-Time Data

Executives and managers need the most up-to-date information in order to make informed decisions.  By creating a dashboard in Excel, you eliminate the potential for lost data due to copying and exporting information between applications.  When you create a dashboard in Excel, you eliminate redundancy and speed up the transfer of data between parties.

Reading between the Lines

When a problem is being addressed, business decision makers need to know more than just the surface data.  True, they need to see the bottom line numbers, but they also need to see the data used to arrive at those bottom line numbers.  For this reason, reporting and analysis software must be able to “drill down” into the information in order for executives to make an informed decision.  Using a dashboard in Excel allows company officials to “drill down” into the data without leaving the application.

New Features in Excel

Microsoft has added many new features making it much easier to create an executive dashboard in Excel.  With better graphing, formatting and data visualization capabilities, the program provides more than just reporting features.  In addition, data bars, color scales, arrow indicators, spark lines, data slicers and other visually appealing features have been added to increase the aesthetic appearance of the program and make it easier to create an appealing dashboard in Excel.

Creating an executive dashboard in Excel is the best way to reduce the possibility of errors and provide real-time data to the company decision makers using a program that is familiar to almost every business person in the world.  Do you need more help with utilizing Excel reports for your business?  Visit BizNet Software to learn how!

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In 2009, Microsoft announced the retirement of FRx financial reporter. Since it was introduced in 1984, FRx was a favorite of accounting departments. Today, due to its retirement, companies are now searching for potential replacements.

In this video, we’ll share with you the top five things that you should look for as you are searching for your FRx replacement. For more information, or to see how BizNet Software can be an upgrade from FRx, visit our website.

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Businesses today are trying to cope with data in amounts that seem to grow exponentially on what seems to be a daily basis.  The amount of data generated has grown so quickly and to such a large extent that companies are struggling with how to accumulate and analyze the information in a timely manner so that the information is fresh and can be used to benefit their business rather than overwhelm it.  In-memory analytics is one tool that allows your company to analyze a significant amount of data with real-time access.

No More Complicated Business Intelligence Solutions

Today, many companies use data warehouses, cubes or other complicated business intelligence solutions to handle the explosion of data they are faced with on a daily basis.  In-memory analytics within Excel offers the high-performance ability to analyze data quickly so that information can be provided to company officials immediately.  This real-time solution allows executives to make more informed decisions.

Excel is the #1 Reporting and Analysis Tool

With over 500 million users, Excel is considered the #1 reporting and analysis tool in the world today.  Business users rely on Excel on a daily basis to provide detailed analysis regarding almost every aspect of the company and the program is second only to email as the tool the majority of businesses use the most.  In-memory analytics within Excel allows your business to store and analyze data to better optimize your business intelligence.  Because of Excel’s popularity, in-memory analytics will also allow businesses to use existing spreadsheets for analysis and will eliminate the need for copying data from different systems into multiple tabs inside spreadsheets.

Real-Time Access

Business users have often been frustrated that they were using data that was days, or even weeks old, when making decisions.  In-memory analytics provides access to data immediately without the need for data to be moved or transformed into a readable report.  This real-time access allows officials to make decisions based on current data, rather than data that may actually be outdated by the time the report is generated.

Faster and Less Costly

Because in-memory analytics relies on RAM as opposed to hard drives to store information, there is no longer a need for data warehouses.  In addition, long implementation time frames and delays in accessing information that may be critical to a decision are eliminated allowing your company to save money.  The use of RAM also allows in-memory analytics to run faster.  In fact, the system has been shown to run up to 1,000 times faster than current data access systems.

In-memory analytics is proving to be a game changing tool that will allow businesses to analyze data more quickly and efficiently than ever before.  By combining the program with Excel, companies will not only be able to analyze data quickly, but also utilize the familiar layout of the #1 analysis and reporting program in the world.  For more information about in-memory analytics and Excel, make sure you join our social network by following us on Facebook and Twitter or visit our website.

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One blog that we follow here at BizNet is the Microsoft Excel Team Blog.  This is the official blog for Excel and even though there are several(read thousands) of blogs on Excel out there this one is special because it has the inside scoop.

Some of the post you will find on the blog:

• Can’t find the Chart Wizard? No worries
• Add Rank to PivotTable
• Q & A: Things you really want to know about Excel IF function
• You Asked: What the heck is Scroll Lock
• The Microsoft Excel blog kicks it off!

That last post really introduces the 4 fine people behind the Excel Blog (Amy Miller, Gary Willoughby, Frederique Klitgaard, and Anneliese Wirth) and provides the view point they have on their blog.

Lots of Microsoft Excel blogs expect you to know all the ins and outs of PivotTables and formulas, conditional formatting and macros. This blog is for two groups of people: folks who are fairly new to Excel and would like to advance from “newbie” to “intermediate” expertise, and folks who just want the basics.

So if you feel you fit that description (I know I do) you should check out their blog and subscribe to it for great updates. They have between 4 and 9 a month.

Other places you can find the Excel Team in the social media universe

• Excel Facebook Page
• Excel Twitter Account