Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Spreadsheety Stuffs

There's a flaw somewhere in my big sales spreadsheet for 2021.  I've got three different yearly totals going on here.  Derp.  This close to the end of the year, I'm wondering whether it's worth trying to find the flaw or to just say screw it and move on with my life.  I mean, I did check the obvious spots and it wasn't there, so any further investigation is going to take up a lot of time.  And I do know which one is the correct total, so it's not like figuring out the others is crucial.

As it's a formula error, it will not carry to next year's spreadsheet.  When I create a new spreadsheet for the year, I only move over the formatting and the text.  The formulas get rebuilt as the year goes along.

I am thinking about redoing the whole damn thing.  But only thinking about it.  Because it would be a huge pain in the buns, that's why.  I did get rid of all the graphs last year.  Graphs can be fun when the data is good.  Otherwise, they're just depressing and who needs that?

The whole flaw problem is, I think, the amount of data I'm trying to juggle with one spreadsheet.  16 books, 12 months, 18 columns of various ways each book can be sold and prices for such.  (And that's not including the smaller spreadsheet and its daily information.)  It's a beautiful swirl and dance, but it can also be a headache.

There are probably easier ways to deal with some of this, but I'm working with the knowledge I have.  (Don't even suggest macros.  I hate macros.)  Relearning stuff at this point would take away the benefits of having learned it.  And this old dog might not even be able to learn new tricks.  Just ask my 81-yr-old mom who's still doing all her stuff with paper ledgers while also trying to grasp the ins and outs of Excel.  Poor mom.

I'm working with Excel 2007.  It's pretty stable and since I've had it this many years, I'm pretty comfortable with what I know how to do with it.  Gah, can you imagine if I tried to teach myself each new version of Excel to handle any of this?  I'd be so bogged down with learning, I'd never get anything else done.

Oh, I'll probably wade in and try to figure out where the flaw is.  It'll drive me nuts until I do.  Something somewhere - maybe several somethings - is pointed at the wrong place.  Eh, it'll give me something to do when I'm not doing anything else.  Heh.

And yes, I will do a yearly wrap-up of the sales data.  Look for it after the first of the year.

2 comments:

  1. Big hugs. I can work all the newer versions of Excel. They aren't too different--in fact supposed to be easier but you know how that goes with big tech. LOLOL

    I'm too lazy for spread sheets. And wrapping my brain around ROI for various sales outlets? Fuhgetaboutit. I look at the W-2s and go from there. Business is not my thing and that's probably a bad thing but whatever. I'm too old and set in my ways. You are the queen of spreadsheets and I admire you. You'll get it figured out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hugs on the spreadsheet woes. I keep track of number of sales of each book in Excel and total dollars sold in Quicken. Just the thought of combining them makes my head hurt!

    ReplyDelete