A common Visual Management tool is the chart.  This can be a simple bar chart or one with upper and lower limits.  Charting is pretty basis, but one can find many improvements by just searching the internet.  Start your search by Google “excel charts” to bring up a whole array of help.

Another great tool in Excel is “Conditional Formatting”.  I discuss this several times in my books with practical applications.  You can set limits on type, quantity, or content of cells.  By defining rules or conditions of individual cells you can reduce error input or highlight certain conditions.  If a cell needs a number, not text for example, you can show an error message to the user.

If the data is above, below, or match preset targets you can cause the font color, fill color, or border style to change.  These visual cues will bring focus to the specific data.   Explore the Conditional Formatting feature to make your job faster and easier.

For example do you have a database of customer information which you enter row by row?  An example would be Name, address, city, state, zip-code, phone number, etc.  Daily you enter several customers into your database cell by cell, then using your mouse to get back to the first column.  Have you looked up and found you are entering the data in the wrong column?

Then you should consider using a custom data entry form you create.  It is a dialog box that allows you to enter a full row of information by column labels.  Excel uses these labels to create fields on the form.

In Excel 2003 highlight the cells containing the labels, then go to the Data menu and click Form.  Select New, type first entry and press ENTER to start a blank record.  Continue until finished and press Close.

In Excel 2007 they have eliminated the Form from the Ribbon, so you will need to add it manually.  Right click the “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” down arrow (very top of the ribbon) and select “More Commands…” button.  Under “Chose Commands from:” dropdown select “All Commands”.  Scroll down, find, and select “Form…”, then press “Add” button.  You will now have a “Form” button on your QAT (Quick Access Toolbar).  Use Form as described above in Excel 2003.

Using this form could improve your speed and reduce errors.

If entering data, where does the information come from?  If it comes from someone else, could they possibly enter it themselves?  Can the data input be pushed further back down the chain?  I have seen examples where customer service takes an order by handwriting on an order sheet, then that information is entered into a database.  Then someone else takes that data and enters it into some other form or report.  Would it not be smarter to have the customer service rep type straight into a Excel workbook.  This could then be linked to your Excel file(s) eliminate re-entering of the data.

Could the production department enter product control data into an Excel file so Quality Control could run real time Statistical Quality Analysis?  Push it back to the source and eliminate repeated data entry.

Assume you have twelve worksheets, named from January to December.  In cell A1 on each sheet you have Jan-10, Feb-10, …. Dec-10.  When you setup year 2011 do you need to change all twelve sheets or would you rather just change the first sheet?  Is so do the following:

On January sheet cell A1 type in 1/1/10 and enter.  Now format cell A1 as “Format Cells”, “Number” tab, “Date”, “Mar-01”, and “Ok”.  The formatted cell will show “Jan-10”.

You can use a custom format to show something like “January-2010” if you wish.

On February sheet cell A1 type “=January!A1+31” and format same as above.  The cell will now show “Feb-10”.

On March sheet cell A1 type “=February!A1+29” and format.  Note that I used 29 to account for leap years.  Now continue by using following:

April sheet use “=March!A1+31”

May sheet use “=April!A1+30”

June sheet use “=May!A1+31”

July sheet use “=June!A1+31”

August sheet use “=July!A1+30”

September sheet use “=August!A1+31”

October sheet use “=September!A1+30”

November sheet use “=October!A1+31”

December sheet use “=November!A1+30”

Now when year 2011 rolls around just go to January sheet cell A1 and change the 1/1/10 to 1/1/11.

Every sheet from January through December will change to year 2011.  I tested this up year 2020 and it seemed to work without problem.

Once it is setup, just one cell change per year will accomplish the job.

In today’s economy you want to stand out or be visible in your business to boost your chance of remaining in the bosses favor.  If you are looking for a job this might give you the edge to land that job over the hundreds or thousands of others.

In business the fundamental Microsoft triangle consists of Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.  With these three tools many businesses communicate everything that is happening.

Communication is the life blood of a business, both up and down the ladder.  Improving and maintaining that communication can be key to your success.

If you can provide your boss with the information to make smarter decisions, you can become the Go-To person.  Make the boss look good and you will look good in the boss’s eyes.

How can you accomplish this?  By showing continuous improvement and working smarter.  I know these buzz words have been thrown around a lot, but if you look at them a little closer you can see the benefit.

“Continuously improving” your Excel workbooks by using methods that you did not think were possible.  It is one of those “Wow – I did not know Excel could do that” moments.

“Working smarter” by reducing the time and effort to achieve the end results.  Most data recorded in Excel is maintained on a monthly basis and is updated each month.

When preparing for the next month do you recreate the world?  Have you found yourself going from cell to cell deleting last month’s data?  Do you manually change the date references?  If yes, then you are wasting a lot of your valuable time that could be used to boost your visibility.

Though my books, blog, and videos I hope to show you the tools that could make your job easier while shining in your bosses eyes.



Become the Go-To Excel Person

The goal of this series of books is to make you the Go-To Excel Person— the one that gets the pat on the back from upper management for providing the information they need to effectively do their job. In today’s economy, you do not want to be the invisible employee in your organization. You need to increase your visibility. If you make your boss look good, you will look good in the boss’s eyes.

Excel is the workhorse in business for tracking everything from sales, production, safety, quality, inventory, and customers. Most information is entered, calculated, reviewed, and shared with upper management. Charts, graphs, summaries, and reports are generated from the data entered to allow your organization to analyze this vital information.