"Smartest Person" and "Excel"

(Edit - there’s a little accounting jargon in here. If you’re not accounting-savvy, just do your best to ignore it and focus on the issues and not the specifics.)

So, I thought I’d combine our two latest threads with an ongoing complaint I have at my work. As you might know, I started working at a new CPA firm about four months ago. I like 99% of it. The 1% might drive me absolutely crazy.

I’ve had a few professional jobs in my life, and in every single job, Excel is a way of life. If you know Excel, you’re on the right path. They can teach you the rest. If you don’t know Excel, then you’re welcome to leave. The only tools that even come remotely as close to being “necessary” are e-mail and a telephone. (And I’m not sure about that.) I imagine that almost all finance/accounting jobs are that way.

In my new firm, we have Excel 2013 installed on every computer. And almost nobody uses it. And it drives me crazy. If we need to compile a list of sources of revenue, we use pencils and paper. (I’m not kidding about this.) If we need to create a schedule of K-1’s received, we use pencil and paper. If we need to get a copy of a general ledger (that might exceed 500 pages), we get a copy ON PAPER. We do all of our trial balances in a computer program called Creative Solutions.

Let me tell you about Creative Solutions. It might be a good product IF WE EVER UPDATED IT. Right now, we’re using the same version that we used in 1996. (Some other things that happened in 1996–I got my driver’s license, I took my first “keyboarding” class in high school on Microsoft Works using a 486, and the Cowboys won the Super Bowl.) It is capable of only doing two things–inputting a trial balance and creating journal entries. All this can be done more quickly and efficiently on Excel. Plus there are a million other things that Excel can do.

When I came on board, I did what I had been taught to do in other firms, and I built trial balances on Excel. I was quickly told that we don’t use it, and that I needed to learn the antiquated software. I have tried to show the higher-ups how much more efficient Excel is, but the response is the same. “Every time you add a column, you have to change the formulas, and that takes time. We need to use the software that we pay for. All you need to do a trial balace is our Creative Solutions software.”

If I could draw an analogy, whenever I hear my boss say that, it sounds like, “If you want to get from home to work, all you need to do is walk. You got two feet. That’s all you need. You don’t need one of them there auto-mo-biles. You gotta fill it up, change oil, and change the tires if they go flat. We don’t need to worry about all that nonsense. Just walk from one place to the other.”

It’s extremely frustrating, because I know FOR A FACT that Excel would be faster and more efficient than the dinosaur software that we currently use. Moreover, every other CPA that I know (and I know a lot of them) use Excel to do their work. In fact, I bet that if you stood up in the middle of a room and declared, “We use 1996 Creative Solutions to do our trial balances”, we would get laughed at. And I mean literally, LOL. Yet, my current firm continues do the same thing that it did in the 90’s.

Maybe I’m just ranting. But it’s something that really really really bothers me. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I see three possibilities:

  1. Get them to change to Excel. Good luck with that.
  2. Learn Creative Solutions and stop whining. It appears that the proper follow-up is: good luck with that.
  3. Find a new job.

I have been in a similar position, and the 1% overwhelmed the 99%.

Good luck. (And I mean that sincerely.)

Oh I couldn’t handle that…

^^Yeah, right now I’m sticking with #2. But it’s a real thorn in the side, because I have learned it, and I can say with 100% certainty that I’m faster and more accurate with Excel.

Are their any costs associated with your firm using Creative Solutions? If you could use Excel instead would the firm save any money on licenses? If you really care, that’s the tack I’d take since it sounds like every computer at your firm comes equipped with MSFT Office. Boom, you just went from the whiny underling to the rising star that saved your firm thousands a year.

Alternatively, break Creative Solutions and show that there is no service support.

^Yes, it costs money. Yes, we could save money. No, the boss isn’t interested in being faster and better and cheaper. (Serious as the grave.)

When I said we could just save the Excel file to the company drive for future reference, he said “We don’t want to do that. Storage on the servers costs money. We don’t have to pay for paper files.” (Are you fn joking?)

I know you guys probably think this is a really bad Dilbert joke, but it’s not. It’s my workplace.

Old habits are really hard to break (previous idea of mentioning money is the best, imo)

We worked with a 90+ yr old man here, we asked him for his books. He not only had hand written books… he hand copied ever line and figure and made us a duplicate copy of his books that way. surprise

After reading above comment, I’d leave the issue alone.

Thanks, HP.

If I can make an analogy that we can all understand–it’s as if somebody said, “You don’t need a calculator to take the CFA exam. Pencil and paper’s all you need. You see, every time you do a TVM calculation on the calculator, you have to clear the calculator, and that wastes time. Plus, what are you gonna do if the battery dies?” Everybody understands how ludicrous this argument is.

I feel for you Greenman. I have used Creative Solutions. Bleh! As hpracing007 says, “Old habits are really hard to break.”

Your work problem is one of inertia.

I wish you the best of luck in getting them to use modern technology. Sincerely.

i just keep using excel and sending people excel files until they catch on.

honestly, i am sure you are not the only person using excel that interacts with your collegues, they must receive spreadsheets from auditors, etc, clearly they aren’t going to use pen and paper or creative solutions.

it is absolutely crazy to not use excel in a professional environment. Perhaps you shoudl initiate a excel tutorial at work?

99% of what I do would be more efficient in R than excel. However, as a general rule, if higher ups can’t understand what I’m doing, then I’m not usually allowed to do it, no matter how good I think it may be. My recommendation is to stop worrying and learn to love the bomb.

Run this by some clients…let them put the pressure. There have to be some smart clients out there who know Excel is more efficient.

I’ve tried to just use Excel and hope that it catches on. I was told, rather sharply, that this was not a good idea.

The funny thing is–the partners are 59 and 66. Granted, they’re not 20-something, but they’re not too old to learn, either. I know a lot of 60-somethings that use Excel. They weren’t too old to learn new tricks.

And it also runs a little deeper than just the Excel part. There are many things that we do that worked very well in 1996, when the firm was 1/4 of the size it is now. But I’m afraid that the company has grown beyond their ability to manage it using existing processes. But they’re unwilling to explore new processes that would make it more efficient.

I suppose my hope is that in a couple of years, I can introduce these new systems that will make my company a more efficient machine. (Things like saving e-mails to the client’s online folder, instead of printing them out an putting them in a paper file.) But I think that if I continue to get a lot of push-back after a couple of years, I’m gona have to find a new place to work. That would really suck, because other than the “inertia” part that JB described, I really like this job.

Yeah, I’d have to get out of there if they weren’t receptive in the near term.

Even if you could put up with it, you’re ultimately spending time replacing your valuable skills with bad habits and archaic process knowledge.

This is what I’m afraid of–complacency and picking up bad habits.

trying to figure out how to combine the other 2 threads and the FAP thread together

This is the problem in America, from what i’ve heard, some of my friends work in international firms and they always complain US offices (in the same company) always complicate things by splitting simple tasks into multiple teams, and use complicated procedure to carry out a simple initiative…

A lot of resources can be reduced if people just accept that they are becoming obsolete if they don’t learn new tricks. these 55 year olds still have potentially 20 years of work lives ahead of them.

To me, this first post is too long to read. Sorry OP.

Agreed. There should be cliffnotes for posts over 250 words.

  • Aging accountants are a bunch of old farts who don’t want to learn new software.
  • Even when that software is Excel.
  • Excel, when properly configured, can do what much of third-party software can do, and much cheaper.
  • This whole situation is embarassing for a youngster who is concerned about career and marketable skills growth.