Just about all companies rely on electronic data these days, but not all companies can quickly and easily access their data. Here are a few of the common mistakes that I see frequently.

• Some companies keep their data in text documents, overwriting the existing data...

If you’ve ever written VBA code in Excel, Access, or any of the other products in the Microsoft Office suite, you may already be familiar with Option Explicit. If you’re not, it'll be worth a few minutes of your time to learn about it. It’s a useful tool that will save...

A student asked me the other day if you can display line numbers on your VBA code. That got me to thinking about the fact that I don’t rely on line numbers any more. Back in the day, anytime a user called to report an error, the first question was always “What line num...

Excel has some amazing report tools including charts and pivot tables. These tools are quick and easy to use, and produce some spectacular reports. However, if your data is not structured cleanly, these tools will stumble. When clients ask us to create reports on their...

The other day I had a client ask me to create a reminder in an Excel document that would pop up several times a day. It had to run at specific times, and the interval wasn’t always the same. For example, it might need to be displayed at 8:00 am, 9:00 am, 10:30 am, and...

I recently read a great post from Made to Thrive Consulting about working on our businesses, not just in them. Check it out here:

http://www.madetothrivellc.com/single-post/2017/01/27/Are-we-working-ON-our-business-not-just-IN-them

This reminded me that being a business...

Microsoft Access allows you to quickly create forms for viewing and editing your data. One issue you may have run into with forms is that it’s easy to accidentally edit the data on a form with a slip of the fingers. Here’s the scenario:

You open an Access form and are l...

Recording macros in Excel is an easy way to automate repetitive tasks. Maybe you receive a new file every month with your sales figures in it, for example. You may need to sort the data, move it from one worksheet to another, or format it. If you repeat the same steps...

Excel or Access?

Microsoft has lots of great tools, and in most cases, it’s pretty clear which you need to use. If you need to write a letter, Word is your tool. If you need to create a slideshow, that’s PowerPoint. But often there’s confusion about Excel and Access. Si...

If you've ever thought about creating macros in Excel, you've probably heard the term "VBA". In this post, I'm going to give you a little background on VBA so that you can decide if it's something you want to tackle.

Excel is a great tool for analyzing and presenting yo...