--- title: Why are you Wasting Time Manually Hunting for Errors in your Excel Spreadsheets? description: Manually hunting down spreadsheet errors wastes time, loses opportunity and is error prone. There is a better way -- automation software gives you error-free spreadsheets and high productivity! image: https://blog.cimcon.com/hubfs/Blog/Stop%20Wasting%20Time.png --- [![Cimcon Software Inc.](https://blog.cimcon.com/hubfs/Cimcon%20Software%20Feb2017%20Theme/Image/cs-logo.png)](https://www.cimcon.com/) - Products - [EUC Inventory Cloud](https://www.cimcon.com/products/euc-inventory-cloud) - [Model Inventory Cloud](https://www.cimcon.com/products/model-inventory-cloud) - [XLAudit](https://www.cimcon.com/products/solutions-xl-audit) - [Cell Conceal](https://www.cimcon.com/products/cell-conceal) - [EUC Insight Discovery](https://www.cimcon.com/products/solutions-eucinsight) - [EUC Insight Inventory](https://www.cimcon.com/products/solutions-eucinsight-inventory) - [EUC Insight Change Management](https://www.cimcon.com/products/euc-insight-change-management) - [Use Cases](https://www.cimcon.com/use-case) - [Banking](https://www.cimcon.com/use-cases/banking) - [Insurance](https://www.cimcon.com/use-cases/industries-insurance) - [Asset Management](https://www.cimcon.com/use-cases/asset-management) - [Model Risk Management](https://www.cimcon.com/use-cases/model-risk-management) - [Financial Risk & Controls](https://www.cimcon.com/use-cases/financial-risk-controls) - [IT Audit / Controls](https://www.cimcon.com/use-cases/it-audit-controls) - [Cloud Content Migration Risk](https://www.cimcon.com/use-cases/cloud-migration-risk) - [Services](https://www.cimcon.com/services) - [Clients](https://www.cimcon.com/clients) - [Banking](https://www.cimcon.com/clients?t=1) - [Insurance](https://www.cimcon.com/clients?t=2) - [Asset Management](https://www.cimcon.com/clients?t=3) - [Blog](https://www.cimcon.com/blog) - [About Us](https://www.cimcon.com/about-us) - [Leadership](https://www.cimcon.com/about-us) - [Partners](https://www.cimcon.com/partners) - [Careers](https://www.cimcon.com/about-us/careers) - [Talk to Sales](https://www.cimcon.com/about-us/contact) # Lower EUC Risk with Automated Controls ## Why are you Wasting Time Manually Hunting for Errors in your Excel Spreadsheets? Just one tiny spreadsheet error can snowball into a disaster for your company and for everyone responsible. No organization wants to suffer a material financial loss due to a spreadsheet error. And yet, most firms use *ineffective, * manual methods to find errors in their critical spreadsheets.  There's a highly effective and much more productive way to detect and correct spreadsheet errors!  ![Stop Wasting Time.png](https://blog.cimcon.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog/Stop%20Wasting%20Time.png?width=550&height=300&name=Stop%20Wasting%20Time.png)   # **Why are you Wasting Time Manually Hunting for Errors in your Excel Spreadsheets?** Even a small spreadsheet error can snowball into a disaster for your company and for everyone responsible. You can’t afford an error in a model that drives strategic decisions, nor an Excel mistake that cascades through your financial reports. Given that no organization wants to suffer a material financial loss due to a spreadsheet error,  how do you ensure your critical spreadsheets are error-free? If you’re like the hundreds of firms that CIMCON has worked with, your primary line of defense against spreadsheet errors is probably a precious resource known as 'intelligent people.' Yes, that’s right – most organizations still rely on manual efforts to detect the errors in their very complex spreadsheets. Let me be unapologetically blunt:  manual efforts are completely insufficient if you want to have error-free spreadsheets. There are three important reasons why a manual approach is flawed:  (1) **Time intensive**. It can take hours – even days – to fully check a complex, business critical spreadsheet for errors. How many times are spreadsheets checked and re-checked before they are passed further up the chain? What is the effort required to manually maintain a model inventory list and keep it current? Here at CIMCON, we talk to people every day who say they spend ***way too much time*** making sure that errors don't appear in critical spreadsheets. For some people, it can be their entire job! (2) **High opportunity cost**. Manually checking for errors is a poor, tactical use of intelligent people. Think about it… What strategic projects could these highly intelligent people tackle if you could recapture all those hours of manually checking & rechecking spreadsheets for errors? (3) **Error prone**. Manually checking for errors is error prone. Isn't that ironic? Manual efforts rarely mitigate the inherent risks. Because human error is the #1 cause of spreadsheet error. *All* humans are fallible (and there’s nothing wrong with that). But as responsible business professionals, we need to recognize this fact and set up our organizations – and processes – for error-free spreadsheet success. What’s the solution? A 2018 survey by [Risk.net](https://www.risk.net/risk-management/5424761/top-10-operational-risks-for-2018) found that the majority of Operational Risk Heads put “data integrity” at the top of their list of concerns. Putting aside the models and tools for a moment, should you now demand even more scrutiny of the spreadsheets used in data transformation? Perhaps a “6 eyes” peer review to mitigate those “feeder spreadsheet” errors even further? It’s a vicious cycle… more checks, more time, more resources, more lost opportunity. And what happens in an emergency? What if you're asked for a debtors list to be ready for tomorrow? Can you gather the data and get 6 eyes on it in the next 8 hours? Error-free spreadsheets, along with proper governance, should not require a heavy, manual, labor-intensive process. The whole point of end-user computing is to improve the productivity of your best resources. Don’t dilute one of your best competitive advantages by burdening your team with manual, risk mitigation processes. There is a better way to keep critical spreadsheets error free! There are very simple measures – automated measures - that can be adopted to ensure spreadsheet errors are found and fixed. Better controls will keep the errors from happening again. ***And you can be highly productive at the same time.*** You will be able to focus  on strategic projects rather than spending hours on the tactical tasks of manually checking your spreadsheets for errors. Speak to a member of our [CIMCON team](mailto:info@cimcon.com) to learn how spreadsheet risk management software can help you automatically find and eliminate spreadsheet errors, thus freeing up your precious resources. Or you can also try finding errors yourself with a [free, 14-day trial of CIMCON’s XLAudit](https://www.cimcon.com/products/solutions-xl-audit) software.  [![Share on Facebook](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/facebook-24x24.png)](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.cimcon.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-waste-time-manually-hunting-errors-in-excel-spreadsheets%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook) [![Share on LinkedIn](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/linkedin-24x24.png)](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.cimcon.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-waste-time-manually-hunting-errors-in-excel-spreadsheets%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dlinkedin) [![Share on Twitter](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/twitter-24x24.png)](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.cimcon.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-waste-time-manually-hunting-errors-in-excel-spreadsheets%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.cimcon.com%2Fblog%2Fwhy-waste-time-manually-hunting-errors-in-excel-spreadsheets%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&source=tweetbutton&text=Why%20are%20you%20Wasting%20Time%20Manually%20Hunting%20for%20Errors%20in%20your%20Excel%20Spreadsheets%3F) ### Recent Posts ### SIGN UP FOR OUR QUARTERLY NEWSLETTERto stay informed on the latest strategies and news on EUC controls and compliance ### About Us **CIMCON Software is the leader in end-user computing controls, ranked #1** for Spreadsheet Compliance & Sarbanes-Oxley **three consecutive years** in *Operational Risk & Regulation* customer surveys. ### Navigate - [Products](https://www.cimcon.com/solutions) - [Industries](https://www.cimcon.com/use-case) - [Services](https://www.cimcon.com/services) - [Clients](https://www.cimcon.com/clients) - [Knowledge Base](https://www.cimcon.com/knowledge-base) - [Partners](https://www.cimcon.com/partners) - [About Us](https://www.cimcon.com/about-us) - [Privacy Policy](https://www.cimcon.com/privacy-policy) - [Terms & Conditions](https://www.cimcon.com/privacy-policy) ©2018 CIMCON Software, LLC. 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