Most businesses today need to record and store information on a regular basis – sometimes this might be purely for record keeping and sometimes it will be to store information for later use – such as the recording of performance figures for later analysis.

1. The advantages of using a
database over excel
spreadsheets ?

2. Most businesses today need to record
and store information on a regular basis
– sometimes this might be purely for
record keeping and sometimes it will be
to store information for later use – such
as the recording of performance figures
for later analysis.
This is no surprise as that’s really what
computers are for – they make storing
and manipulating large amounts of data
extremely easy.

3. One of the most common programs that
is used for this task – for small
businesses at least – is Microsoft Excel.
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program
and has many database like qualities – in
fact it is extremely easy to turn Excel
into a sort of database simply by setting
up headings across each column and
then adding data to the corresponding
rows.

4. Once you have the data in excel it is easy
to perform basic functions such as adding
up the data in rows and columns as well
as sorting the data by various metrics –
for example a column of customer names
could easily be sorted into alphabetical
order.

5. Unfortunately there are many limitations
with Excel that don’t become apparent
until much further down the line – and by
this stage a lot of time has been invested
in creating and updating the spreadsheet
making it harder to move away from that
method.

6. Some of the common pitfalls that come with
using Excel are as follows:
Excel is a two dimensional spreadsheet and
so it is very difficult to create relationships
between data in different spreadsheets
Because the data tends to be stored in a
single spreadsheet which is visible in full to
the user it becomes hard to read once it
gets past a certain size – you tend to find
that you are scrolling through hundreds of
entries when trying to find a particular
record

7. Although Excel spreadsheets can be
shared, enabling concurrent editing, it is
not a native feature of Excel and can
become unwieldy
Excel is not an efficient database engine
and so spreadsheets can become large,
slow and unstable when they grow
beyond a certain size
Because excel stores the data and the
“frontend” of the spreadsheet in a single
file it is harder to back up efficiently

8. What are the alternatives to using
Excel?
There are quite a few alternatives to
using Excel but by far the best
alternative is to use a database driven
application. One of the most common
database models is MySQL which usually
comes with a web based front end for
inputting data.

9. There are many advantages to using a
database over an Excel spreadsheet,
some of them include:
Data is stored separately from the user
interface making the system much more
robust and scalable
The data is far easier to manipulate and
the user can be presented with only the
required information rather than the
entire data set

10. Data can easily be cross referenced
between multiple databases by using
relationships
MySQL operates on a centralised data
storage system which is much easier to
back up and maintain
A database can be accessed
simultaneously by as many users as
required

11. Databases can be developed with
advanced functionality such as change
previsioning, restricted access and file
attachment facilities
Database systems tend to be much faster
because they are built for storing and
manipulating large datasets where Excel
is not

12. Databases can be developed with
advanced functionality such as change
previsioning, restricted access and file
attachment facilities
Database systems tend to be much faster
because they are built for storing and
manipulating large datasets where Excel
is not

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