Spreadsheets

From time to time, Jeff likes to jam his brain full of numbers and spit them out into a VERY complicated spreadsheet. It’s a gift…and a curse, but that’s no reason that it shouldn’t benefit our clients like it benefits us.

Spreadsheets in Use

What could you need a spreadsheet for? Invoices, timekeeping, or even your monthly budget?

• Once, we created a spreadsheet that calculated the wind loads on buildings in the state of Florida. By entering the lengths and heights of the walls, the slope of the roof, and the distance from the coast, we could do four hours worth of calculations in five minutes and know, almost instantly, if our buildings met the exacting standards of the Florida building codes.
• Once, we were assigned the task of submitting hundreds of files to an array of people weekly, for six months. We created a spreadsheet that, when given a list of the files to be submitted that week, returned a list of the people who were to receive each file and even the message header that was to be included on each submission. The spreadsheet made what had been a very time consuming task into an efficient (and profitable) endeavor.
• Once, we created a spreadsheet that, when given a list of current material costs for the components of different building assemblies and square footages of various parts of buildings, could estimate and report the costs of an entire project, broken down by both material totals and by building. It reported in great detail the differences in costs associated with as assortment of other factors, as well, including LEED Design Categories and labor costs associated with the type of construction.
• Once, we created a timesheet system that tracked employee hours over the course of a year and kept tabs on banked hours, vacation hours, and billing categories to simplify the entire billing process of an architectural firm.
• Once, we created a spreadsheet that, based on the user’s entries about their weight, activity level, and goals, returned a nutrition plan intended to help them lose weight, gain muscle, and be healthier.
• And once, Jeff created a spreadsheet for himself that, when given all the transactions from his monthly bank statement, maintained his personal budget and produced a monthly expense report based on the categories of the items listed on his bank statement.

If you have a use for a spreadsheet that, while complicated in its functions, is easy to use on its face, we’d love the challenge. ++