The use of spreadsheet software is common in businesses, especially with so many people working remotely.
They are a great tool for managing important data and to-do lists, planning budgets, and simply tracking information. Here, we will discuss the best spreadsheet software available for businesses and highlight some of each one’s best features.
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel was designed to manipulate data, and it has hundreds of different operations for using it. It has a formula autofill feature that can make it easy to find what you need. You can personalize all of your charts and graphs, and every element of them is customizable and clickable. It has the most features available compared to every other software provider on the market currently.
Excel has a lot of templates available, too, so you do not have to create everything from scratch. You can have up to 17,179,869,184 cells in a single sheet at any given time.
Since Microsoft has OneDrive and Teams, it is also easy for a business to collaborate through that, and it will implement changes on every device that has access to the sheet.
It can be a rather daunting software for new users, because of the number of features and customization options available, so there is often a learning curve if you are trying to navigate the more complex features of the program.
This is a Microsoft product, so you need to purchase the software or a monthly subscription in order to use it.
Google Sheets
If your business needs a lot of collaboration, Google Sheets is the best option available. You can edit with other people on your team in real-time, there is a chat option to discuss with your team at the same time, leave comments on the sheet, and it offers a lot of control in sharing features.
While Google Sheets may not have the mass amount of functions available that Excel has, it is still a powerful program for crunching numbers, making it helpful for businesses that need to organize their data. The smaller number of features makes it a lot cleaner to look at and much easier to use than Excel can be.
You can sync Google Sheets with G Suite apps like Google Analytics instantly, and you can populate spreadsheets with data from Google Forms.
Google Sheets is also available on Android and iOS systems, allowing you to work on the go.
It is free, and you can store up to 15 GB of data.
LibreOffice
Calc is the name of LibreOffice’s spreadsheet program, and it comes with some excellent features. The program’s layout can be a little cluttered, but when you learn where everything is and what it all does, it is an easy program to operate. It is easy to create graphs with LibreOffice, but it can be time-consuming to customize them. This program is good for helping a new user get started. It has easy function building that will help you step-by-step.
However, one thing to keep in mind with LibreOffice is that it is not the best tool for working collaboratively; it does not support real-time co-authoring, and it has limited cloud support.
LibreOffice is free to use and is not online, so if you need to handle a lot of data on your own, this is an excellent program to consider using. If your business has a lot of collaboration, this might not be the best program for you.
Zoho Sheets
Zoho Sheets is a web-only program that offers smooth collaboration features similar to Google Sheets, including the sharing permission controls and real-time co-authoring. It has a layout similar to Google Sheets, but it has one feature that Google Sheets does not: a basic formula builder that has function descriptions.
Zoho Sheets has over 350 features available currently, which is more than Google sheets offers. Some of these features include conditional formatting, pivot tables, and data validation. It also supports 23 languages.
You can link in external data from things like an RSS feed or CSV file, which can be helpful for businesses. Zoho Sheets also offers easy to create and customizable graphs, though it is also less powerful than Excel. It has an intuitive interface, and it is completely free and cloud-based.
Apple Numbers
If you use Apple, you have probably heard of Apple Numbers because it is preinstalled on Macs. It offers a much cleaner interface than Excel does, and it allows you to put your tables wherever you want on the sheet. Apple Numbers has templates to help you with some of the most common tasks, but it does not have data analysis or the ability to manage a large data set. However, Apple Numbers is easy to use, it syncs across multiple devices, and it is free for Mac users.
Quip
Quip combines documents, spreadsheets, and team chat into a single app. This allows you to easily switch from your spreadsheet to your document and back as you are working without constantly switching what program you are using.
Quip has over 400 functions, and it has keyboard shortcuts for a lot of its menu items, allowing you to quickly make a new row or column. Its graph creation is simple to use, and it is easy to customize and navigate.
Quip is not free; it starts at $10 a month and goes up from there.
EtherCalc
EtherCalc is a great software for someone looking for something that is much simpler to use than most spreadsheet software available. It is another free web-based program, but you do not need an account to use it. You just have to visit their website and click on the “create spreadsheet” button in the top left corner. It will then generate a spreadsheet with its own unique URL for you to use when you need to revisit your sheet or if you want to share it with others on your team.
Its user interface is somewhat dated since the program was created in 2006 and has not seen many updates since then, and it does not have some of the features in other software on this list. However, it is easy to use for a spreadsheet beginner that needs something basic without all the bells and whistles that come with other software.
Every company needs spreadsheet software for different things, which is part of why there are so many different options available today. If your business is considering custom software, contact Seattle Software Developers today.
