10 Features That Will Make You Love These Spreadsheets
Templates make our life easier.
Whether they’re for spreadsheets, web design, social media posts, or hanging objects on our wall, we rely on templates to save us time and reduce errors.
But there’s a problem with templates.
They aren’t all created equal. Some templates serve an elementary need in which case it’s easy to pluck a free downloadable template from the internet. That’s all you may need. Other times, you might reckon with a more complicated task which demands an advanced solution.
Simple Sheets spreadsheet templates are designed to be both accessible for spreadsheet novices and capable of sophisticated solutions. Here’s 10 features that make our Excel & Google Sheets spreadsheet templates the key to working smarter & faster.
10. Advanced Readability Feature: Conditional Formatting
Highlighting cells based on their value can make your spreadsheet easier to analyze. Take our Internal Audit spreadsheet template. You can input your limits and the corresponding value to your setup sheet. A score of 9 is good, whereas a score of 8 is only normal.
When you log a score into your entry sheet the cell will automatically highlight according to the parameters you’ve created. We do this with conditional formatting. Your spreadsheets are more vibrant and ready for analysis with this feature.
9. Automation and Built-In Calculations Feature: Advanced Formulas
Formulas and functions automate your most challenging tasks in Excel. You can save dozens of hours by building in calculations one time so you don’t have to manually crunch numbers each time you want an answer.
Every template has dozens of formulas and functions that automate your spreadsheet tasks.
One example of this is in our Cash Flow spreadsheet template. Simply input your payment terms with various vendors in both accounts receive and payable. Your cash flow projections will automatically calculate without additional formulas. The template does the work for you.
Highlighting cells based on their value can make your spreadsheet easier to analyze. Take our Internal Audit spreadsheet template. You can input your limits and the corresponding value to your setup sheet. A score of 9 is good, whereas a score of 8 is only normal.
8. Easy Data Entry Feature: Dropdown Menus
We all make mistakes, but some are more fatal than others. Spreadsheet blunders cost companies billions every year.
Reducing manual entry is one way to increase entry speed while reducing the likelihood of mistakes. Dropdown menus help accomplish that. Refer to our Delivery in Full, On Time spreadsheet. Rather than typing in each entry individually, dropdown menus save you a ton of time.
7. Template Customization Feature: Customized Lists and Smart Tables
Often, our parameters are specific to our business environment. We have different labels, names, and procedures that we want to remain consistent across our business assets. Our customized lists feature allows you to add new entries that are automatically used in other areas of the spreadsheet.
Take our Gap Analysis project management spreadsheet. You can add departments, gap answer, priority list and completion list as needed. These values will be available and speed up your entry when logging your data.
6. Advanced Data Analysis Feature: Dashboard for Reporting
One of the most powerful and beloved features of our spreadsheets are dashboards. These are specific sheets within your spreadsheet populated with your most important KPIs displayed as charts, plots, number summaries, and slicers.
This is geared towards executives and operators that want to understand the ins and outs of a specific business function. Take our Lead Generation Analysis template dashboard below. You can use one or multiple slicers to analyze your data, such as what advertising platform you are getting the most leads from and the conversion rate by service and/or advertiser. You can also select the month to view if there have been changes from previous months.
These dashboards are a joy to use and improve your ability to make big business decisions.
5. Advanced Data Visualization Feature: Charts, Plots, Sparklines, Graphs
In parallel to our last point, our templates are built with advanced visuals that turn your bland spreadsheet into one that makes sense for everybody.
Look at our Profit & Loss spreadsheet template below.
You can see the graph, bar chart, trend lines and sparklines that give you an immediate glimpse into the profitability and trajectory of your business. There are over 400 visuals in our template library.
4. Advanced Data Segmentation & Filtering Feature: Slicers & Filters
In parallel to our last point, our templates are built with advanced visuals that turn your bland spreadsheet into one that makes sense for everybody.
Look at our Profit & Loss spreadsheet template below.
You can see the graph, bar chart, trend lines and sparklines that give you an immediate glimpse into the profitability and trajectory of your business. There are over 400 visuals in our template library.
3. Accessible for all Spreadsheet Skill Types Feature: Instructions & How to Videos
Working in spreadsheets proficiently is a skill. Just as it takes years to become fluent in a language, the same can be said for spreadsheets. There are formulas, shortcuts, and features that you can only learn with time and dedication.
For those that don’t feel super confident working in spreadsheets, our templates include written instructions AND a video for navigating the template. No matter your skill level, you can utilize all the powerful features of Excel & Google Sheets without the years of proficiency needed to design a spreadsheet.
2. Work with Big & Small Data Feature: Smart Tables for Handling Large Raw Data Sets
Large data sets can be overwhelming to manage. Our spreadsheet templates are built to handle large datasets for up to 1 million rows. That’s a lot of data.
For example, our Customer Sales Transactions spreadsheet can hold up to 1 million sales logged. Because of the way we’ve built our spreadsheets, it will also load as fast as such a bloated spreadsheet can making it the best performing spreadsheet in terms of speed with such large data sets.
This is ideal for enterprise clients that are working with lots of data at every turn.
1. A More Powerful You Feature: Simple Sheets
The power of templates is you don’t have to spend weeks designing and refining them yourself. You simply plug in your data, log new entries as necessary, and get real-time reports on specific functions for your business.
You have the power to analyze data like never before, make big (and good) decisions, and focus your efforts where you can have the biggest impact.
You’ll work smarter and faster, lapping your colleagues with the help of Simple Sheets.