Excel spreadsheets are one of the most widely used tools in finance and accounting domains. They are critical when building cash flow models, for scenario analysis, when making investment decisions and analysing risk.
Excel spreadsheets can look quite simple to start off with, but as they become more complex they can start causing headaches. Sometimes, even “small” mistakes, such as incorrectly copying cells, not dragging formulae right until the bottom, or incorrectly linking ranges can cause major errors in spreadsheets, not to mention the late nights spent trying to fix such models.
So, what are we supposed to do? Abandoning our precious spreadsheets is not an option as, for many financial modelling tasks as Excel offers unparalleled flexibility.
Don’t fear - there is a spreadsheet evolution happening. Sumwise is an innovative product designed with exactly this in mind. It makes it easier for the user to create, understand and review models which also decrease the chance of spreadsheet errors.
Sumwise – a web-based spreadsheet for financial modelling
Sumwise is a web-based spreadsheet for financial modelling. In Sumwise:
- Cells refer to other cells using easy to write, easy to understand, references.
- Rows and columns can be tagged with meaningful keywords, and these tags can be used to write simple, yet powerful, formulas.
- You can define logical groups of cells that should have the same formula and formatting, and Sumwise will maintain the integrity of your formulas, and automatically extend these to new cells.
For more information about the people behind Sumwise, check out their LinkedIn profiles.
- Darren Miller, Sumwise’s founder and CEO
- Gary Miller, Chief Technical Officer
- Luis Manuel, Senior Software Developer
Even though spreadsheets are a powerful analytical tool, they can suffer from becoming too complex too quickly. It is due to this particular reason that the need for Sumwise arose. “What I need is an easier, more powerful and safer and way to build models, and understand and review those built by others.” – Darren, Sumwise Founder and CEO
Sumwise features
Here are some of the exciting features Sumwise offers:
- More meaningful row and column names. In conventional spreadsheets, we use numeric and alphanumeric row and column names, but with Sumwise, we can use more meaningful names. For example, we can use months as column names, and you can choose how to name the rows (for example, using labels such as “revenue”, “expenses”, etc). Furthermore, you can even use these row and column names in calculations. This has obvious benefits to the layout and design of tables in Excel.
- Creating nested structures. Often, we require our data to be broken into logical categories, with items and sub-items. This can easily be achieved in Sumwise (and naturally emulating the “Grouping” functionality in Microsoft Excel) and similar to the above, we can make use of these nesting in formulas (for example, when trying to calculate sums for nested categories).
- Cell grouping. Sumwise makes cell grouping more natural – to ensure that “similar” cells have consistent formulas and formatting.
Sumwise demos
Have a look at the features, and you will be able to view demo videos demonstrating how they can be used.
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