Insanity - Same stuff, different month.

Okay it's my first post. I didn't want to start this way. but I'm going to because there is no way around this. Here's my rant.

In my time in the profession, I have heard the constant complaint. Month end is taking too long. I have data here which I need to move there so I can do that process, which then feeds into another process which feeds into the next process blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's only one month end process. We generally have between 5-15 of these processes stacked like a Jenga tower right at the moment it's about to come crashing down.

All these single silo processes operate over low single digit datasets generated by the business. If you were to draw all your month end processes in a process map diagram… well, let's just say folks, defrosted spaghetti and meatball dinners that I scare my kids with probably looks cleaner.

Overworked finance teams will tell you this is how it's always been like it's some kind of religious dogma that can't be questioned, like how the earth is flat. Now before you climb the stairs of your intellectual pulpit and provide a sermon with your fake furious vengeance, this is a joke. The earth is not flat, it's slightly curved from where I stand ;-).

Back to my rant. Sitting at the centre of it all is Excel, the proverbial elephant in room. I have a complicated relationship with Excel. I am a non-recovering Excel-a-holic (I don't think it's a word but go with it). Excel is like Hotel California for the Finance professional - 'you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave!'. Don't get me wrong, Excel has its place in the month end process but for far too long we have treated it as the only place to work.

Meanwhile, outside the mad mayhem of month end in Excel world, the barrier to technology has fallen considerably. We have apps that do everything. Most of those apps are just front-end user interfaces hitched to a database (tables for Excel-a-holics). We have API's that allow people smarter than I to pull data from these backend databases to other applications quickly and seamlessly. We even have connectors that require low code/no code drag and drop interfaces that create the connections for you.

Ridiculously, we have low code/no code business intelligence tools that can be connected to any data sources and provide customized visual insights in a systematic, consistent but controlled way to everyone in your organization. All the tools you need to get from data to insight seamlessly, exist right now. Think about that. Right. Now.

It's all out there for us if we really wanted to look and explore our options.

So, next time you are sitting there in the middle of month end, late at night, staring intently at Excel and Excel staring back at you like you're both engaged in some sick, weird standoff... look away. Take a pause. Breathe. Pull back from the existential moment you are spiraling into, wondering if your student debt was worth this. Promise me something. Promise you'll take some time to look at some different tools and options.

In return, I'll promise you this. Even if the search for something better comes to nothing, Excel will still be here when you come back.

Rant over.