Over my career I’ve had to build hundreds of different templates, starting with Lotus 1-2-3 and then moving onto to Microsoft Excel.
During this process I have found that to build an expense template that will last for more than a couple of months I’ve had to do some thinking about the overall shape of a template before rushing in to get it completed.
So here are five tips that you may find useful on your journey to building incredibly powerful expense templates.
- Add down and across
This may sound very basic and simple but you would be surprised how often this is forgotten and the expense template lacks the integrity of being correct. May be it is my anal accounting background but I’ve always found that if I make check totals by balancing figures down AND across as I work on the spreadsheet, it is far easier to balance everything in the end and also ensure that nothing is left out of the template. - Carefully choose the context
Headings and the naming of sections of the template will assist people to read the information. If you simply have a string of numbers without any explanation then readers won’t have a clue what you’re talking about. Make sure you clearly understand the context and put it as a heading on your template. E.g. Sales Expenses for the period ending 30th June 2010. - Don’t miss the wood for the trees
Finding the right level of detail in an expense template is critical because if you go for too much detail, the template can become so huge that no one other than you can understand the content. On the other hand if you miss out important detail the template can point to conclusions which may be wrong. - Think communication more than data collection
It is very easy when putting numbers into any template to focus heavily on collecting the data and making sure it is all balanced and correct arithmetically. However, if you are to be an influencer of others then it is the communication of the information which you must focus on in preparing your template. Who is going to read this other than you? What do you think they are looking for from the template? - Think of the flow of information
This last point is probably my most important in the construction of an expense template. Remember that others may want to read your template and how the information flows down and across the page will either make this very easy or incredibly difficult. Most people read from left to right BUT accounting convention is from right to left. Think about this when constructing your template and make it as easy as possible for non financial people to follow the flow of your information.
What’s your experience in constructing templates?
Are there any particular formats that you’ve found really work?
No comments yet.