If you’re relying on Excel, Google Sheets, or other generic spreadsheet software for your private equity firm, you’re only hurting your business.
It’s time to kick your spreadsheet addiction with purpose-built private equity software.
Private equity software solves the issues that make spreadsheets so inherently dangerous to your business. This article looks at six ways you’ll benefit from choosing a custom software solution, instead of testing your luck with Excel.
Here are six ways software can save your business.
Avoid Errors
With traditional spreadsheets, there’s very little in the way of a safety net for catching errors. Industry-specific software completely changes that. Each data field has its own validation tools to protect against errors or corrupted data.
These safety features also mean that the application can be used by more folks, since there’s less chance of making rookie mistakes. As anyone knows, the easier a tool is to use, the more people can use it - and private equity software is no exception!
Save Time
If you’re in an office that relies on Excel, how often have you had to chase down the local Excel expert to get something done? Or maybe you ARE the local Excel expert, the one who is always getting bombarded with requests to set up someone else’s pivot table or conditional formatting. Either way - how much time is your company wasting by sticking with the wrong software?
With private equity software, the ease of use means that most questions won’t even need to be asked. But when something comes up, you’ll have the support of someone who knows the product and is ready to help you find solutions that make sense for your company - without wasting the time of one of your own employees!
Scale Up Easily
Excel is two dimensional, as are most spreadsheets. This works well for so many things… except private equity investment. Sure, perhaps you can build elaborate stacks if you use more sheets, but wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier to use a software designed for the unique data model of private equity?
With private equity software, data can be stored in what tech nerds call a normalized method. This means that accessing the data is fast and non-replicated, and results in far easier scaling. It’s built to handle vast amounts of complex data, and won’t get bogged down as it grows (the way a traditional spreadsheet will.)
Audit As Needed
If you use Excel to keep track of records, you have no way to tell who made changes to your data. Sure, if your cat jumps on the keyboard you can use control-z to get to the previous values back, but you’ll have no way to see who changed it.
Private equity software solves all of this with auditing levels so you can see when changes are made, even if they’re made by someone else on your network. Documenting this sort of information is an essential business practice for the serious investment firm.
Share Files
Wouldn’t it be nice if the content was stored in a central place that you and your team could access from anywhere? This opens up telecommuting, stepping out of the office but still being in touch, and never having to worry about stepping into a presentation without the proper files.
Sure, Google Docs offer a solution to this, but they lack the industry-specific security of private equity software. You’ll get the flexibility of cloud-based software than can be accessed from anywhere while enjoying the peace of mind that your company’s data is being properly protected.
Be Secure
Speaking of security, what happens if your Excel file is lost, a computer is stolen, or your network security is compromised? Without using any inappropriate language, it’s safe to say that you’re probably in a pretty bad way.
Having software that secures your information with enterprise or bank-level encryption helps to protect your (and your customers’) data. This doesn’t just help keep things safe in case of emergency - it can also be an active selling point to potential investors.
