Excel may have more competitors than any other software.

This thought occurred to me when I read a promotion this week from Business Finance magazine for a sales seminar sponsored by an Excel competitor.

Here's their pitch:

"Improper management of compensation has serious labor law and regulatory implications for companies today. Just read the headlines. 105 companies are currently under investigation with the SEC for backdating stock options. Executive pay scandals abound and pay for performance is a philosophy often preached and rarely practiced.

"Yet astoundingly, spreadsheets remain the status quo for forecasting, planning and managing compensation processes. Are you aware just how vulnerable you and your company are using this method of compensation management?"

This sounds pretty convincing until you consider the thousands of categories of Excel solutions that could be replaced by dedicated software like this...and the many risks that businesses might incur by using Excel instead.

In fact, if you had unlimited money to buy such dedicated software, unlimited time to learn it, unlimited job applicants who already know it, and unlimited influence with the vendors to get them to add missing features that you must have, you probably could -- and should -- replace Excel entirely.

But you don't have these things, so you use Excel. Not only do you already own Excel, and pretty-much understand it, but Excel offers key features that dedicated software usually doesn't:

• You can adapt each application to meet your unique requirements.
   
• You can combine data from any number sources into one result.
   
• You can analyze your data easily.

Virtually no other software offers such power.

In short, when a vendor or your IT department tries to convince you to replace an Excel application with dedicated software, view their proposal with a skeptical eye.
 

Just as Excel has many competitors, Excel has many partners that enhance the product in a wide variety of ways.

Most of the time, each product offers features that benefit only a small percentage of Excel users. In total, however, most Excel users could benefit by a few of these products. I therefore plan for ExcelUser to serve as a clearinghouse for them.

On the other hand, a very small number of products enhance Excel in ways that a large percentage of businesses need...whether those businesses are large or small. These broad solutions deserve special treatment at ExcelUser. I hope to discuss one of them in next month's newsletter.

In July, I explained how to use the various spreadsheet functions designed to work with normal curves. This month, I explain how to create the figures I used in that article.

Even if you aren't interested in normal curves, you might be interested in the article. Here's why: I also describe how to use error bars to mark areas of significance in a chart. You can use the same technique to mark nearly any chart in a similar way.

This month I also explain how to handle dates prior to 1900 in Excel. Honestly, this isn't a frequent requirement in business. But enough people have asked me about it that I decided to discuss the issue.
 

I'm offering free downloads of the files I posted this month. These files include two heavily commented macros that will help you to work with dates prior to 1900, which Excel ignores by default. I plan to offer similar free downloads for the rest of the year.

Honestly, I'm offering these files to encourage more people to sign up for this free newsletter. If you would like the downloads to become a common practice at ExcelUser, please tell your co-workers, clients, friends, and distant relatives about ExcelUser. Encourage them to sign up for the newsletter.

This is an experiment. If I see a significant increase in newsletter sign-ups, then I'll know that this experiment is worth the extra effort required to prepare workbooks that are worth downloading.

Watch for next month's issue. If everything comes together as I hope, I'll have a LOT to talk about.

Enough for now.