Excel has been used for many years for data analysis, you’ve probably spent lots of time building reports and continue to spend lots of time running them. You feel safe, you know Excel and so you persevere, even though it doesn’t always do what you need it to and often needs clever formula’s and many steps to do the analysis you need. Have you thought of moving to a different data analysis tool?
Alteryx and Excel are both used for data analysis, but they have different strengths and weaknesses, dependent on the task you are completing.
Excel is:
- Widely used spreadsheet program.
- Can handle basic data analysis and visualisation.
- Is good for smaller data sets.
- Is relatively easy to learn.
- Is widely available.
Alteryx, on the other hand, is:
- A more advanced data analysis tool, that is specifically designed for large-scale data processing, cleansing and analysis.
- It has more capabilities for data manipulation, data blending and predictive analytics.
- It offers better performance when dealing with larger data sets.
- It can automate repetitive tasks, allowing analysts to spend more time on higher level tasks.
Alteryx is more powerful and flexible than Excel for data analysis, especially for large-scale data sets or complex data manipulation tasks. A lot of the data preparation that is needed in Excel, can be automated with Alteryx, saving time and reducing errors. If you have lots of repetitive reporting tasks that you complete, then Alteryx can bring plenty of benefit and ROI.
Finance Teams generally carry out many processes in Excel and can often see some of the greatest benefits from implementing Alteryx. A few examples of these are:
- Data Cleaning and Transformation: In Finance departments, it’s common to receive data from multiple sources, which can be in different formats and structures. Alteryx can automate the process of cleaning, transforming and combining data from multiple sources into a single, usable format. This can save a significant amount of time and reduce errors. It is estimated that data preparation can take up to 80% of an analyst’s time.
- Financial Planning and Analysis: Excel is often used for financial modelling and forecasting, but it can be time-consuming to create and update these models. Alteryx can automate the process of gathering and consolidating data, calculating financial ratios and creating reports for analysis.
- Account Reconciliation: In Finance departments reconciliation is a critical task that requires a high level of accuracy. Alteryx can automate the process of comparing financial data from different sources, identifying discrepancies and producing reports for analysis.
- Budgeting and Forecasting: Excel is commonly used, but it can be challenging to manage and update large spreadsheets. Alteryx can automate the process of gathering data, updating forecasts, and generating reports. This can save significant time and improve accuracy.
- Financial Reporting: Another critical task that requires accurate and timely data. Alteryx can automate the process of gathering data, preparing financial statements, and creating reports. This can save time and reduce errors in the reporting process.
Overall, Alteryx can automate many of the repetitive and time-consuming tasks in finance departments, allowing analysts and accountants to focus on higher level tasks and analysis, whilst increasing the accuracy and reducing error’s.
4th Revolution would love to help you on your journey and use our understanding of the power and capabilities of Alteryx to help you deliver game-changing results. Please get in touch if you would like to chat through the features of Alteryx and how it may be able to help your organisation.