Finance professionals usually view spreadsheets as THE answer to many of their day-to-day problems. What they often don't realize is just how dangerous this can be.
During the course of many of our consulting engagements, we work with clients to help them understand this risk and ultimately to mitigate it.
The client may initially comment "I don't believe that these errors occur as frequently as you say". Or "Surely if the mistake was significant, someone would catch it". So periodically we need to prove our point. This is often done via a careful review of a couple of their spreadsheets. The shock can be considerable.
So for those of you that may have similar doubts, here is a 1.7 million dollar example of just how risky and damaging reliance on spreadsheets can be: http://www.postalnewsblog.com/2010/03/17/baltimore-district-overpaid-grievance-settlement-by-1-7-million/ .
To better understand WHY these mistakes are so prevalent, click here to go to an article we have published on it.