If you are a regular user of Excel you will know the amazing power of  this piece of software.  Many people spend a long time building  spreadsheets with little foreword thinking making it difficult to re-use or just update the same sheets without having to repeat a lot of the work already put into it.

The main aim of this post is to guide you into using a few great tips to create as efficient as possible spreadsheet.

The first important rule that I always follow when creating a spreadsheet is to have the long-term vision in mind.  I do not mind investing time and energy into something I do once that can be reused over and over again.

Never assume you will not want to add new formulas or data because it is more than likely you will.  With this is the forefront of your mind I would always spend around 80 % of my time planning the spreadsheet and only 20% of my time implementing it.

If you have not carried out spreadsheet design in this way before it may seem a little over the top or extreme, or even inefficient, but the return on the investment of this time planning is extreme also and is quickly paid back over a very short amount of time.

Once you have used this type of plan and spend most of your time planning, the planning itself gets easier and more efficient also.  The best return on investment to carry out an action once, and then reap the rewards over and over again, this is my aim with this approach to spreadsheet building.