Fewer spreadsheets, more worksheets

A friend of mine is a professional organizer (who would be appalled at my office!) and she once told me that no more files than will fit on a screen is the ideal number to have in any given folder.

With that thought in mind, I found it so much easier to find spreadsheets if there are a limited number to search through. So I use fewer spreadsheets with more worksheets in each. For example, I have one file with lots of sheets for miscellaneous financial information. This includes credit card processing costs, insurance policies and their costs, business loans, staff pay rates and benefits, and just about anything else that needs just one or two sheets. This came in handy when I needed to create a sheet for our COVID-19 PPP loan information. I just added it to my miscellaneous financial spreadsheet. No muss, no fuss.

I have another spreadsheet for all of our clinical supplies. One sheet is a form the assistant can give me when she needs me to place an order. One sheet has all of the vendors we use along with websites, phone numbers, account numbers, etc. Another sheet has information on our handpieces with serial numbers, date purchased, repair history, etc.

You get the idea. Fewer files to find (or pin to my File Open list). And, while much of the information is number-oriented, not all of it is. And, it doesn’t have to be. It’s not information I need to format extensively or is even likely to be printed. And, what isn’t numbers is typically some kind of list or checklist so keeping like information together has the greatest value for me.

There’s plenty you can do to make those worksheets more usable for you. As you can see from the above image, you can color code them. You can also reorder them, rename them, insert new ones, move or copy one to the existing spreadsheet or to a different spreadsheet, and more. And, how are you going to find out all you can do, you may ask. Just remember, when in doubt, right-click.