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> I can’t even imagine a company that doesn’t interact with excel. That's some very poor imagination. I run a company since 2007, haven't opened MS Excel even

> I can’t even imagine a company that doesn’t interact with excel. That's some very poor imagination. I run a company since 2007, haven't opened MS Excel even once since ~2006, ask me anything. Thing is, companies existed long before excel came to be, and will exist long after it will fade away to history.

dijit 4y ago
Which bank do you use? They all use excel fairly extensively. Sometimes to disastrous effect[0]. Ever been audited? Nearly every auditing company is using excel. Even if you’re not using excel, it is the lingua Franca of spreadsheets. The next closes thing is a CSV which largely exists as an interchange medium. Excel is undoubtedly the world's most used and most popular database software even though there is a multitude of alternative more, efficient and frankly, even more, user-friendly solutions out there. It is frankly ubiquitous. I hate that this is true, but it is reality. [0]: https://www.efinancialcareers.co.uk/news/2020/10/excel-mistakes-banking https://www.efinancialcareers.co.uk/news/2020/10/excel-mista...
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
  My business is not located in the US so the names of my banks will hardly say anything to you, but yes, I've been audited and always provided necessary information in stable open formats like PDF. If I would ever be asked to provide some report in a proprietary format like MSOffice (I know it is pretending to be open, but this OOXML is nothing more but a mockery and corruption of an open standardization process), I'll ask to buy me licences for the necessary software to compile such report, including a licence for the operating system to run the OS-specific software on.
  - tinus_hn 4y ago
    While this puffy talk holds no water of course if the tax man just demands you deliver files in a format he wants, you can easily do so for very cheap using the Office365 cloud offering, which doesn’t require you to be running a paid OS. I don’t think you can take someone to court for the $10 a month that costs.
    - Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
      I'm not familiar with how 'tax men' work in the US, but in countries i'm familiar with government officials do not dictate file formats, and all communication is done in formats that are open standards. In the slim chance that some bureaucrat would continue to insist on using .xls or .xlsx, I'd probably ship him an exported file from LibreOffice, and say that it's the best I can do. And then again, being a proponent of Free Software and open standards, I'd probably refuse using a proprietary format. So far, I had some luck in avoiding using microsoft office file formats in the past 15 years of entrepreneurship.
dereg 4y ago
Many US Senators haven't used email, let alone a computer. Their imaginations must be incredible.

dijit 4y ago

Which bank do you use? They all use excel fairly extensively. Sometimes to disastrous effect[0]. Ever been audited? Nearly every auditing company is using excel. Even if you’re not using excel, it is the lingua Franca of spreadsheets. The next closes thing is a CSV which largely exists as an interchange medium. Excel is undoubtedly the world's most used and most popular database software even though there is a multitude of alternative more, efficient and frankly, even more, user-friendly solutions out there. It is frankly ubiquitous. I hate that this is true, but it is reality. [0]: https://www.efinancialcareers.co.uk/news/2020/10/excel-mistakes-banking https://www.efinancialcareers.co.uk/news/2020/10/excel-mista...

Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
My business is not located in the US so the names of my banks will hardly say anything to you, but yes, I've been audited and always provided necessary information in stable open formats like PDF. If I would ever be asked to provide some report in a proprietary format like MSOffice (I know it is pretending to be open, but this OOXML is nothing more but a mockery and corruption of an open standardization process), I'll ask to buy me licences for the necessary software to compile such report, including a licence for the operating system to run the OS-specific software on.
- tinus_hn 4y ago
  While this puffy talk holds no water of course if the tax man just demands you deliver files in a format he wants, you can easily do so for very cheap using the Office365 cloud offering, which doesn’t require you to be running a paid OS. I don’t think you can take someone to court for the $10 a month that costs.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
    I'm not familiar with how 'tax men' work in the US, but in countries i'm familiar with government officials do not dictate file formats, and all communication is done in formats that are open standards. In the slim chance that some bureaucrat would continue to insist on using .xls or .xlsx, I'd probably ship him an exported file from LibreOffice, and say that it's the best I can do. And then again, being a proponent of Free Software and open standards, I'd probably refuse using a proprietary format. So far, I had some luck in avoiding using microsoft office file formats in the past 15 years of entrepreneurship.

dereg 4y ago

Many US Senators haven't used email, let alone a computer. Their imaginations must be incredible.