Use consistent labels

Numbers without meaning are worthless. Excel is a program for numbers, but it’s only useful when it’s clear to the user what the numbers mean. So, make sure that you provide textual information for all data and formulas. Let’s call these pieces of text information labels.

Always label your spreadsheet

Even if you are just making relatively simple calculations, you need to label your small spreadsheet. We cannot emphasize enough that the average spreadsheet will be used for a period of 5 years and by an average of 12 different people.

By the way, with providing labels, we are not referring to the use of Excel’s Named Ranges/Names. Those features have their own sets of pros and cons, we will discuss them in length in another article.

Choose meaningful labels

Do not just use random names, but think about a consistent system that fits the purpose of the spreadsheet. The shorter the names the better (certainly the column names) but make sure they are meaningful. We have encountered spreadsheets where the column names “Rev08”, “Revenue 2008” and “2008 Revenue” were all used interchangeably. This is a bad idea. Make up your mind! A consistent labeling method makes your spreadsheet easier to understand and it makes search functionality (CTRL-F) much more effective. We suggest that you start the name of your labels with a letter (in stead of a number) when possible. That way Excel knows immediately that it is a label and it will not accidentally be integrated in calculations.

Use 1 column and 1 row

When you create a table, name each column and each row. If possible, use only 1 row and 1 column for naming and not two because this can result in all kinds of disadvantages with subsequent editing. For example, there will be issues when you try to sort the table or try to create a pivot table. Only Excel’s chart function can handle double labels on the x-axis well, which means that you are limiting the future user’s options when you use two rows or columns for labeling.

Corporate naming schemes

If your company uses spreadsheets widely, it is worthwhile to agree on consistent naming schemes. It makes the spreadsheets more legible, and will probably result in massive amounts of time saved as people will be able to quickly understand the spreadsheet. This rule of thumb also counts for formatting and color schemes. It’s an obvious advantage to keep spreadsheets as consistent as possible across the company.