Online spreadsheet software may not sound very revolutionary, or terribly exciting, but the truth is, almost everyone uses them. Spreadsheets have been one of the most heavily used forms of data creation and compilation in computing over the last few decades.
While spreadsheets are usually considered pretty basic, there are a lot of specialized features that are now available. Many software providers offer more than just standard mathematical functions and text options.
In the past, utilizing special features required learning complex commands. One of the earliest spreadsheet applications to be widely used was VisiCalc – the grandfather of all spreadsheet systems. We’ve come a long way since then. Nowadays, online spreadsheet software makes customization and feature rich platforms cost effective, efficient and pretty fun to use.
Let’s take a look at a couple of the online spreadsheet software providers that offer a lot more than you think…
#1 – Google Drive (Spreadsheet Editor)
First on the list is Google Drive; the best offering for basic spreadsheet software. Google Drive is a free, widely-used cloud-based, cooperative system, offering a wide array of data editing and sharing tools. Google Drive offers spreadsheet, presentation and document editing tools on par with MS Office.
Google prides itself in real-time speed, security and efficiency. You can export spreadsheets through a “download as” command, into various formats including Excel’s xlsx format, as well as XML and a number of other formats. You can also share your spreadsheet, live.
If you’re looking to go cloud and SaaS , you can’t go wrong with Google Drive.
#2 – Customer Invoicing and Inventory Management
Designed by a company appropriately named Business Spreadsheets, their software is an example of a more specialized spreadsheet system. Business Spreadsheets is geared towards spreadsheet creation and data management for inventory, invoicing, shipping and distribution. It is a great and helpful tool for manufacturers, vendors and distribution facilities.
Business Spreadsheet’s best features include storage and management of products, customer order services and management of existing invoices. They provide an automated platform for product inventory stock level adjustments.
They also offer customer and product list imports from a multitude of sources, as well as an intuitive, customizable control panel. The best part is that Business Spreadsheets is interoperable with standard spreadsheet formats.
If you need a good invoicing and inventory management system with strong spreadsheet functionality, this one is a real winner.
#3 – eXxpresso – Business Valuation
An interesting alternative to Google Drive’s spreadsheet system is eXxpresso. It supports plugins that allow spreadsheets to become as specialized as you need.
eXxpresso Offers interoperability with MS Office, OpenOffice.Org and compatibility with a number of other CRM report formats. SQL integration is also available. It’s a bit pricey, but with all the unique features it has to offer, it’s worth every penny.
Spreadsheet software has come a long way from the basic options that were once widely used. Technology has enabled spreadsheets to become feature rich and customizable. These 3 online spreadsheet software providers rank on the top of the list. Check them out and let me know what you think.