Grant administrators and employees are responsible for organizing and managing grants. Grant management has many components, from tracking funding sources to following compliance regulations to verifying payment records.
A grant staff uses a variety of administrative tools to track and organize grants. As a digital spreadsheet that can sort and calculate data, Using Excel for grants has become a popular grant management resource. But while using this familiar tool can seem beneficial, Excel has significant limitations. Its minimal collaboration features and lack of security can lead to problems later.
A high-quality grant management system like IntelliGrants® IGX can boost your grant management in many ways. Read on to learn more about the flaws of grant tracking in Excel and how IGX Solutions can help.
Limitations Within Excel
While its familiarity makes it a popular tool, Excel has significant disadvantages that could lower productivity rates and lead to increased expenses. Some of these disadvantages include the following:
Manual processing: One of Excel’s biggest drawbacks is that it uses primarily manual processes. Employees must fill out the spreadsheets individually, which can take significant time. Manual work is also prone to human errors, especially when it involves many details. One incorrect formula or data entry could create inaccuracies in the rest of the spreadsheet.
Difficult for integration: Excel is a stand-alone tool that can organize and formulate data into accessible spreadsheets. However, many business projects need additional applications for communication and data gathering. It’s challenging to consolidate Excel sheets or integrate the tool with other platforms like Google Workspace. Without integration capabilities, you might have to spread your information across multiple platforms, which can lead to confusion or inaccuracies.
Limited troubleshooting opportunities: Spreadsheets require manual updates, making it challenging to ensure that officials and employees are working from the same version. If one employee updates the file, another person’s file might not display the changes. This lack of synchronization makes it difficult to troubleshoot data errors later. It becomes harder to find data origins when you have many versions of a file.
Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Excel for Grant Management
Many grant management organizations use Excel to keep track of data, compliance regulations, fiscal reports, and more. However, Excel provides specific challenges for grant management, such as:
Lack of security: Grant information is highly confidential — your spreadsheets will probably contain sensitive data. Grants in Excel lack proper security and control measures to keep this information safe. For example, Excel doesn’t have privileged access regulation. You might want to share a spreadsheet with your team but limit access to a portion of confidential data. But with Excel, anyone with access to the document can view everything in it. Oversharing data could lead to data leaks or other security breaches.
Challenges with collaboration: Most grant work is collaborative, with multiple people working to process each grant. Grant tracking in Excel lacks communication features and simultaneous access, making it difficult for employees to work together. Without collaborative features, it takes longer to complete each stage of the process.
Difficulties with exportation: You might have to transfer grant data out of a spreadsheet and into a gridless format. With Excel’s limited exportation features, you might lose or damage the data during this process.
Time-consuming: Excel’s extensive manual processes require you to invest significant time and effort. The longer your team takes to calculate and sort grant data, the more your productivity suffers over time.
Although it’s a popular choice for organizing data, using Excel for grant tracking can cause errors and damage your team’s efficiency over time. Switching to a premier software solution can help you maintain or exceed your productivity rates.
How IntelliGrants IGX Can Help Your Grant Management
IGX Solutions is a leading provider of grant management software. We offer a variety of software solutions to streamline your existing procedures, centralize your grant data, and boost efficiency. Avoid Excel grant management pitfalls with our high-end and centralized grant management system.
IntelliGrants IGX, our premier grant management software, can transform your data management processes. IntelliGrants IGX can benefit your organization with features like:
Advanced security: IntelliGrants IGX makes it easy to keep all confidential grant information safe from unauthorized users and only allows access when necessary. Our platform offers multi-factor authentication and user-level permissions to secure your grant data. Unlike Excel’s lack of control, IntelliGrants IGX allows only authorized users to access your data reports and spreadsheets. You can also manage access privileges for sensitive data.
Centralized data: IntelliGrants IGX keeps all your crucial data in one centralized location. Your employees can retrieve, analyze, report, and manage data from one access point. Centralization creates a more accessible interface for new employees. It also enhances overall efficiency for staff, letting them spend less time tracking down stray documents and data reports.
Easy collaboration: As a web-based grant management software solution, IntelliGrants IGX allows you to access your work on different devices and in various locations. With all your data in one place, everyone on your team can access the same files anytime. IntelliGrants IGX’s responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes and its self-service tools make it easy to work from anywhere.
Saves time: You have many responsibilities as a grant administrator, from resource management to industry regulations to administrative duties, and your workload can become overwhelming. Time-consuming applications like Excel can lengthen your to-do list even further. With IntelliGrants IGX, you can save time and increase efficiency. It features automated capabilities and intuitive navigation, allowing your employees to update data easily. Automated features reduce the need for manual input, freeing up more time in your day. You can process grants more quickly and stay on track with critical deadlines.
Data management: Our data management features help you maintain accuracy. IntelliGrants IGX can complete automatic calculations and eliminate duplicate entries that can occur with grant tracking in spreadsheets. In turn, your financial data stays updated and entirely accurate.
Easy integration: You can easily integrate IntelliGrants IGX with other platforms, allowing you to build a comprehensive data management system. You will be able to safely transfer your data between applications so it is accessible right away.
Consistent upgrades: We constantly strive to provide the highest quality grant management solutions. Our regular software updates strengthen and smooth your system. You can use the updates as soon as we release them.
Book a Demo With IGX Solutions to Learn More
Switching from Grants in Excel to IntelliGrants IGX can transform your grant management procedures. Learn more about how IGX Solutions can benefit your organization by scheduling a demo today. Our dedicated team is happy to answer any questions and guide you through the installation process, either online or through a live product demonstration.
To get started with IGX Solutions, book a demo below.
