de Havilands https://dehavilands.com/ Excel Solutions for Financial Services Mon, 27 Apr 2026 10:53:08 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://dehavilands.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cropped-de-Havilands-Icon.png de Havilands https://dehavilands.com/ 32 32 The Black Box Workbook: Why Your Most Trusted Spreadsheet May Be Your Biggest Risk https://dehavilands.com/black-box-workbook-spreadsheet-risk/ https://dehavilands.com/black-box-workbook-spreadsheet-risk/#respond Mon, 27 Apr 2026 10:32:23 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=1749 The Black Box Workbook: Why Your Most Trusted Spreadsheet May Be Your Biggest Risk There is a particular kind of spreadsheet that I encounter regularly in financial services firms. It is not the spreadsheet that crashes. It is not the one that throws errors, or produces obviously wrong numbers, or causes someone to call IT in […]

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]]> https://dehavilands.com/black-box-workbook-spreadsheet-risk/feed/ 0 The Spreadsheet Key Person Risk https://dehavilands.com/the-spreadsheet-key-person-risk/ https://dehavilands.com/the-spreadsheet-key-person-risk/#respond Fri, 27 Feb 2026 08:13:03 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=1344 The Operational Risk Nobody Talks AboutEvery financial services firm I’ve worked with has one. The person who “knows” the spreadsheet. They built it, or inherited it, or have just used it so long they’ve become the de facto expert. If you need to know why a formula is structured a certain way, you ask them. If something […]

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]]> https://dehavilands.com/the-spreadsheet-key-person-risk/feed/ 0 Why Are You (Still) Emailing Data for Excel? https://dehavilands.com/why-are-you-still-emailing-data-for-excel/ https://dehavilands.com/why-are-you-still-emailing-data-for-excel/#respond Tue, 10 Jun 2025 07:20:39 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=1196 The post Why Are You (Still) Emailing Data for Excel? appeared first on de Havilands.

]]> https://dehavilands.com/why-are-you-still-emailing-data-for-excel/feed/ 0 Replacing VBA with Excel’s Dynamic Array Formulas https://dehavilands.com/replacing-vba-with-excels-dynamic-array-formulas/ https://dehavilands.com/replacing-vba-with-excels-dynamic-array-formulas/#respond Thu, 15 May 2025 13:56:13 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=788 Why use VBA when Excel's Dynamic Array Formulas do the heavy–lifting for you?...I’ve been working on a small Excel project for a large FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) client. In this case the project is a GRIS or Goods Receipt / Invoice Receipt. Essentially, we’re taking some ugly extracts from SAP (who designed these things?) matching […]

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]]> https://dehavilands.com/replacing-vba-with-excels-dynamic-array-formulas/feed/ 0 Checkboxes on UserForms https://dehavilands.com/checkboxes-on-userforms/ https://dehavilands.com/checkboxes-on-userforms/#respond Thu, 15 May 2025 13:33:28 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=777 How to create attractive checkboxes for Excel and Word UserFormsCustom vs. Native CheckboxI love UserForms, really I do. I develop a lot of add-ins for both Excel and Word which use lots of UserForms for users to interact with.But the controls on UserForms are . . . “tired”.In previous posts we talked about creating checkboxes […]

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]]> https://dehavilands.com/checkboxes-on-userforms/feed/ 0 Power Query Blows Away 29 Years of VBA Data Access https://dehavilands.com/power-query-blows-away-29-years-of-vba-data-access/ https://dehavilands.com/power-query-blows-away-29-years-of-vba-data-access/#respond Thu, 15 May 2025 13:21:12 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=771 As an Excel VBA developer in the corporate world, you spend a lot of time simply shuffling data around. Pull data from a database here. Send it to a database there. Extract data from a text file here. Import data into a spreadsheet there.Data, data, everywhereMy number one tool for pulling data out of almost any source for well […]

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]]> https://dehavilands.com/power-query-blows-away-29-years-of-vba-data-access/feed/ 0 How To Share Excel Data in a Small Team https://dehavilands.com/how-to-share-excel-data-in-a-small-team/ https://dehavilands.com/how-to-share-excel-data-in-a-small-team/#respond Thu, 15 May 2025 12:54:13 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=758 The benefits of keeping your data in a separate workbook from your reports and processes.Separation of ConcernsIn a previous post we spoke about the benefits of keeping your dashboard, calculations and data in sperate tabs. If you missed it, you can read "3-Tier Architecture in Excel" here.A sound design principle in Excel is keeping your […]

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]]> https://dehavilands.com/how-to-share-excel-data-in-a-small-team/feed/ 0 How to Create Option Buttons in Excel https://dehavilands.com/how-to-create-option-buttons-in-excel/ https://dehavilands.com/how-to-create-option-buttons-in-excel/#respond Thu, 15 May 2025 12:28:11 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=748 How to let your Excel users select one item with custom option buttons By now, you’re probably familiar with Excel’s checkboxes. From the Insert ribbon tab, select Checkbox, apply a little formatting and voilà, you have some attractive in-cell checkboxes.But what if you wanted the option to only select one option? Yes, I know, you can use […]

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]]> https://dehavilands.com/how-to-create-option-buttons-in-excel/feed/ 0 How to Create Single Select Checkboxes in Excel https://dehavilands.com/how-to-create-single-select-checkboxes-in-excel/ https://dehavilands.com/how-to-create-single-select-checkboxes-in-excel/#respond Thu, 15 May 2025 11:32:52 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=736 How to make Excel checkboxes work like option buttons Custom Checkboxes in Excel Some time ago – pre “in-cell” checkboxes in Excel – I needed to provide a way for a client to select (attractive) checkboxes on an Excel worksheet.  Let’s face it – the standard controls in Excel are antiquated and ugly. Beyond that, […]

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]]> https://dehavilands.com/how-to-create-single-select-checkboxes-in-excel/feed/ 0 3-Tier Architecture in Excel https://dehavilands.com/3-tier-architecture-in-excel/ https://dehavilands.com/3-tier-architecture-in-excel/#respond Thu, 15 May 2025 09:07:39 +0000 https://dehavilands.com/?p=723 There’s an old Excel aphorism that says, “Excel’s greatest strength is its flexibility and its greatest weakness is its flexibility.”   One result of this flexibility is that far too many spreadsheets are created without any thought to structure or layout. How to Structure Your Excel Workbooks Perhaps the most common of these design flaws […]

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