Or, how to be deadly and awesome at the same time Is Excel good or bad? It is both. Are you good at Excel or bad at it? Probably both. Excel is extraordinary. In the wrong hands it also can be a disaster, Excel is just a tool, like a chisel. It is inspiring in the hands of a skilled carpenter and murderous in
Tag: fiscal
We Don’t Need No %@# Standards?*
Imagine comparing two school districts’ test scores, where each district uses different tests. That would be meaningless, right? Yet, this situation exists on the business side of things. Legislation will require a calculation, but the implementation is unclear. Subsequent guidelines and regulations (if any) sometimes just cite the statute verbatim. For example, prior to the new funding formula, conversion
Workarounds
Not too long ago I put this one word sign on my desk: Workaround? The meaning being that I should constantly ask myself “Is this a workaround?” If yes, fix the root cause. Perhaps I am working around a person I don’t trust? That has to be addressed too. Workarounds arise when you have to
Spreadsheet Best Practices
Many of us have worked with Excel spreadsheets for years and consider ourselves to be pretty good at them. Then I ran across the website Best Practices Modeling website. I learned a lot and I’ve been converting some of my more complicated models into the Best Practices system. My main takeaways are: Use separate, differently
- When Special Education Doesn’t Cost Everything plus the Kitchen Sink
- Contracts in a Nutshell
- Coding the LCAP
- “I Don’t Have Time”
- Advice from an Interim Mentor
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Bernadine: Great discussion. I am definitely in the "write it down" camp. As long as you create an environment where procedures…
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Book Review: Magic Words by Tim David | FiscalShare: […] book is actually a great supplement to the book I recently reviewed: Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work. In that book Susan…
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Fiscalshare: Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I have been in numerous trainings where some of the busy participants are not on…
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derekm8201: Respectfully, I disagree with the assessment of the root cause. Devices in themselves don't cause bad behavior, it's the people…
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