Well, it helps organize your business and so on... It helps with accounts and money management...

You can set up accounting with a spreadsheet, use it to track your stocks, inventory, sales. You can analyze data with it. It is great to create a mailing list with. I know people who use it to create their resume, keeps everything in nice neat columns.

A spreadsheet is, in it's most basic form, a large calculator. It's purpose is to perform both simple & complex mathmatical calculations. Spreadsheets are extremely powerful and are used for 'number crunching' - (calculations on lots of figures) and also allow mathematical formulae to be applied. A good example of spreadsheet use would be to calculate sales profits for the current year which need to be presented in a graph. The range of formulae that can be applied is vast and ranging from the most basic (adding two numbers together) to complex calculations such as applying 'what if' scenarios. The spreadsheet should not be confused with a database (although it has limited database functionality) and should not be used to store mailing lists or other data records - this is a common mistake (see above the reference to somebody using a spreadsheet to create a resume). The sheet itself is comprised of columns (vertical) and rows (horizontal) which are in turn, made up of cells. It can be used for keeping small business accounting records if the company does not generate enough revenue to warrant the cost of accounting software. In short: the main advantage of a spreadsheet is when complex mathematical calculations need to be carried out on large amounts of numerical data. It's a powerful, complex calculator.