Are you conducting risk assessments with help of Excel?
Stay focused, as amongst other important downsides, Excel can be excessive and does not rule out blind spots. If you want to fully understand the most important risks you are dealing with, read on, and rule out those hidden Excel risks!
Excel might seem a good tool for risk assessment…
Many companies choose to use spreadsheet in Excel for their risk assessments. The results of risk assessments are often gathered within risk registers, which provide insights in all possible risk scenarios, their threats, consequences, and controls. Risk registers are also often kept in Excel spreadsheets. Registering data within a spreadsheet is a great way to store and organize all relevant information. However, Excel is not specifically built for risk assessment, so there are some limitations to this approach to keep in mind.
Pitfalls when using Excel
1. Excel is excessive
Risk management is easily overcomplicated. Building a risk assessment in Excel can quickly lead up to hundreds of rows of data. This makes it cumbersome to interpret the data, perform your analysis, build reports and decide what information is crucial and what is not. When looking at a risk register, the information often gets too excessive for non-experts. And even experts can easily get lost in the amount of data.
2. Excel does not rule out blind spots
A spreadsheet does not necessarily show the relations that are so important to fully understand the risks your company is dealing with. Blind spots can arise because excel sheets often don’t show control measures in the context of specific risk scenarios. In other words, you cannot always distinguish where a control is placed within the risk scenario, and subsequently, where controls are lacking.
