Spreadsheet Risk: Why You Should Be Concerned

Raymond Panko, a professor of IT Management at the University of Hawaii, wrote that “90 percent of all spreadsheets with more than 150 rows … contained errors.” Over the years, there have been some spectacular cases of spreadsheet errors causing serious issues. A few examples of such cases were mentioned in a paper about spreadsheet risks by Philip Bewig:

- A missing minus sign once caused Fidelity’s Magellan Fund to overstate projected earnings by $2.6 billion.
- Falsely linked spreadsheets permitted $700 million in fraud at Allied Irish Bank.
- Voting officials reported instances of spreadsheet irregularities occurring in New Mexico and South Africa.

How we can mitigate human error as a part of spreadsheet risk?