In this issue...

@ Christmas Past

@ Christmas Present

@ Christmas Future

@ My Pivot Table won't Refresh!

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Lessons from Europe: How the Debt Crisis can Improve Your Management Reporting

You can't have missed events in Europe this year as the Eurozone countries grappled with an unprecedented sovereign debt crisis. The ripples of which have been felt across the globe.

It's safe to say that no one quite knows what will happen to Europe in 2012. And when the world's leading economic experts can't predict the fate of the world's largest borderless market, it's no wonder investors are spooked.

As the debt contagion spread like wild fire from Greece and Ireland to Portugal and Spain, even Italy (the world's third largest bond market) got burnt. Serious questions were even asked about the exposure of French and German banks.

As this uncertainty continues, the very heart of Europe appears to be at risk. What seemed at first like an uncomfortable case of heartburn has turned out to be a serious cardiac episode.

Will the patient survive? It's genuinely hard to say. But many commentators have been quick to call the European single currency a failure.

So what has the European debt crisis got to do with your management reporting?

Well the amazing thing about this crisis (and here's where the lesson comes), it never had to be like this - it could have been prevented ...

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My Pivot Table won't Refresh!

Advanced VBA Macro Article

You may come across some interesting behaviour (aka a real "gotcha") when working with Pivot Tables and VBA Macros in protected workbooks and sheets.

When working on a file where each sheet has been protected using the userinterfaceonly:=true flag, you may find that even though you run a macro to unprotect the sheet containing the pivot table, your macro still crashes with a 1004 runtime error, saying it can't refresh the pivot table because the sheet is protected.

Very frustrating!

The reason for this may be that elsewhere in the file there is a Pivot Chart, sitting on a protected chart sheet that has been based on the pivot table you're trying to refresh.

If this is the case, the pivot table can't refresh unless you unprotect the chart sheet as well. This problem exists because chart sheets can't be protected with userinterfaceonly:=true as this applies to worksheets only.

That may save you some frustrated pulling out of hair!

The Ghost of Christmas Present

Does your company have control of the information it needs to make good decisions?

Ask this question of people working in any medium to large business and you'll get different answers.

Depending on your job role, your answer is likely to range from 'Not as much as we'd like' to 'Control? You must be kidding, we're fighting fires here my friend'

The first answer normally comes from senior management. Yes, they recognise that the business could have better reporting processes but on the whole they think things are more or less working ok.

However, speak to a manager at the coal face (the people that need performance information 'like yesterday') and they just want you to pass them a bucket of water (you know, for the fires).

But one thing both groups have in common is the reason why they feel their management reporting process is not as good as it could be: 'we don't have the time right now'.

And it's this 'right now' bit that's most dangerous as it implies these necessary and important changes are just around the corner. When in reality, temporary spreadsheet workarounds end up staying in place for months or even years.

Full Article

The Ghost of Christmas Future

Australia and China: Feeding the Dragon (And Trying Not to Get Burnt)

The Dragon is hungry. And the more you feed it, the hungrier it gets.

China's economic appetite is voracious. And its rise as a political and economic power is ferocious.

China has remained on a relentless period of growth in the last decade. As more and more of its vast rural population migrates to urban areas, seeking the comfort of a middle class lifestyle, construction projects continue to boom. Whether it's homes for the aspirational, or colossal government-funded infrastructure projects, the demand for raw materials is vast.

And raw materials are something we have in abundance. The world's second largest economy needs our resources, and we're only too happy to profit from this boom.

The Australian economy is now dominated by the resources sector (particularly good for us here in WA and the Northern Territories). Next year, commodity exports are expected to rise to $251 billion, up nearly 14% on 2011.

The premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, attributes China's hunger for natural resources as ''probably the single biggest factor'' behind our region's strong performance during the financial meltdown of 2008.

But will China's growth continue?

Full Article

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