5 of the Most Horrifying 2023 Spreadsheet Blunders

Spreadsheets are amazing tools—until a company's review process fails. Read about a few businesses that should have known they had other options.

5 Cringeworthy Spreadsheet Horror Stories From 2023

No matter how diligent we are, mistakes will always happen—especially on spreadsheets. The following stories have appeared in the news throughout 2023, chronicling some of the world’s most consequential spreadsheet errors. 

1. Royal College of Anaesthetists Accidentally Rejects All Welsh Candidates

UK’s Anaesthetic National Recruitment Office (ANRO) informed anesthetist candidates seeking specialist training positions in Wales that they were “unappointable,” even though some had high scores. As it turns out, the organization combined differently formatted spreadsheets, confusing candidates’ ranks with their interview scores. 

The incident left Dr. Richard Marks, former NHS consultant anesthetist and former vice president of the Royal College, scratching his head. 

“I'm no expert on HR software, but I do know that manually copying and pasting from seven different Excel sheets, all laid out in different ways, is bound to go wrong one day,” he observed. “So, who set up the system? Who set up the QA processes and the staff training?"

Source: Global Financial Market Review

2.  Austrian Political Party Announces Election Winner—and Then Takes It Back

This one’s a gem. A prominent opposition party in Austrian politics had to walk back its leadership election results in June 2023. It had announced the wrong winner after a staff member bungled a spreadsheet. 

“Unfortunately, the paper ballots did not match the result that was announced digitally,” Michaela Grubesa, head of the electoral commission, stated at a news conference. “Due to a colleague’s technical error in the Excel list, the result was mixed up.”

Source: The Washington Post

3.  Lucky Bourbon Lovers Profit From Lottery Glitch

A few bourbon fans in Virginia struck gold after a spreadsheet error allowed them to win multiple prize whiskeys. 

Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority officials stated that “a breakdown in Excel sorting” allowed a few lottery participants to win more than one bottle, even though more than 40,000 people had entered. After many disgruntled people complained, officials solved the problem by choosing winners through automation.

Source: The Virginia Mercury

4.  Virginian Schools Get $200 Million Less Than Expected

This is one of the sadder spreadsheet horror stories on this list. Human error caused an interactive spreadsheet in Virginia to give schools higher budget estimates than they should have received. In fact, these numbers exceeded the actual budget by $200 million. 

The issue could cause increased class sizes, elimination of supplemental instruction programs, supply decreases, and maintenance delays. State officials plan to make up the difference and keep schools from experiencing budget shortfalls. 

Source: EducationWeek

5.  $400,000 Budget Shortfall Sends Library Into Chaos

The leadership in charge of an ImagineIF Library construction project in Bigfork, Montana, had a terrible day when they realized someone had used an old number. The error contributed to a $400,000 budgeting shortfall. To compensate, ImagineIF Library Foundation Director Sara Busse and other planners combed the budget, looking for areas to cut costs. 

“It's the cost of building in today's market right now — that's what we're realizing,” Busse said. “So, we'll figure it out; that's our work.”

Source: Daily Inter Lake

A NetSuite ERP system can help avoid embarrassing and costly errors if your company deals in goods and services. Schedule a free demonstration with SuiteDynamics experts and discover how smoothly your business can run. 

3 of the Most Significant Spreadsheet Problems in Recent Years

Spreadsheet troubles have plagued companies for decades. Below are a few of the major issues that have arisen since 2012. 

1.  Faulty Value at Risk Model Causes $6 Billion Loss

JPMorgan Chase & Co. suffered a $6 billion-plus trading loss in 2012 partly due to spreadsheet errors in a Value at Risk model. To create the model, office workers had to copy and paste information manually from multiple spreadsheets, resulting in errors. 

The incident caused Alex Hern, tech writer for The New Statesmen, to ask, “Is Excel the most dangerous piece of software in the world?”

Source: Forbes

2. 16,000 COVID-19 Case Details Disappear

In 2020, Public Health England (PHE) failed to report 16,000 COVID-19 cases due to a spreadsheet formatting failure. Unfortunately, PHE developers uploaded data onto an old file format that could only hold 65,000 spreadsheet rows. Each test result used multiple rows, so it stopped once the loading information hit the format’s max capacity. The rest of the cases were left off the file. 

"Excel was always meant for people mucking around with a bunch of data for their small company to see what it looked like," University of Cambridge professor Jon Crowcroft told the BBC. "And then when you need to do something more serious, you build something bespoke that works - there's dozens of other things you could do.”

Source: BBC News

3.  Scientists Rename Genes to Thwart Excel Autocorrect

In 2020, scientists renamed 27 human genes. Why? Because Microsoft Excel kept autocorrecting them into dates. Scientists used alphanumeric codes to help track tens of thousands of genes. Therefore, they would input MARCH1 for “Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1,” and the spreadsheet would correct it to 1-Mar, corrupting the data. One 2016 BMC study examined genetic data shared alongside more than 3,500 papers and discovered that spreadsheet errors impacted roughly 20%. 

Microsoft has since updated its software, allowing Windows and macOS users to turn off automatic data conversion. 

Sources: The Verge, BMC

We know no company or organization wants to end up on this list. Fortunately, yours can avoid spreadsheet humiliation with careful review processes, attention to detail, and the right software. NetSuite ERP systems help companies track customer, product, and service data efficiently. They also automate processes and eliminate the need for clunky copy and pasting, reducing the risk of human error. The software helps keep your information correct and your reputation stellar. 

SuiteDynamics experts can customize and implement a NetSuite ERP that meets your company’s most unique needs and equips it to meet the highest of goals. Schedule a free demo today and feel more secure about the data your business depends on. 

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