The word Backend is usually used to refer to the part of a system that the end users or clients don’t see. Take buying airline tickets online as an example. In this instance, the person buying tickets online only sees the web page. What they don’t see is the database behind the web pages and the services that get kicked off when they click “Buy”. This is what we refer to as the backend of the system.

How does this apply to Excel? Consider this question: How many times do you use a pre-populated dropdown list in a spreadsheet? Or generate a chart based on a series of data? Maybe even generate an executive summary based on multiple sources of raw data? The answer is probably fairly often. In these cases, the end user doesn’t care about how they the list was populated, or where the executive summary gets its data from. They only care about the end result. This is where a Backend for your spreadsheets come in handy.

Creating a backend in Excel is nothing more complicated than dedicating a spreadsheet to this “behind the scenes” information and then hiding it. While it sounds simple, the benefits are many. For instance, your spreadsheets will look clean and less cluttered, because all of the information that is unnecessary to the end user has been put away. Furthermore, because this information has been hidden, the end user will be able to focus more on the important information. Take a look at it this way: Using the airline ticket example, would it be easier or harder to purchase a ticket if all of the information the web page uses to show you the flight information was displayed (Per mile rates, airport mileage, locations, etc)? Not only would it be harder, but you might even switch to another airline that has an easier to use web page.

As you can see, I highly encourage the use of an Excel backend. This is a technique that I use on a regular basis for my projects, and it works great. In my instance, I just label the spreadsheet “backend”, put all of my source data on it, and then hide it. Simple, and yet remarkably effective for my clients. Give it a shot, I think you’ll be pleased with the results.