Even the biggest businesses aren't immune to simple but costly spreadsheet errors. Consider JP Morgan, who incurred $6 billion in losses due to an error in an Excel spreadsheet used to model risk. Or Mouchel, whose shares plummeted in 2011 after a £4.3m profit write-down attributed to a spreadsheet error valuing a pension fund deficit. Horror stories abound.

Yet Excel remains the world's most commonly used tool for business intelligence, and the chances are that your business relies heavily on Excel spreadsheets in its day-to-day operation. Consider for a moment...

How much of your business-critical data is currently stored in spreadsheets of varying complexity?

Are the people who designed the formulas even still working for you?

Are your staff confident enough to maximise the potential Excel has to analyse and manipulate your data for the benefit of your business, and avoid simple errors that could lead to another horror story?

At Qdos, our aim is to use our expertise to help you maximise yours. That's why we've designed a series of software training courses to cater to users of all ability. We're currently offering two one-day Excel courses at our new training facility in Purley, Croydon:

Excel Functions and Formulas is aimed at users with a fair basic understanding of Excel who need to create more complex spreadsheets and will teach good techniques to structure calculations in spreadsheets.

Excel Data Analysis Techniques is valuable for anyone who uses Excel to make decisions based on data and will teach you how to analyse and summarise worksheet and database information, consolidate data, forecast and plan budgets, assess risks and draw out information from datasets to use in reports or calculations.

Don't put your business at risk - get your key staff trained to avoid costly mistakes and increase productivity for your business.