An experimental study of spreadsheet presentation and error detection

Several well-founded concerns exist about the integrity and validity of electronic spreadsheets. One hundred thirteen MBA students sought eight errors planted in a single-page spreadsheet to discover if differences in the presentation format would facilitate error-finding performance. Five presentation formats were used. Spreadsheets were presented on the screen, both with and without formulas. Spreadsheets were also presented on paper with a list of formulas attached or without formulas. A new integrated formula paper treatment was introduced with formulas presented in each cell directly under each calculated value. Subjects found, on average, only about 50% of the errors across all presentation formats. The on-screen treatments were clearly inferior to the paper treatments, whether or not formulas were presented. Practitioners should be aware of the difficulties in finding even simple errors, especially on-screen, and should develop training programs to facilitate spreadsheet auditors´ performance