The History of Excel: From Ledger Books to AI
- Frances Gallagher
- Jul 28
- 16 min read
Imagine Running Your Business Without Excel
Imagine arriving at work tomorrow morning and discovering that Microsoft Excel has simply... disappeared.
No spreadsheets
No formulas
No charts
No pivot tables
No budgets
No quick calculations
Instead, someone places a large leather-bound ledger on your desk, hands you a pencil, a ruler and an eraser, and says, "Right then, all of this month's sales need to be totalled by Friday."
How long do you think it would take? More importantly, how many mistakes might creep in before you finally reached the last page? How much Tippex might you have used?
It's difficult to imagine, isn't it? Yet for centuries, that's exactly how businesses operated. Every figure was written by hand. Every calculation was completed manually. If one number changed, there was no handy formula to update everything else. It meant rubbing out figures, checking pages of calculations and, quite often, starting all over again.
I thought we'd take a little journey through time today because while Excel feels like an everyday part of working life, its story is far more interesting than most people realise.
The spreadsheet didn't suddenly appear when Microsoft launched Excel. Its roots stretch back thousands of years to merchants carefully recording trades, accountants balancing handwritten ledgers and business owners searching for better ways to keep track of their finances.
Then, in 1979, one simple idea changed everything.
It wasn't a huge computer company that sparked the revolution. It was one man watching a university lecturer repeatedly erase numbers from a blackboard.
That moment of frustration led to an invention that transformed businesses across the world and eventually gave us the spreadsheets we rely on every single day.
Today, Excel is one of the most valuable workplace skills you can have. Whether you're preparing a budget, analysing sales, managing payroll or organising information, it's difficult to imagine modern business without it. And now, with artificial intelligence beginning to work alongside Excel, another chapter in that story is already being written.
So, let's have a look at how we travelled from handwritten ledger books to AI-powered spreadsheets—and why understanding Excel is just as important today as it's ever been.
Long Before Excel – When Every Number Was Written by Hand
Long before computers, calculators or even electricity, people still needed a way to keep track of their money. Imagine an ancient merchant returning from a busy day at the marketplace. They had bought goods, sold products and agreed credit with several customers. Somehow, they had to remember who owed them money, what they had spent and whether they had actually made a profit.
Memory alone wasn't enough.
As far back as Mesopotamia, over 5,000 years ago, traders began recording transactions on small clay tablets using a writing system known as cuneiform. These weren't spreadsheets as we know them today, but they served exactly the same purpose. They helped people keep accurate records of their business activities.
Can you imagine trying to balance your accounts on a lump of clay?
Thankfully, bookkeeping methods continued to evolve.
As trade expanded across Europe, businesses became larger and transactions became more complicated. Merchants needed a better system to keep track of their finances, and that's where one remarkable man enters our story. His name was Luca Pacioli.
Often referred to as the "Father of Accounting,"
Pacioli was a Franciscan friar and mathematician living in Italy during the fifteenth century. In 1494, he published a book called Summa de Arithmetica, which described the principles of double-entry bookkeeping. Although he didn't invent the system himself, Pacioli documented it so clearly that businesses across Europe were able to adopt a more organised and reliable way of recording financial information. Even today, the basic principles he described continue to influence modern accounting.
That's quite an achievement when you think about it.
For centuries afterwards, businesses relied on handwritten ledger books. Every sale, every purchase and every payment was carefully entered by hand, often using neat columns ruled with a straight edge. Skilled clerks and bookkeepers spent hours checking calculations, adding long columns of figures and making sure every account balanced.
Accuracy mattered.
One small mistake could mean searching through page after page of figures to find where something had gone wrong. It was painstaking work, but it laid the foundations for the financial systems we still reply on today. In many ways, those old ledger books were the great-great-grandparents of the spreadsheets we open every morning.
The only real difference?
Instead of turning paper pages, we click between worksheets.
Instead of reaching for a pencil and ruler, we type into a cell.
And instead of spending hours recalculating every total, Excel does it in the blink of an eye.
But that wasn't always the case. Everything changed because one student looked at a blackboard and asked a simple question...
"Surely there's a better way?"
The Fascinating Story of Dan Bricklin and the Invention of VisiCalc
Every great invention begins with someone asking a simple question.
"Surely there's a better way?"
Back in the late 1970s, a young student called Dan Bricklin was studying at Harvard Business School. During one of his lectures, he noticed something that probably seemed perfectly ordinary to everyone else. The lecturer was working through a financial example on a blackboard. As the figures changed, she had to rub out numbers, rewrite calculations and work her way through the entire problem again. One small change at the beginning meant changing everything that followed.
Can you imagine how frustrating that must have been?
Dan certainly could.
As he watched the chalk dust disappear into the air, a thought struck him.
"What if the numbers on the screen could change themselves?"
It sounds like such an obvious idea today, doesn't it? But at the time, it was revolutionary.
Working alongside his friend Bob Frankston, Dan began developing a computer program that could do exactly that. Instead of recalculating every figure by hand, users could change one number and every related calculation would update automatically.
That program became VisiCalc, short for Visible Calculator, and it was released in 1979.
Looking back now, it's difficult to overstate just how important that moment was.
Before VisiCalc, personal computers were often seen as interesting gadgets. After VisiCalc, they became valuable business tools. In fact, many companies bought their very first computer simply so they could use VisiCalc.
It became what the technology industry still refers to today as a "killer application"—a piece of software so useful that people were willing to invest in entirely new hardware just to run it.
Think about that for a moment.
People didn't buy computers because they wanted a computer. They bought computers because they wanted VisiCalc. That's how powerful the idea was.
For accountants, bookkeepers, managers and business owners, it was nothing short of transformational.
Budgets that once took days to prepare could now be updated in minutes.
Forecasts became more accurate.
Planning became easier.
Businesses could test different scenarios without rewriting page after page of calculations.
For the first time, the spreadsheet became a tool for thinking as much as for calculating.
It wasn't just about saving time. It was about making better decisions.
And although VisiCalc eventually gave way to other spreadsheet programs, its influence has never disappeared. Every spreadsheet we use today—whether it's Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets or another application—owes something to the idea Dan Bricklin had while watching a lecturer erase figures from a blackboard. Quite remarkable when you think about it.
One moment of curiosity.
One simple question.
And a completely different way of working for millions of people around the world.
Watching Excel Change the Way We Work
One of the privileges of teaching for over 38 years is that I've had a front-row seat as technology has transformed the workplace. I often smile when people tell me they think Excel is "just a spreadsheet."
If only they knew.
Long before Excel became the household name it is today, I was working with a spreadsheet program called Multiplan. Some of you may remember it. It was designed to compete with VisiCalc. Multiplan was Microsoft's first attempt, that I know of, at creating a spreadsheet. At the time, it seemed incredibly advanced, although looking back now it's amazing how quickly technology has moved on.
One part of this story always makes me smile because I was there to experience it. Before Excel arrived, I was using Microsoft's earlier spreadsheet program, Multiplan. At the time, it felt incredibly clever. Looking back now, it seems quite basic, but it taught me an important lesson.
Technology never stands still. We moved from Multiplan to Excel, from DOS to Windows, from typing commands to pointing and clicking with a mouse. Every new version made spreadsheets more accessible, and every step made me realise just how exciting this technology could be.
Now that's quite funny really because mathematics was never my strongest subject at school. If someone had told me then that I'd spend decades teaching spreadsheets and genuinely enjoying every minute of it, I would probably have laughed.
Yet here we are.
What does that tell us?
Learning Excel isn't about being brilliant at maths.
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It's about being curious, solving problems and discovering better ways of working.
When Microsoft Excel arrived, there weren't courses everywhere teaching people how to use it. Like many people working with computers in those days, I taught myself.
I explored.
I experimented.
I made plenty of mistakes.
And, little by little, I realised something that completely surprised me.
💗I loved spreadsheets.
Did You Know ...
Microsoft Excel was first released for the Apple Macintosh in 1985. A Windows version followed in 1987, and as Microsoft Windows became the operating system of choice for businesses, Excel steadily overtook Lotus 1-2-3 to become the world's leading spreadsheet application.
From VisiCalc to Microsoft Excel – A New Era for Business
VisiCalc had shown the world what was possible. For the first time, businesses could change a single figure and watch an entire page of calculations update automatically. What had once taken hours could now be done in minutes. It didn't take long for people to realise this was much more than a clever piece of software. It was changing the way businesses planned, budgeted and made decisions. But technology never stands still.
In 1983, another spreadsheet entered the scene—Lotus 1-2-3.
If you worked in an office during the 1980s, as I did, there's a good chance you'll remember it. Lotus 1-2-3 quickly became the spreadsheet of choice for many businesses because it combined calculations, charts and basic database functions in one package. At the time, that was revolutionary.
Companies embraced it. Financial analysts relied on it. Accountants loved the time it saved. Before long, Lotus 1-2-3 had become the standard for business computing.
Can anyone remember sitting in front of one of those early computers with its black screen and glowing green text? It was 'magic'. It worked on a DOS System compared with today's colourful spreadsheets, it seems a world away. Yet, for many businesses, it represented a giant leap forward. We typed commands from the keyboard and crossed our fingers we'd typed them correctly
Then, in 1985, Microsoft introduced a new spreadsheet application called Excel. At first, Excel wasn't an overnight success. Lotus 1-2-3 still dominated the market, and many people saw little reason to change. But Microsoft had a different vision. Rather than simply creating another spreadsheet, they focused on making it easier to use. The graphical interface meant people could point and click instead of memorising commands. Formatting became simpler. Charts became clearer. As Windows became more popular, Excel grew alongside it. Little by little, more businesses made the switch.
By the 1990s, Microsoft Excel had become the spreadsheet application that many organisations relied upon, and its popularity has continued to grow ever since.
Of course, Excel didn't stand still either.
Every new version introduced features that made life a little easier.
Formulas became more powerful.
Charts became more professional.
PivotTables transformed the way we analysed information.
Conditional Formatting helped us spot trends in seconds.
Later came Power Query, dynamic arrays and cloud collaboration through Microsoft 365. What once required specialist knowledge gradually became accessible to anyone willing to learn. And that's one of the reasons Excel has remained so relevant. It has continued to evolve alongside the needs of businesses.
So, whether you're
preparing a household budget
analysing sales figures
managing payroll
tracking stock, or
producing management reports
Excel has become one of those tools that quietly sits at the heart of countless organisations. Most of us open it without giving much thought to its history. Yet every worksheet we create can trace its origins back through Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, VisiCalc and, ultimately, to those handwritten ledger books that merchants relied upon thousands of years ago.
Quite an incredible journey when you stop and think about it.
From Ledger Books to AI: How Spreadsheet Tools Have Evolved
Then (The Past) | Now (The Present) | Tomorrow (The Future) |
Transactions recorded on clay tablets and handwritten ledger books. | Microsoft Excel stores thousands of records in a single workbook. | AI helps organise, analyse and summarise data automatically. |
Calculations completed by hand using pen, paper and plenty of patience. | Formulas perform complex calculations instantly and accurately. | AI suggests formulas and identifies patterns without you having to search for them. |
Reports often took hours or even days to prepare. | Charts, PivotTables and dashboards can be created in minutes. | Real-time insights and predictive analysis support faster decision-making. |
Every correction meant rubbing out figures or rewriting pages. | One change updates every linked calculation automatically. | AI can recommend improvements and highlight potential errors before they become problems. |
Information was stored in large paper ledgers. | Data is securely stored and shared through Microsoft 365. | Cloud-based AI assistants help teams collaborate wherever they are. |
Decisions were based on historical figures and experience. | Businesses combine historical data with live reporting and forecasting. | AI helps businesses model future scenarios and identify opportunities more quickly. |
What Does This Tell Us?
When you look at the table, it's remarkable how much the tools have changed. We've gone from clay tablets to cloud computing, from handwritten calculations to artificial intelligence, yet the purpose has remained exactly the same. Businesses still need accurate information. They still need people who can organise data, understand what the numbers are saying and make informed decisions.
In many ways, Excel isn't just a spreadsheet. It's the latest chapter in a story that began over 5,000 years ago. And while AI is helping us work faster than ever before, it hasn't replaced the most important part of the process—people who know how to think critically, ask the right questions and turn information into meaningful decisions.
That's why learning Excel today isn't simply about mastering software. It's about developing practical skills that will continue to be valuable, whatever the next generation of technology brings.
Excel Today – Much More Than Rows and Columns
Imagine walking into almost any office today. Whether it's a small family business, a busy GP surgery, a construction company, a charity or a multinational organisation, there's a good chance you'll find someone using Excel.
Sometimes it's open all day.
Sometimes it's the first application people launch when they switch on their computer.
Why?
Because Excel has become one of the most versatile business tools ever created. Think about all the different jobs it helps us with.
A bookkeeper might use it to reconcile accounts.
A payroll administrator may check overtime calculations before processing wages.
A project manager could track deadlines, budgets and resources.
A sales manager might analyse monthly performance and identify trends.
Even at home, many of us use Excel to organise household budgets, holiday planning or personal finances.
It has become so familiar that we often forget just how powerful it really is.
Today's version of Excel is a long way from the simple spreadsheets of the 1980s. We now have tools that can transform thousands of rows of information into meaningful reports within minutes.
Features such as:
PivotTables
Charts and graphs
Conditional Formatting
Power Query
Dynamic Arrays
XLOOKUP
Data Validation
Dashboards
allow businesses to turn raw information into clear, practical insights. And that's what Excel has always been about. Not simply collecting data. Understanding it. Making better decisions because of it.
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Think About It...
Imagine your manager asks,
"Can you tell me which products generated the highest profit last quarter?"
Every Spreadsheet Tells a Story
Over the years, I've discovered that no two people ever use Excel in exactly the same way. That's one of the reasons I still enjoy teaching it.
I remember helping small business owners who were just starting out. They couldn't afford expensive accounting systems, so together we built straightforward spreadsheets that helped them record income, track expenses and understand how their business was performing. We built them for companies as part of our Lir Secretarial Services day - that's going back in time.
Those spreadsheets weren't complicated. But they gave people confidence. Sometimes that's all you need.
Then there were the farmers. Who would have thought Excel would become such a useful tool for managing cattle records? Yet once we designed spreadsheets that worked for them, they quickly saw how much easier it became to monitor information that had previously been scattered across notebooks and scraps of paper. By the end of the course, he was creating spreadsheets to keep track of his cattle, recording births, movements and treatments. Excel suddenly became a practical farming tool rather than something just for offices.
And to this day, I'll never forget one learner in particular. She wasn't remotely interested in the Excel exercises we'd planned for the class.
Nothing was capturing her imagination.
So I asked her about her hobbies. She loved knitting. So we narrowed the columns until they looked like knitting graph paper and before long she was designing knitting patterns in Excel. It was a lovely reminder that sometimes we don't need to change the learner—we just need to change the example.
Instead of asking her to complete another standard exercise, I suggested we narrow the spreadsheet columns until they resembled the squares on knitting graph paper. Before long, she was using Excel to design knitting patterns.
Suddenly, Excel wasn't something she had to learn.
It became something she wanted to use.
That's always stayed with me.
Sometimes the best way to teach isn't to change the learner.
It's to change the example.
So our spreadsheet exercises
expanded to include exercises for the Holiday Planner, the Sports Club Treasurer, the Wedding Planner, the Teacher, the Gardener, the Collector, the Family Historian.
Another Memory I'll Never Forget
One particular moment has stayed with me throughout my career.
Many years ago, before spreadsheets became commonplace, I'd created a large handwritten spreadsheet to organise information. It had taken quite a while to produce. A former boss looked at it, and was fascinated by it.
Not long afterwards, he bought a computer. The very first person he wanted to show it to was me. I was chuffed!
At the time, none of us could have imagined where spreadsheet software would eventually take us.
Today, we carry more computing power in our pockets than those early office computers ever had.
Yet the excitement of discovering a better way to work hasn't really changed.
Microsoft Copilot and AI – The Next Chapter
Just when we thought Excel couldn't become any more powerful, along came artificial intelligence. I'll admit, when people first started talking about AI, many wondered whether computers would eventually do all the thinking for us.
The reality is rather different.
AI isn't replacing Excel.
It's becoming another tool within it.
Microsoft Copilot can already help users:
explain complicated formulas in plain English
suggest formulas based on what you're trying to achieve
create charts automatically
summarise large datasets
identify trends that might otherwise be overlooked
answer questions about your spreadsheet without you having to search through hundreds of rows of data
It almost feels like having an experienced colleague sitting beside you. But—and this is important—it still needs someone who understands what they're looking at.
That's where people still make the difference.
Perhaps that's the biggest lesson we've learned throughout this journey.
Technology changes. Human judgement remains invaluable.
Why I Still Love Teaching Excel
People sometimes ask me whether I ever get tired of teaching Excel.
After all these years ... The answer is still no.
Every course is different.
Every learner brings different experiences.
Every business has different challenges.
One day we're building reports for a finance team. The next we're organising stock. The following week we're creating spreadsheets for payroll, planning projects or analysing sales.
And every now and then...
Someone discovers they can even design a knitting pattern.
That's what makes Excel such a wonderful skill.
It isn't really about spreadsheets.
It's about solving problems.
Helping people.
Making work easier.
Building confidence.
That's why, after all these years...
I still enjoy opening a blank workbook.
Why Excel Skills Still Matter
After travelling from clay tablets to artificial intelligence, one question remains.
Is Excel still worth learning?
Without hesitation... Yes.
The software will continue to evolve. Some tasks will become easier. Others may become completely automated. But organisations will always need people who can interpret information, solve problems and make informed decisions. That's exactly what strong Excel skills help you do.
Learning Excel isn't simply about knowing where the buttons are.
It's about developing confidence.
It's about working more efficiently.
It's about recognising patterns.
It's about presenting information clearly.
And perhaps most importantly, it's about becoming someone employers can rely upon.
Whether you're starting your career, returning to work, changing direction or hoping to progress into a new role, Excel remains one of the most recognised workplace skills across almost every industry.
That's quite an achievement for a piece of software whose story began with handwritten ledger books and one student's simple question.
A Final Thought
Every generation has been given better tools than the one before.
Clay tablets became ledger books.
Ledger books became electronic spreadsheets.
Spreadsheets are now becoming intelligent assistants.
Whatever comes next, one thing is certain.
Businesses won't simply need people who know how to use technology.
They'll need people who know how to think.
That's a skill no software can replace.
Ready to Write Your Own Success Story?
If this journey through the history of Excel has shown us anything, it's that learning has always been at the heart of progress. Every major step forward—from handwritten ledgers to AI-powered spreadsheets—has happened because people were willing to embrace new ideas and develop new skills.
If you'd like to build your confidence with Excel, whether you're a complete beginner or ready to take your skills to the next level, we'd be delighted to help.
At Lir Business Services & Training Centre, our practical Microsoft Excel courses are designed for real workplaces and real people. We focus on helping you understand not just how Excel works, but how to use it with confidence to solve problems, save time and make better decisions.
After all, the technology will continue to evolve.
Your skills can evolve with it.
At Lir Business Services & Training Centre, we've always believed that spreadsheets don't have to be intimidating.
In fact, we've had a saying for years:
"We love spreadsheets... and we'll have you loving them too."
It usually raises a smile.
But after a day in the classroom, it's surprising how often people tell us they think we might just be right.
Why not join us and become part of the next chapter in the History of Excel story?
I often wonder what Dan Bricklin would think if he could sit in a modern office today. The idea that began with a lecturer rubbing chalk from a blackboard has evolved into cloud spreadsheets, real-time collaboration and artificial intelligence. I suspect he'd be amazed—but perhaps not surprised. After all, every great innovation begins with someone asking a simple question:
"Surely there's a better way?"
One thing I've learned over 38 years is every spreadsheet tells a story, and I never imagined the girl who struggled with maths would spend a good part of her career teaching spreadsheets to learners and other trainers.
Who knows what the next chapter in the history of Excel will be? One thing's for certain... I can't wait to teach it.
Enjoyed this journey through the history of Excel?
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