A spreadsheet is a tool that is used to organize, track and calculate financial and numerical information. You can use a spreadsheet to analyze figures, calculate totals or averages, or project business trends. In addition, you can use spreadsheets to experiment in "what if" scenarios, seeing what happens when you change the numbers.
You can use spreadsheets to solve complex problems (like calculating mortgage repayments), as well as simpler problems (like calculating miles to the gallon). Here are some more examples of how you can use a spreadsheet:
Create a yearly budget
Analyze quarterly sales figures
Set sales quotas
Analyze stock investments
Project loan repayment amounts
Compute interest payments at variable rates
Project income and profit figures
See:
Getting started with Spreadsheet