Need Help: Arguments Against Excessive Pivot Table Utilization

To give some context: I have spent ~3 years FT in sell-side M&A. Recently started as an Associate at a new firm (founded in 2014). At the start, the principals were focused on cost-minimization. The legacy staff are from non-M&A backgrounds and have developed a rather inefficient approach to building out models.

The approach is to create INDIVIDUAL pivot tables from QB GL data, for each unique line item. They then copy and paste the hard-coded values into a summary income statement (in a clean workbook). This approach does not make sense to me. Historically (at previous firms), I have used pivot tables as checks to validate my work. However, to create 70+ pivots that extend past Col. FE seems unreasonable. Not only does it seem unreasonable, I feel this approach is error-prone, time-consuming, and just plain inefficient. With that being said, I am new and do not want to come in too hot/offend anyone. So, any input would be highly-appreciated (either for or against the above approach)... because, for all I know, I could be missing something here.

Thanks in advance!

1 Comments
 

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