The spreadsheet that runs your business: when to replace it, and with what.

Almost every growing business has one. A spreadsheet that started as a quick list and now holds jobs, prices, stock or clients. Three people edit it, one person understands it, and everyone is a little afraid of it.

The spreadsheet is not the problem

A spreadsheet is the fastest way to work out a process. It is flexible, everyone knows it, and it costs nothing. Most businesses should start there. The trouble begins when the process has settled but the spreadsheet is still doing the work of a system.

Signs it has become a risk

• Only one person can safely change the formulas.
• There are copies saved as final, final two and use this one.
• People copy numbers out of it into emails, quotes or reports every week.
• Two people editing at once breaks something.
• A client or manager asks for a figure, and someone has to go and build it.
• You would not know if a row was deleted by mistake.

What replacing it involves

Replacing a spreadsheet does not mean starting over. The spreadsheet is the specification. Its columns are the data, its tabs are the screens, and its formulas are the rules. A good build keeps what works and removes the manual steps around it.

• A proper database, so every change is recorded and nothing is lost.
• Forms for the people who enter data, so the rules cannot be broken by accident.
• Views and reports that build themselves, for the people who only read.
• Logins, so each person sees what they need and nothing else.
• An export back to a spreadsheet, for anyone who still wants one.

When to keep the spreadsheet

If the process still changes every month, leave it in the spreadsheet until it settles. Software is best at a process you already understand. Building too early just moves the confusion into code.

A real example

Migoru's mystery dining reports used to live in a spreadsheet and go out as PDFs. We turned the same data into interactive scorecards inside a private portal, with history built in and a view for each venue group. The spreadsheet's logic survived. The copying and pasting did not.

Start with the file

Send us the spreadsheet, or a description of what it does. We will tell you plainly whether it is worth replacing yet, and what the replacement would look like.