Excel or software? How to tell when a sheet has stopped being enough
Eight signs that a shared sheet now costs you more than it saves, how to repair the sheet before buying anything, and what software adds and does not add.
The order sheet started with ten columns and now has thirty, three tabs and a colour code that only Sneha understands. Last week two people worked on two copies of it, and nobody is sure which one is right. Excel is not the problem. The question is whether this sheet now costs you more than it saves.
What a sheet does well
A sheet is free, your staff already know it, and it bends to any process. It is the right tool when:
- one or two people update it
- the list is a few hundred open rows, not thousands
- the owner reads it directly
- the process itself is still changing
Do not replace a sheet that works. New software will not fix a process that nobody follows.
Eight signs the sheet has stopped being enough
- Copies. There is a "final", a "final 2" and a version someone sent on WhatsApp.
- Late updates. It is filled in on Saturday for the whole week, so on any other day it is wrong.
- One keeper. Only one person understands it. When that person is on leave, the work waits.
- No reminders. A follow-up or a due date is noticed only if someone opens the sheet and looks.
- Phone trouble. Staff on the shop floor or on the road should update it, and do not, because a wide sheet is painful on a phone.
- Open to all. Anyone can see every rate and change any cell. A deleted row is easy to miss.
- Typed twice. The same order is typed in the sheet, in a register and then in Tally.
- Hand-made reports. Someone spends hours each week turning the sheet into a summary for you.
One or two signs are normal. If several are true, count what they cost you.
Count it for one week
Keep a page in a notebook for one week. Make a mark every time:
- someone asks "is the sheet updated?"
- a mistake is traced back to the sheet: a wrong quantity, a missed date, an old rate
- someone spends time making a report from it (write the minutes)
At the end of the week you have your own numbers. They are worth more than any seller's claim.
First, repair the sheet
Many of the signs can be fixed without buying anything.
- Keep one file in Google Sheets, or in Excel on OneDrive, where several people can work in the same file. Stop sending copies as attachments.
- One row is one thing: one order, one enquiry, one task. No merged cells, and one header row.
- Use dropdowns for the stage and for staff names, so that filters work.
- Lock the columns that hold formulas.
- Colour late rows with conditional formatting.
- Name one person as the keeper of the sheet, and one backup.
Run the repaired sheet for a month. If the signs go away, stay with it.
What software adds, and what it does not
| Software adds | Software does not add |
|---|---|
| A simple entry screen on the phone | Discipline. If nobody updates the sheet, nobody will update the software |
| A list for each person, with only their own work | A process. It can only follow the one you have |
| Reminders that go out by themselves | The owner's attention. Someone still has to read the report |
| A record of who changed what | Clean data. Wrong entries in the sheet become wrong entries in the system |
| Reports without compiling | Savings from the first day. There is a setup cost and a monthly cost |
Sheet or system?
Stay on the sheet if a missed update costs you little and one careful person keeps it. Look at software for one process when a missed update costs an order or a payment, when several people must update from their phones, or when dates matter and nobody is reminded. Move that one process, not the whole business.
We offer small systems of this kind ourselves, so put the same nine questions to us as to any other seller.
Want to see this on your own data?
Share last month of your data. We come back with a working demo. No payment for the demo.