How do I turn my spreadsheet into a real system?

Question

VX-N · Accepted Answer

Identify what the spreadsheet is actually doing — usually a mix of database, workflow, and reporting — and replace those jobs separately. The spreadsheet is rarely the problem; the problem is that it is the only place the truth lives and only one person understands it. Warning signs it is time: two people cannot edit it at once, someone maintains a 'master' copy, formulas break when a row moves, or the business would genuinely stop if that file were lost. The migration nobody plans for is history. Decide early what past data has to come across and in what shape, because that is usually the expensive half of the job.