Spreadsheets vs a real system: when to move
Move when more than one person needs the same truth at the same time. Spreadsheets are an excellent thinking tool and a poor system of record.
When should we stop running the business on spreadsheets?
Why spreadsheets win for so long
They are free-form, immediate, and everyone can already use one. Any process can be modelled in an afternoon without asking anyone's permission.
For a single person reasoning about a problem, nothing is faster.
Where they quietly fail
Concurrency. Two people editing the same sheet produce two versions of the truth, and the reconciliation happens in someone's head.
History. A cell that changed does not say who changed it or why. When a number is wrong, there is no way back.
Rules. Nothing stops an invalid entry, so validation lives in whoever remembers the convention.
What a real system adds
One record, one version, an audit trail, and rules that hold whether or not anyone remembers them. Permissions so the right people see the right things.
It also lets other software read the data, which a sheet in someone's drive does not.
The move itself
The sheet is not wasted. A spreadsheet that a team has actually used for a year is the most accurate specification of a process you will ever get, because it records what people really do rather than what a policy says.
The verdict: Keep spreadsheets for thinking. Move to a system the moment two people depend on the same numbers.
Last updated 23 August 2026