By Kim Leary
The short version
- Spreadsheets are the fastest way to solve a problem today, so they become the permanent way to solve it.
- The spreadsheet looks free. Everything around it isn’t.
- The usual fixes either replace one spreadsheet with another or swap it for a tool nobody will use.
- Not every spreadsheet is a problem. Some are doing exactly the right job.
- Find the spreadsheets that matter most, then turn each one into something that updates itself.
- If it exists in a spreadsheet, we can build it. We’ve been doing it for years.
Ask your team what runs on spreadsheets and the list gets long quickly. The leads that sales and marketing argue about. The monthly report someone dreads building. The pricing, the bookings, the pipeline the board sees.
Often there’s a perfectly good system sitting right next to it, paid for and half used, because the spreadsheet is simpler.
Leaders who’ve started using AI are noticing this all at once. As one CEO put it to us: why on earth have we got all these spreadsheets?
Why it happens
Spreadsheets are the fastest way to solve a problem today, so they become the permanent way to solve it.
Someone needs an answer the CRM can’t give them. So they export it, add a few columns and build a formula. It works. Six months later it’s the version everyone trusts, it’s updated by hand every Monday, and only one person understands how.
Nobody decided to run the business this way. It just happened, one sensible shortcut at a time.
What it’s costing you
The spreadsheet looks free. Everything around it isn’t.
What doesn’t fix it
The usual fixes either replace one spreadsheet with another or swap it for a tool nobody will use.
“Spreadsheets are free and flexible.” They’re free to start. They’re expensive to run, in hours and mistakes.
“We’ll buy another tool.” If the last one didn’t fit, the next one probably won’t either. That’s how the spreadsheet started.
“Someone can build it with AI over a weekend.” They can build a demo. Getting it to work end to end, with real data, every day, is a different job.
“It works, so don’t touch it.” It works until the person who built it leaves.
Which spreadsheets to replace first
Not every spreadsheet is a problem. Some are doing exactly the right job.
Leave it alone if:
- One person uses it, for one job, and nobody else relies on the answer.
- It’s a one-off: a budget scenario, an event list, a quick model.
Replace it first if:
- Leadership or the board makes decisions from it.
- It’s updated by hand from systems you already pay for.
- Work stops when the person who keeps it is off.
- Customers or partners see the result, so the mistakes reach them.
More than one of these on the second list usually means someone in your business is doing a system’s job by hand right now.
What fixes it
Find the spreadsheets that matter most, then turn each one into something that updates itself.
The reporting ones are usually first. Our connected data and reporting work joins the tools you already pay for, so the spreadsheet someone builds every month becomes a live view that builds itself.
The process ones come next: the bookings tracker, the pricing calculator, the sheet that holds everything together. Web applications and integrations turns them into proper tools, connected to the systems you already run on. Quoted per project.
If you’re not sure which to tackle first, that’s a decision for the leadership team, and it’s where growth consultancy starts. The day is £2,800 + VAT.
What it looks like built properly
If it exists in a spreadsheet, we can build it. We’ve been doing it for years.
In 2017 we built a platform for schools, assembled from the systems the client already ran on. It’s still in daily use by more than 5,000 schools. It has lasted because it was designed around the people using it, not around the software.
Every build starts the same way:
- We start with what you already run on. Replacing it is a last resort, not the opening suggestion.
- We tell you early if it can’t be done. Better an awkward conversation in week one than a workaround you live with in year three.
- It’s built to fail safely. Every connection has a plan for the day the other end stops answering.
- You own it. Documented, handed over, and no dependency on us to keep it running.
Keep reading
- Should you build your own software now AI makes it easy?
- AI is better at reading your marketing data than writing your copy
- Stop moving the goalposts: agree what marketing success means
Questions about how to replace spreadsheets with software
Start with the ones that matter most: the reports leadership relies on and the processes that stop when one person is off. Connect the data first, then build tools for what’s left.
Sometimes. Often the CRM can do it but the team finds the spreadsheet simpler. Fixing that is usually about connecting systems and setting them up around how people work.
It depends on what it does. A live report is a smaller job than a tool with logins and permissions. We’ll tell you roughly where you are before anyone writes a specification.
Yes, and a spreadsheet is often the best brief there is. It already shows the fields, the rules and who uses it. We build the web application around that, connected to the systems you already run on.
Fairly common, and usually still solvable. There’s normally a scheduled export, a database view or another route that gets you most of the way. If the honest answer is that it can’t be connected properly, we’ll say so.
AI is good at reading what’s in them and finding patterns. Building the thing that replaces them is a different job, because it has to keep working with real data after the demo. Should you build your own software? goes into that.
Free resource
Build the business case. Work out what the spreadsheets are costing in hours, and what replacing them is worth, before you take it to the board.
The one thing to do next
Web applications and integrations
The spreadsheet that holds everything together, turned into a proper tool connected to the systems you already run on. Quoted per project.
