Kill that spreadsheet system
You need to kill that spreadsheet (or Airtable)
You’ve been running your organisation on it for a long time. It was certainly right for the job at the start. Quick and easy to setup as you got some basic order to things. Now it’s grown in to a beast!
Here’s three reasons why that spreadsheet might not be what you need now:
Reason #1 - Flexibility
Their flexibility is their downfall. Spreadsheets were designed for financial calculations at which they really excel (excuse the pun ;). You can do anything in any field, any column, any row. Which is perfect for managing a budget or financial report but is NOT good if you’re trying to build a system that everyone in your team uses. It’s very hard to control what people do with it, without making it very inflexible (eg. locking ranges, sheets etc) and it’s very fragile if you connect automation software to it.
Reason #2 - Usability
Everyone in your team needs to be able to use this system. Are they all spreadsheet whizzes? And even if they are… do they all know what every field does? And will they remember…?
Complex spreadsheets (which is what yours will become as you grow) are really hard to make user friendly. Sure you can protect ranges and make some tabs out of bounds but handing off administration means educating the next person, and adjusting all those range and data protections.
Reason #3 - Scalability
Your organisation will keep growing but a spreadsheet can’t possibly keep up. Why? The amount of relatable data will keep increasing. Rows, columns, and worksheets. More and more formula’s, even if YOU built it, it’ll soon get hard to remember why you did what you did. If you want a system to be scalable, it needs to not rely on your brain ( or anyone else’s for that matter!)
Reason #4 - Transparency
Has your organisation experimented with empowering people by shifting decision making out from the centre? Then you’ll know that transparent information is essential for good decision making. However, even though everyone can get to your spreadsheet, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to find the information they need or change the bits that are relevant to them.
Solutions
If you’re not going to use a spreadsheet, then what are you going to use…?
An existing web app
Is there a tool (tool = off the shelf web app) that already exists to do this job?
A classic example is a sales spreadsheet. You might be trying to store the Deal, Company and Contact data all in one worksheet.
Don’t do that. Instead, find a CRM that does the job better, without any need for you to customise it. Or, use a collaborative platform like Notion or Clickup where you can build something basic next to all the other relevant information.
A toolbox of web apps
If there isn’t any one tool, could there be a set of tools to replace that spreadsheet?
It could be that you’ve looked for a replacement for your spreadsheet but can’t find the ONE tool that’ll do it.
Best bet…? Forget about that silver bullet. It doesn’t exist! Instead, imagine you’ve got a tool box. Different tools are meant for different jobs. If you look for the one tool, you’ll get paralysed with indecision!
Once you’ve got the right set of tools, choose an automation tool to keep them up to date.
Example: Perhaps you manage “won” projects in a different worksheet but you still need information from the first worksheet. e.g people’s contact details. We can assure you, that won’t be scalable or usable for long. It’s very hard to keep multiple worksheets up to date without creating a monster and in this case, we’d recommend looking for a CRM, a project management tool AND an automation tool.
A custom low code web app
If you’ve progressed through the first two steps and are STILL lacking some crucial things to manage your organisation, you may well need a custom low code web app. These are much more powerful but also require a lot more time to build well which makes them more expensive (though less than a “high code” start scratch web app) so definitely needs some advice before going down that route.
Get in touch if you’d like some pointers.
Conclusion
Spreadsheets have a place but not in the centre of an organisations’ systems.
Try finding an off the shelf web app or toolbox of web apps instead.
If they don’t solve your problems, it’s time to investigate whether a custom web app is what you need.