01
Why spreadsheets stop scaling
A spreadsheet's biggest strength (anyone can shape it into anything) is also what breaks it at scale. There's no owner for the structure, so the structure drifts.
- Copies drift. Nobody knows which version is the true one.
- No real permissions, so sensitive data is one share-link away from anyone.
- No audit trail. You can't prove who changed a number, or when.
- No workflow. Approvals and follow-ups happen in email, beside the file, not inside it.
02
Migrate in the right order
Moving everything at once is how migrations stall. Move the highest-friction process first, prove it works, then follow with the rest.
- Approvals: the most error-prone process in email and sheets, and the fastest to show a return once it's templated.
- Projects & progress: replace the master tracker with progress that's calculated from weighted, approved sub-projects, not typed in by hand.
- Procurement: move requisitions out of email so spend is tracked against budget as it happens, not reconciled after.
- Reporting: once the data lives in one system, the manual compilation sheet stops being necessary.
03
Keep it low-risk
A migration that threatens business continuity won't get finished. Keep every step reversible until the new system has proven itself.
- Run one project or department as a pilot before rolling out everywhere.
- Import reference data (clients, items, people) once, and validate it before anyone relies on it.
- Keep a read-only copy of the old sheets during the transition, so nobody has to take it on faith.
- Let communication move with the work, discuss it in context, not in a thread that lives around the file.
04
The payoff
Start with the process causing the most pain, not the easiest one. Every process you migrate gains permissions, an audit trail, and a workflow it never had in a spreadsheet. And the ones still waiting their turn keep working exactly as they do today.
