Guide
When should a business move off spreadsheets?
Move off spreadsheets when several people edit the same numbers, month-end takes days, or nobody trusts the totals. Here is how to tell, and how to move.
What are the signs you have outgrown spreadsheets?
- Several people edit the same file, and nobody is sure which copy is current.
- Closing the month means days of copying figures from one sheet to another.
- One person understands the formulas, and everyone else is afraid to touch them.
- You cannot tell who changed a number, or when, or why.
- Customers or suppliers get different answers depending on who looks.
Two or more of these usually mean the spreadsheet now costs more time than it saves.
What does an ERP do that a spreadsheet does not?
An ERP (enterprise resource planning system) keeps a business's records in one database with rules about who can change what. Every entry has an author and a date, totals are calculated rather than typed, and the same figure appears the same way wherever you look at it.
How do you move without losing a month?
- List what the spreadsheets do. Write down each sheet, who owns it and which decision it feeds.
- Pick one process to move first. For most businesses that is the books, because every other process ends up there.
- Clean one period of data. A clean starting point is worth more than years of history carried over as it is.
- Run both for one month-end. Close the month in the new system and in the spreadsheet, and compare.
- Retire the sheet. Make it read-only once the new system has closed a month on its own.
Where does SyncedOffice fit?
Every customer organization's workspace runs its own ERP instance, built on Moqui and MarbleERP. No ERP is shared between organizations. The ERP back office includes accounting, in use in the pilot. (Beta) SyncedOffice is in a pilot. There is no public sign-up yet; our team sets up each customer organization's workspace with you.
Scheduled backups are not in place yet, so keep your own copy of your records during the pilot. (Roadmap) SyncedOffice for small businesses.
Questions and answers
Is a spreadsheet ever the right tool?
Yes. For one person keeping simple records, a spreadsheet is fast, cheap and flexible. It stops being the right tool when several people depend on the same numbers.
How long does a move take?
It depends on how many processes you move and how clean the data is. Moving one process, and running it alongside the spreadsheet for one month-end, is a sensible first step.
What does SyncedOffice offer a small business today?
Your own ERP workspace, with accounting in the pilot (Beta), set up with you by our team.