Five workflows to retire the spreadsheet

The spreadsheet survives because it works. It is fast, everyone can read it, and it never rejects an entry. It also has no history, no permissions and no single version, which is why it eventually stops scaling.

Move these five, in this order

• Inventory availability, so quoting stops relying on a phone call.
• Quoting, so the price and the stock come from the same place.
• Order confirmation, so the agreed terms are written down once.
• Freight booking, so the dates attach to the order.
• Reporting, which is the easiest to move once the four above are in place.

Keep the spreadsheet until the last one lands

Running both for a period is not a failure of the migration. It is how the team builds confidence that nothing was lost.

This article is a stub. Replace this copy with the full playbook before launch.