Excel is an incredible tool. It has saved millions of businesses and remains indispensable for many tasks. But there comes a moment in every company's life where that spreadsheet that started with 50 rows becomes a 10,000-record monster that takes 30 seconds to open.
And that's where the problems begin.
The "Excel can handle everything" syndrome
You know the story: someone on your team created a "temporary" Excel sheet to track inventory, customers, or purchase orders. It worked perfectly when there were 20 products. Five years later, that temporary sheet is still there, but now:
It has multiple interconnected tabs with formulas nobody understands
15 versions exist: "inventory_final.xlsx", "inventory_final_v2.xlsx", "inventory_REAL_use_this.xlsx"
Only one person knows how it works (and they're on vacation when something breaks)
Every time two people edit it simultaneously, someone loses their work
Sound familiar? You're not alone. It's one of the most common problems we see in SMEs.
The 7 signs that Excel is no longer enough
1. The file takes more than 10 seconds to open
When your team starts grabbing coffee while waiting for the file to load, something's wrong. Excel isn't designed to efficiently handle large volumes of data.
2. You have "versions" of the same file
If a file exists with "_v2", "_final", "_updated" or "_USE_THIS" in the name, you've lost control. Which is the correct version? Who made the last change? Nobody knows for sure.
3. Two people can't work at the same time
"The file is locked by another user." This phrase has caused more office frustration than any other. And while SharePoint/OneDrive help, simultaneous editing in Excel remains problematic with complex formulas.
4. Data errors are frequent
Someone wrote "Peru" instead of "Perú" and now you have two different countries in your reports. Or worse: someone accidentally deleted a row and nobody noticed until month-end. In Excel, any cell can contain anything.
5. Generating reports takes hours
If every time you need a report you have to copy data from multiple sheets, apply filters, create pivot tables and pray the formulas work... you're wasting valuable time you could use growing your business.
6. Only one person understands the file
The famous "bus factor": what happens if that person gets sick, quits, or gets hit by a bus? If your operation depends on one person's knowledge of an Excel file, you have enormous risk.
7. You need to connect data with other tools
You want your billing system to read customers from your Excel. Or your e-commerce to automatically update inventory. But Excel doesn't easily "talk" with other applications. You end up doing exports, imports, manual copy-paste... a disaster.
The hidden cost of sticking with Excel
"But Excel is free" (or we already paid for it with Office). Yes, but have you calculated what it really costs you?
Hours lost waiting for it to load or finding the correct version
Data errors causing incorrect shipments, miscalculated invoices, phantom inventory
Decisions made with outdated information
Team stress every time they have to touch "the Excel"
An IBM study estimated that data quality problems cost US companies $3.1 trillion annually. And much of those problems start in poorly managed spreadsheets.
The solution: don't abandon Excel, use it correctly
Here's the good news: you don't have to throw Excel in the trash. It's still excellent for ad-hoc analysis, quick calculations, and data exploration. The trick is knowing when you need something more robust.
The general rule is simple:
Excel: analysis, one-time reports, exploratory calculations
Database: day-to-day operational data, multiple users, integrations
What options do you have?
1. No-code tools (Airtable, Notion, etc.)
They look like spreadsheets but are databases in disguise. Perfect for small teams wanting something more organized without touching code. Limitation: they can become expensive and have customization restrictions.
2. Generic software (ERPs, CRMs)
Solutions like Odoo, Zoho or Salesforce. Powerful but complex. Often you end up paying for 20 functions when you only need 5, and adapting to the software instead of the software adapting to you.
3. Custom micro-system
A simple web application designed specifically for your process. Sounds expensive and complex, but with current tools, creating a basic system to replace your critical Excel can take days or weeks, not months. And the cost is quickly recovered in efficiency.
Real case: From Excel chaos to clarity
A cleaning products distributor had been managing inventory in Excel for 8 years. The file had over 15,000 rows, took 2 minutes to open, and stock errors were constant. Every month they lost sales because inventory showed product availability when there actually wasn't any.
The solution was a simple web micro-system: form for entries/exits, current stock dashboard, and automatic low inventory alerts. Nothing complex. The result:
Inventory errors reduced by 95%
Stock query time: from 2 minutes to 2 seconds
Multiple people can update simultaneously
Complete history of movements (who did what and when?)
Where to start?
If you recognized your situation in any of the 7 signs, here are the first steps:
Identify your most critical Excel: the one causing the most headaches
List concrete problems: slowness, errors, versions, etc.
Calculate the real cost: lost hours × cost per hour
Explore alternatives: no-code tool or custom system?
And if you're not sure which is the best option for your case, at Osom we help SMEs escape Excel chaos every day. A 30-minute consultation can save you months of frustration.
Is your business trapped in Excel? Tell us your situation and we'll help you find the right solution, without selling you anything you don't need.