I want to start by saying something that might surprise you coming from someone who builds software for a living: spreadsheets are brilliant.
They’re flexible, familiar, and free. You can set one up in minutes. You can bend it to do almost anything. For a new business or a simple process, they’re often the best tool for the job. I’m not here to bash spreadsheets.
But I do talk to a lot of small business owners who started with a spreadsheet three years ago and are now drowning in it. What started as a simple list of customers has turned into a monster with twelve tabs, conditional formatting that nobody fully understands, and a formula somewhere in column Q that the entire invoicing process depends on.
If that sounds even slightly familiar, this post is for you.
The warning signs you’ve outgrown your spreadsheet
There’s usually not one single moment where a spreadsheet stops working. It’s a gradual slide. But here are the signs I see most often:
It’s slow to open. If your spreadsheet takes more than a few seconds to load, it’s too big. And it’s only going to get bigger.
Version conflicts. Two people editing the same file, overwriting each other’s changes. Or worse - two people editing different copies of the file without realising. Google Sheets helps with this, but it introduces its own problems at scale.
Data loss you can’t explain. A row disappears. A number changes. Nobody knows when it happened or who did it. There’s no audit trail, so you just have to accept it and move on.
Formula errors. Someone accidentally deletes a row and breaks a formula three tabs away. Or the formula just quietly gives the wrong answer and nobody notices for weeks.
You can’t share it properly. You want your team to access certain information but not all of it. Or you want a customer-facing view. Or you need someone on their phone to look something up on site. Spreadsheets weren’t designed for any of that.
You’re spending more time maintaining it than using it. When the spreadsheet itself becomes a job, something needs to change.
If you’re nodding along to two or more of those, you’ve probably outgrown your spreadsheet.
The fear of migration
Here’s the thing that holds most people back: the idea of moving away from something that works (sort of) to something new and unfamiliar. It feels risky. What if the new system is worse? What if I lose data? What if my team can’t use it?
These are reasonable concerns. But in my experience, they’re almost always overblown.
Your data is just data. It can be moved. The processes you’ve built in your spreadsheet aren’t lost - they’re the blueprint for what the software needs to do. And the people who’ve been wrestling with a difficult spreadsheet every day are usually delighted to have something simpler.
The migration doesn’t have to be a big bang, either. You don’t wake up one morning and switch everything over. Usually it’s gradual. I move one process at a time, run the old and new side by side for a bit, and switch over when everyone’s comfortable.
What you gain
Moving from a spreadsheet to proper software isn’t just about fixing problems. It’s about unlocking things that spreadsheets simply can’t do.
Multiple users at once - without conflicts, without version issues, without worrying about who has the latest copy.
Proper data validation - the system won’t let someone enter a phone number in a date field or leave a required field blank. Your data stays clean.
Automated workflows - when a job is marked as complete, the invoice gets generated automatically. When a certificate is about to expire, you get a reminder. No more relying on someone remembering to check.
Mobile access - your team can look things up, update records, and log information from their phone, on site, in real time.
Proper backups - your data is backed up automatically, every day. If something goes wrong, it can be restored.
An audit trail - you can see who changed what, and when. No more mystery edits.
What you keep
This is the part people worry about most, so I want to be clear: you keep your data and you keep your processes. The software is built around how you already work. It just does it better, faster, and more reliably.
I’m not going to hand you a generic system and tell you to change how your business operates to fit it. That’s the off-the-shelf approach. The whole point of custom software is that it fits you.
Common objections
“But my spreadsheet works fine.” Does it? Or have you just got used to the workarounds? If you’re spending hours a week on manual data entry, chasing version conflicts, or redoing work because something got lost - that’s not “fine.” That’s just familiar.
“It’ll be too expensive.” It might be less than you think. AI-accelerated development has brought costs down significantly. And when you factor in the time you’re currently wasting on spreadsheet maintenance, the maths often works out faster than people expect.
“I don’t want to learn new software.” Fair enough. Nobody does. That’s why I build things that are simple and intuitive. If your team can use a spreadsheet, they can use what I build. And I provide proper support during the transition so nobody gets stuck.
How Forgd handles the migration
I keep it straightforward. I start by looking at your current spreadsheet and understanding what it does, what works, and what doesn’t. Then I build software that does the same job - but properly. Your data gets migrated across. Your team gets walked through the new system. And I’m on hand to help with anything that comes up.
No rush, no pressure, no big scary switchover.
If your spreadsheet is starting to hold you back, let’s have a chat about what moving to proper software would look like for your business.