Excel is fine, until one of these four things happens
A spreadsheet is free, instant and understood by everybody in the shop. That is a real advantage and most software pages pretend otherwise. But there are four specific moments where it stops being cheap and starts quietly costing money — and it is worth knowing which one you have reached.
The four moments
1. Two people update it at once
The moment a second person needs the file, you are managing versions instead of stock. Somebody works from a copy, and the number everyone trusts is now the number nobody can vouch for.
2. You sell in more than one place
A counter and an online store and WhatsApp means three views of one number. The spreadsheet can only ever be one of them, so the other two are wrong between updates — and the last piece gets sold twice.
3. Cost price stops being one number
Once you buy the same item at different rates, average cost in a cell stops matching reality. Your margin looks fine while individual lines lose money, and you cannot see which.
4. You cannot answer "what happened here?"
A spreadsheet holds the current state, not the history. When stock is short there is no record of who changed what and when, so shrinkage becomes a number you absorb rather than a question you answer.
- One number every channel reads
- Every movement attributable to a person and a time
- Real cost captured at goods receipt
- Import your existing sheet to start
- Multi-user without version conflicts
- Margins per product, not per guess
When this is the wrong plan
If you hold a handful of items, sell in one place and are the only person touching the file — stay on Excel. It is free and it works. Come back when the second person or the second channel arrives; that is when this pays for itself.
Asked and answered
Yes. Products, categories, brands and customers import from a spreadsheet, so you are not retyping a catalogue to try it. Get the columns roughly right and we will help with the rest.
Try it before you pay for it
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