Excel Worked Fine… Until It Didn’t

The Problem Isn’t Excel

Excel is a powerful tool. That’s not the issue.

The problem starts when spreadsheets are asked to do jobs they were never meant to do. Acting as a CRM. Running workflows. Tracking approvals. Holding operational data for multiple teams at once.

That’s when things get messy.

You see:

• Multiple versions of the same file

• Manual copying and pasting between sheets

• Updates that rely on one or two people “remembering” to do them

• Data that exists, but isn’t trusted

Over time, the spreadsheet becomes a bottleneck instead of a help.

What We Usually See in Growing SMEs

This pattern comes up again and again.

The business is doing well. The team is growing. There’s more work, more customers, more responsibility. But the systems haven’t changed since the early days.

So people work around the gaps. They add more spreadsheets. They build workarounds. They accept that some things “just take time”.

That’s often the point when someone says, “There must be a better way than this.”

That’s usually when we first speak to them at Web Alliance Limited.

A Practical Comparison

Here’s a very simple way to think about it.

Spreadsheet-led setup

• Fast to start

• Familiar to everyone

• Relies heavily on manual effort

• Hard to scale cleanly

• Easy for mistakes to slip through

Bespoke system

• Takes more thought at the beginning

• Built around real processes

• One place for accurate data

• Grows as the business grows

• Reduces repeated manual work

Neither option is “right” or “wrong”. It depends on the stage your business is at.

How We Approach It

We don’t believe in ripping everything out and starting again.

Most of the time, the smartest move is to start small. One problem. One system. One clear improvement.

That might be a simple CRM. Or a workflow tool. Or a way to bring scattered data into one place so people can finally trust it.

From there, things get easier. Not overnight — but steadily.

Clients see designs early. They’re involved throughout. They know what’s being built and why. And yes, we put real accountability into our contracts, including penalties if timelines slip.

That matters more than people realise.

A Sign of Growth, Not Failure

Outgrowing Excel doesn’t mean something went wrong.

It usually means the business did something right.

Excel helped you get here. But if it’s now slowing decisions, creating confusion, or eating up time, it’s probably not the right foundation anymore.

And that’s okay.

Final Thought

If your team feels like they’re managing spreadsheets instead of running the business, it might be time to rethink the systems underneath — not the people using them.

There is another way to work. One that feels calmer, clearer, and far less fragile.