From spreadsheets to software

The sheet has become
your system.

It started as one tab to keep track of something. Now your planning, your stock or your entire client administration runs on it, it holds formulas nobody dares to touch, and someone always has the wrong version. Excel is not the problem: it was simply never meant to be software five people work in at once.

Sound familiar

Sound familiar?

01

Three people, three versions

planning_final_v3_JAN.xlsx. Someone works in the wrong copy and you find out when the numbers stop adding up.

02

One person understands the formulas

Years of logic sit hidden in there. That person goes on holiday or leaves, and nobody dares move a column anymore.

03

Broken by one keystroke

A pasted row, a sorted column that leaves the rest behind, and no undo that gets you back.

04

Everyone sees everything

Rates, margins, salaries, client details. A sheet has no roles, so sharing it means sharing all of it.

05

Retyping between tools

The same customer sits in the sheet, in your accounting and in your inbox. Three places to update, three chances to get it wrong.

06

No trace of what happened

Who changed this amount, and when? In a sheet there is no way to find out afterwards.

How it works

How that sheet becomes software.

01

The sheet is the specification

Your columns, your statuses and your exceptions are already in there. I read them out instead of asking you to reinvent your process.

02

Data model first, screens after

What is a customer, what is an order, what belongs to what. A sheet lets that blur; a database pins it down, including what is not allowed.

03

Your existing data comes along

The history gets imported and cleaned up: duplicate customers merged, dates made consistent. You do not start with an empty system.

04

Switch over without downtime

Both run side by side first, then the sheet goes read-only. Nobody has to migrate over a weekend.

What you end up with
  • One place with the current data, for everyone
  • Login with roles, so not everyone sees everything
  • Input checks that block impossible values
  • A history of who changed what and when
  • Integration with your accounting or CRM instead of retyping
  • Export to Excel, for when you still need it

The price depends mostly on how many exceptions your process holds, not on the number of rows. Send the sheet along with your request and after half an hour I know enough for an indication.

Frequently asked questions
What does replacing Excel with software cost?
You get one fixed number for an agreed scope. What that number is depends mostly on the exceptions in your process and the integrations it needs; the number of rows in your sheet barely matters. After a short call you get an indication.
How long does the switch take?
Usually four to six weeks until the first users are working in it. If you do not know exactly what should be in it yet, you start with a five-day Discovery: that produces a clickable prototype and a fixed price, and the fee comes off again if you go ahead.
Does our existing data come along?
Yes. The sheet gets imported and cleaned up on the way: duplicate customers merged, dates in one format, empty rows removed. Whatever cannot be fixed automatically comes back to you as a list so you can decide what to do with it.
Can we keep using Excel for reporting?
Certainly. There is an export, and where it pays off an integration so your sheet fills itself. The difference is that the software becomes the source and Excel the report, instead of the other way around.
Our people are used to the sheet. Will this work?
That is why the main screen looks like what they know: a table with filters you can click through. The gain sits below the surface, in permissions and checks, not in a completely different way of working.
Could this not be done with Airtable or a no-code tool?
Sometimes yes, and then I will say so. Once you run into per-user permissions, your own calculations, integrations or record limits, you outgrow those tools quickly and end up paying per user for something you do not own.
Let's build

Tell me what you
want to build.

A half-hour call. You get an honest answer about what it costs, how long it takes and whether building it is smart at all.

Bas Voets · Webframer
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From spreadsheets to software · fixed price up front · Webframer