Your Business Runs on a Spreadsheet.
It Was Never Built for That.
It started as a quick sheet. Now it holds pricing, jobs, inventory or schedules, several people edit it at once, and one person understands the formulas. We replace it with software shaped around how you actually work, or tell you plainly when an existing product fits better.
Signs It Has Outgrown Itself
Everyone edits, nobody owns
Several people change the same file, and overwritten work or a wrong version is a regular problem.
One person holds the key
Only one person understands how the formulas, tabs and macros fit together.
Copies everywhere
There are versions named final, final 2 and current, and people are not sure which one to trust.
It is getting slow
The file takes time to open, crashes, or has been split because it got too large.
No record of changes
When a number changes, there is no reliable way to see who changed it or why.
Customers depend on it
Quotes, orders or schedules sent to customers come out of the sheet, so a mistake reaches them directly.
What It Actually Costs
The hours spent maintaining the sheet are measurable. The bigger cost is usually the risk of one bad edit reaching a customer or a decision. The arithmetic below counts only the hours.
- 3 people
- doing the work
- 30 minutes
- each time
- 20 times a week
- across everyone
- $45 an hour
- loaded cost per person
About 10 hours a week, or $20,700 to $23,400 a year
How We Replace It
Buy, configure or integrate first. Custom software is only worth building when nothing on the market fits how you work.
Understand what it really does
We map every tab, formula and workaround, and the decisions people make with it, not just the columns.
Check what already exists
If an established product fits most of the work, we say so and help you adopt it. That is often the cheaper answer.
Build in stages
Where custom software is justified, the most painful part is replaced first, with the sheet running alongside until the new version is trusted.
Move the data and hand over
Existing data is cleaned and imported, access is set by role, changes are tracked, and after payment the client-specific code, the accounts and the documentation are yours.
Before and After
An illustration of a common workflow, not a client project.
A contractor prices every job in a shared spreadsheet with tabs for materials, labor rates and markups. Estimators copy the sheet for each quote, and old rates survive in the copies.
Estimators build quotes in a small internal application that reads current rates from one place, keeps a history of every quote and exports a clean PDF. Rates are changed once, by the people allowed to change them.
Replace It, or Keep It?
Worth replacing
- Mistakes reach customers or cost real money
- Several people rely on it every day
- It needs permissions, history or an audit trail
- It has to connect to other systems
Keep the spreadsheet for now
- One person uses it for their own analysis
- It works and rarely causes problems
- An affordable product already does the job
- The process itself is still being worked out
Typical Starting Points
Work is priced by scope, not by the hour. You get a written scope with a fixed price before anything starts, and larger builds are split into milestones. The ranges below show where engagements typically start.
See Starting Prices
| Engagement | When it fits | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| Automation Opportunity Review | You know the workflow hurts, but not yet what, if anything, to build: one workflow reviewed, with the smallest worthwhile fix in a written action plan. | $495 fixed fee |
| Core Automation or Integration Build | Workflows and system connections the business runs on, priced in a written scope. | From $5,000 |
| Custom Engagements | New products, AI agents, private AI, custom applications, modernization and data platforms, scoped and priced in writing. | Quoted in writing |
| Operations Automation Partnership | After a build: monitoring, maintenance, vendor and API changes, and small improvements. | From $750 / month |
Hosting, domains, licenses, subscriptions, and processing fees stay in accounts you own and are billed to you directly by each vendor whenever practical. Where we must place an approved charge on your behalf, that amount is collected before we incur it.
After the Build
Every build ends with documentation and a handoff, so your team can run it. If you would rather not, a monthly partnership covers monitoring, vendor and API changes, and small improvements under its own written agreement.
See Partnership LevelsBefore You Ask
- Why not just buy software instead?
- Often you should, and we will tell you when an existing product fits. Custom software makes sense when your process is a real advantage or no product fits it without expensive workarounds.
- Can we keep using the spreadsheet while you build?
- Yes. Replacement happens in stages, and the sheet stays in use until the new system has been checked against it.
- What happens to our existing data?
- It is cleaned and moved into the new system as part of the scope. Problems found in the data, such as duplicates or inconsistent entries, are reported to you before they are imported.
- Who owns the software when it is done?
- After payment, the client-specific deliverables are yours, subject to third-party licenses and our reusable components as set out in the Terms of Service. Hosting and accounts stay in your name whenever practical.
- How much does replacing a spreadsheet cost?
- It depends on what the sheet actually does, which is why most start with a review. The typical starting points for each type of engagement are shown on this page.
Figures on this page are illustrations based on the stated inputs, not client results, and are not a promise of savings. We do not guarantee any particular business, time-saving or technical outcome. This page is a summary for convenience; our Terms of Service govern.
Full terms: Terms of Service
Which Spreadsheet Would Hurt Most If It Broke?
Tell us what it runs, who uses it and what has already gone wrong. We will tell you whether to replace it, adopt a product or leave it alone.