The spreadsheet the whole operation depends on

The situation

There is a workbook. It has been growing for years. It has macros somebody wrote in 2016, tabs nobody opens, and formulas that reference a file path on a laptop that no longer exists. The operation genuinely depends on it.

One person understands it. If they are away, things slow down. If they leave, you have a problem you cannot buy your way out of quickly. Everyone knows this and nobody has had time to do anything about it.

Off-the-shelf software has been looked at. It does eighty percent of the job and the missing twenty percent is the part that matters.

How we approach it

We start by watching the process, not by reading the spreadsheet. The workbook is a record of decisions people made under pressure, and some of those decisions no longer make sense. The point is to build software around the process that should exist, not to recreate the one that grew by accident.

Then we build it. Usually a small web application your team opens in a browser, with the data in a proper database, real user accounts, an audit trail, and validation so bad data cannot get in the way it currently does.

We build in stages and put it in front of the people who do the work early. The first version does the core of the job and nothing else. It gets used while we extend it.

What you end up with

• A working application, with the source code and documentation
• Your data migrated out of the spreadsheet and into a database
• A process that survives the person who currently carries it
• Hosting and maintenance from us if you want it, and a clean handoff if you do not

You own the software outright. We hand over the source code and document any hosting or third-party licence costs up front.

Rough timeline

Six to twelve weeks for a first working version on a typical internal process. Longer if it touches billing or another system.