Your data, moved for you
Everything in the files today is loaded into the app before anyone uses it, and checked against the files it came from.
Spreadsheet to app
Your spreadsheet has become software. Let’s make it official.
It started as a list, and now half the business runs through it. We rebuild it as an app with one copy of the data, a login for each person, checks on what gets typed, and an Excel export for when you want one.
What the research found
94% of closely inspected spreadsheets had errors.
Raymond Panko of the University of Hawaii gathered the inspections that took days per file: 85 spreadsheets in real use, 94% with errors. In lab studies, people building a spreadsheet got 3.9% of cells wrong, and people checking one found about 60% of the mistakes.
A sheet also has a last row. In 2020 Public Health England left 15,841 Covid cases out of its daily counts. The BBC reported the cause: an old Excel format that stops at 65,536 rows.
94%of 85 closely inspected spreadsheets had errors
3.9%of cells wrong when people built spreadsheets in the lab
60%of the mistakes found by people checking a spreadsheet
15,841Covid cases left out of England’s counts in 2020
Still a list, or already a system?
A spreadsheet is the right tool for working something out, like a forecast one person owns. With Microsoft 365 and the file kept in OneDrive or SharePoint, several people can even edit one copy, and Excel lists who changed what for the past 365 days.
It has become a system when the signs in this test stack up, and size is rarely one of them. If they don’t, keep the sheet, and when only the weekly chores hurt, we can automate those and leave it as it is ›
What you’d get
The sheet’s job, done by software built for it.
A screen for each job
Order-taking gets an order screen and stock gets a stock screen, in a browser on a computer or a phone.
Your formulas, written once
Totals and due dates are worked out by code we test against numbers you already trust, where nobody can type over them.
Checks on every field
A date has to be a date and a quantity a number, whether it is typed, pasted or imported.
A login for each person
You decide who can see and change what, and a login can be switched off the day someone leaves.
Excel whenever you want it
One click turns any list into a clean Excel file for your accountant or your own what-if calculations.
The part nobody sees
The screens are the part you’ll look at. What makes them safe to run a business on sits underneath, and a file on someone’s laptop has none of it. See what it takes ›
- A database, and the hosting it runs on, in your business’s name
- Backups on a schedule, and a restore that gets tested
- Sign-in over a secure connection, and a way to switch a login off
- Updates and fixes after launch, if you want them
How a project goes
- 1
Talk
A free call. You describe the problem in your own words, and we tell you honestly whether software is the answer.
- 2
Proposal
A written scope, timeline and price before any work starts.
- 3
Build
We design, code and test in phases. You see working software at the end of each one.
- 4
Launch
We put it live: app stores, hosting, domains, the lot.
- 5
Keep it running
Monthly maintenance if you want it: updates, fixes and regular reviews.
Before you ask
Can’t we just lock the cells and add validation in Excel?
Try it first; on a small sheet it may be all you need. Know the limits Microsoft documents. Validation, Excel’s check on what a cell accepts, acts only when someone types straight into the cell, so data that is copied in or filled down gets past it. Microsoft also says sheet protection “isn’t intended as a security feature.” Anyone who can open the file can still save a copy of their own.
What happens to the data in the spreadsheet now?
It comes with you. We read in every copy of the file, merge the duplicates and show you the rows where the copies disagree, so you decide which is right. The original files are left untouched.
Can I still get my numbers out in Excel?
Yes. Every list has an export button that gives you an Excel file with one row for each record and one column for each field. Send it to your accountant or run your own numbers in it. What you export is a copy to work on, and the app keeps the record.
Would an off-the-shelf product do the job?
Often, and we’ll say so on the first call. If a ready-made product already matches how you work, as accounting and payroll products usually do, buy it. A custom build earns its place when the spreadsheet holds the particular way your business does things and nothing on the shelf fits it.
How long does it take, and what does it cost?
It depends on how many jobs the spreadsheet is doing. After a free first call you get a written scope, timeline and price before any work starts. We build in phases with working software at the end of each, so the busiest part of the sheet can move first.