Do you need an app, or just a better spreadsheet?

You need custom software when the same information is being typed, checked or chased by hand in more than one place, every day. If that is not happening, a tidier spreadsheet is cheaper and faster.

Signs you have outgrown the spreadsheet

• Two people keep two versions. The numbers disagree and nobody knows which is right.
• Customers have to call to find out where their order or booking is.
• Work arrives through chat, phone and email, and some of it gets lost in between.
• One person holds the process in their head, and things stop when they are away.
• You cannot answer "how did today go?" without asking three people.

Signs you do not need an app yet

• The work is done by one or two people who sit together.
• The process still changes every month. Software freezes a process; let it settle first.
• An existing product already does the job for a small monthly fee.

A real example

A publisher we worked with already had a website, so an app looked unnecessary. But its real work was taking repeat orders from bookshops on credit, and that lived in chat threads and spreadsheets. The fix was an ordering app for the shops and a portal for the team. You can read it in the Bookify case study.

How to decide in one afternoon

Write down every step one order, booking or job goes through, and who touches it. Circle each place where someone retypes, checks or chases. If there are more than three circles, it is worth a conversation. If you want a second opinion, tell us how the business runs; finding the problem is free.