The signs you have outgrown them
- The same figure is typed into more than one place.
- Reports are assembled by hand at the end of the month.
- Renewals, rent or fees are chased when someone remembers, not when they fall due.
- Only one person understands how the sheets fit together.
What one system changes
A school keeps one record per student, and attendance, marks and fees read from it, with parents seeing their own child's part on a phone. A managing agent holds units, tenants and rent together instead of a folder per building. A gym knows who has paid, which class they booked and whether they came, without a paper sign-in sheet.
Moving without losing trust in the figures
Move the records with a reconciliation, so the first day on the new system can be checked against the last day on the old one. Run both for a short while where the risk is high, train the people who will use it every day, and retire the spreadsheets only once the new figures are trusted.