What spreadsheets do well
- Fast to start and free of setup.
- Flexible for one-off analysis.
- Familiar to everyone.
Where they break down
- No single source of truth: copies drift apart.
- No controls: anyone can overwrite a formula or a figure.
- No audit trail of who changed what and when.
- Poor concurrency: two people editing produces conflicts.
- Reports depend on manual consolidation.
What ERP adds
- Shared records that update everywhere at once.
- Role-based access and approval workflows.
- A full audit history.
- Consistent reporting across departments and entities.
Moving without disruption
- Pick the one or two processes that hurt most, such as invoicing or payroll.
- Clean the data you will bring across.
- Run old and new in parallel for one cycle.
- Add further modules once the first is stable.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep using spreadsheets alongside an ERP?
Yes, for analysis. The difference is that the ERP holds the record of truth and spreadsheets read from it, rather than the other way round.