Add a skilled spreadsheet user to a start-up or a franchise and it’s every entrepreneur’s dream come true. Raw data can be collected and mined for trends and key performance indicators (KPIs). Calculations that reach across multiple locations for multiple months can be updated automatically. It’s possible to calculate, aggregate and chart data. With the addition of filtering, sorting and searching functions, spreadsheets have most of the power of a database.

While spreadsheets can solve, they can also create real business problems. The larger a business grows the more challenging it becomes to keep all the sheets updated. Too much data makes simple calculations complex and ultimately renders spreadsheets unmanageable. What used to be flexible becomes brittle as you find you cannot change your metrics like you used to.

We call it spreadsheet hell. Complex budgeting or sales incentive programs have created nightmares and time delays for the people depending on that data to make decisions. Keeping spreadsheets clear and communicating with one another across authors and departments requires sorting out that costs time and money. Businesses want to pay for analysis and not data gathering and verification.
When you’re in spreadsheet hell, it’s time to switch to a database.

That makes some people uncomfortable. If your company is used to the simplicity and transparency of spreadsheets it might seem like a database is a huge unknown: Will it be expensive? How will I access the data? Will it be as flexible as my spreadsheets were?
The good news is that your spreadsheets have set up a powerful design template for your database. Your carefully-crafted calculations will become calculated columns, views, and stored procedures. Yes, it is a different language, but it is a powerful environment where you can validate data as it is being entered and where your business logic can be applied consistently. Best of all, the data you have carefully collected can all be preserved in the database, usually by a simple import function.