Spreadsheets vs workshop software: when a spreadsheet stops being enough
Updated · 8 min read
Most workshops run their first commissions from a spreadsheet. It is free or nearly free, it does exactly what you tell it, and you already know how to use it. For a while, that is the right choice.
This guide helps you decide when a spreadsheet is still enough and when it is costing you more than it saves. It covers what research says about spreadsheet errors, the specific points where spreadsheets break for commission work, how to make one safer, and how to move your data out cleanly when you switch.
It applies whether you make furniture, jewellery, ceramics, leather goods, instruments or metalwork. The examples move between crafts on purpose.
Key takeaways
- A spreadsheet is enough for one person running a handful of commissions, with no client-facing view and few photos.
- Research is consistent: spreadsheet errors are common, rare per cell but likely somewhere in any large sheet, and hard for their authors to spot.
- Spreadsheets break first on four things: a shared view for clients, photos tied to each order, a clear history of changes, and several people editing at once.
- If you keep the spreadsheet, separate inputs from formulas, use IDs and dropdowns, add check columns and name versions before big changes.
- When you move, clean and export first, migrate live commissions only, run one in parallel and keep the old file as a read-only archive.
When a spreadsheet is enough
A spreadsheet works well when most of these are true:
- One person enters data and makes decisions.
- You run fewer live commissions than you can hold in your head.
- Clients are happy with updates by message or email, and nobody needs to see the sheet.
- You need simple sums: totals per order, deposits received, balance due.
- Photos live elsewhere and you rarely need to find an old one.
A ceramicist with six commissions a year, or a luthier who builds four instruments at a time, may never need more. That is fine. Software should earn its place.
What research says about spreadsheet errors
Spreadsheet errors are one of the better studied areas of everyday computing.
Errors are common. In a paper for the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group (EuSpRIG) in 2000, Raymond Panko of the University of Hawaii summarised fifteen years of research studies and concluded that spreadsheet errors are "both common and non-trivial". He also wrote that only one technique, cell-by-cell code inspection, had been shown to be effective at reducing them.
Rare per cell, almost certain per sheet. In a 2015 EuSpRIG paper, Panko restated three consistent findings: errors are rare on a per-cell basis, but large spreadsheets almost always contain at least one incorrect bottom-line value; errors are very hard to detect and correct; and developers and organisations are overconfident about the accuracy of their spreadsheets. His explanation is that we are aware of very few of the errors we make.
Field audits agree. Stephen Powell, Barry Lawson and Kenneth Baker audited spreadsheets used in real organisations. Their earlier study of 50 operational spreadsheets found errors in 0.8% to 1.8% of formula cells, depending on the definition of an error. In a follow-up on 25 spreadsheets from five organisations, they found that many errors had no quantitative impact, some affected unimportant parts of the sheet, and a remaining group could have substantial impact on key results.
A well-known example. In 2013 Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash and Robert Pollin reviewed a widely cited economics paper by Reinhart and Rogoff on public debt and growth. They reported coding errors, including a spreadsheet error that left Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada and Denmark out of a key calculation, along with selective exclusion of data and unusual weighting. With these corrected, average growth for high-debt countries changed from minus 0.1% to 2.2%, by their account.
None of this means your order sheet is wrong. It means that a sheet nobody else checks, with formulas copied down hundreds of rows, will probably contain a mistake somewhere, and you are unlikely to see it by looking at it.
For a workshop the costly errors are mundane: a deposit marked as paid that was not, a material cost copied from the wrong row into a quote, a delivery date that did not update when you changed the start date.
Where spreadsheets break for commission work
A shared view for clients
A client wants to know what is happening with their piece. You cannot share your order sheet without sharing everyone else's orders, prices and notes. So you send updates by message, and the sheet and the messages slowly drift apart. This is usually the first point where makers start looking for something else.
Photos tied to each order
A commission produces dozens of photos: the board selection for a table, the wax model for a ring, glaze tests for a dinner set, the hide before cutting for a bag. Spreadsheets handle images poorly. Embedded photos make files heavy, and links to folders break when folders move. Finding the glaze test you showed a client last spring becomes a search through your camera roll.
History of changes
When a client disputes what was agreed, you need to know what the sheet said on a given date and who changed it. Google Sheets keeps version history, but its help page sets out the limits: you need edit access to see it, the cell-level edit history does not show added or deleted rows and columns, format changes or changes driven by formulas, and you can name up to 15 versions per spreadsheet. Version history is useful, but it is a safety net rather than a record of decisions.
Several people editing
Two people editing the same sheet is where the error research bites hardest. One person sorts a column without selecting the whole table; another overwrites a formula with a typed number. Neither notices. If you have an apprentice, a partner who does the books or a part-time finisher, plan for this before it happens.
Approvals and decisions
A spreadsheet cell can say "approved", but not show what was approved: the finish sample, the ring sketch at a specific size, the stitching colour. Decisions belong next to the evidence, with a date. See keeping clients updated during a build for how to keep decisions next to the photos they refer to.
How to make your spreadsheet safer
If a spreadsheet is still the right tool, make it harder to break:
- One row per commission, with an ID. Use a short, permanent code such as
2026-014. Use it in file names, photo folders and invoices. - Separate tabs for inputs, calculations and outputs. Type data in one place. Formulas read from it. Summaries read from the formulas.
- Restrict entries. Use dropdowns for status, material and payment state, and date validation for dates. Free text is where typos hide.
- Add check columns. A formula that flags impossible values: balance below zero, delivery before start, deposit larger than price.
- Name a version before big changes. In Google Sheets, name the version before you restructure; in Excel, save a dated copy.
- Inspect formulas cell by cell when you change them. It is slow. It is also the one method Panko found to be effective.
- Export a copy every month. A CSV or a dated copy in another folder protects you from accidental deletion and from losing access to an account.
Signs you have outgrown the spreadsheet
Tick the ones that apply:
- Clients ask "how is it going?" often enough that it interrupts your work.
- You keep a second list of photos or approvals because the sheet cannot hold them.
- More than one person edits the sheet each week.
- You have found an error in the sheet that reached a client or an invoice.
- You open the sheet on your phone at the bench and struggle to use it.
- You cannot answer "what materials went into this piece?" for a commission from last year.
Three or more ticks usually means the spreadsheet is costing you time every week. See choosing software for a made-to-order workshop for how to compare options.
Moving your data out cleanly
Before you move
- Freeze the sheet. Pick a cut-off date. After it, new commissions go into the new tool.
- Clean it. Remove blank rows and merged cells, split combined fields (for example "Name / phone") into separate columns, and make dates real dates.
- Give everything an ID. Clients, commissions and, if you track them, material lots. IDs let you match records after the move.
- Export an archive. Save a CSV of each tab and a full copy in the original format. Mark the folder read-only.
During the move
- Move live commissions first. Bring across orders in progress and clients you expect to work with again. Leave finished work in the archive unless you need it for repairs.
- Map fields. List each column in the sheet and the field it becomes in the new tool. Columns with no home go into a notes field, not into the bin.
- Run one commission in both systems for a week. If the new tool cannot do something the sheet did, you find out with one order, not twenty.
After the move
- Keep the archive for as long as your records need it. In the UK, GOV.UK says self-employed people must keep records for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. In other countries, ask your accountant.
- Check you can get data out of the new tool too. Trello's help says all board members can export a board to JSON but CSV export needs a Premium workspace; Notion's help lists Markdown and CSV, HTML and PDF exports. Look up the equivalent for whatever you choose, and try it once.
Sources
- Spreadsheet Errors: What We Know. What We Think We Can Do, R. R. Panko, Proc. EuSpRIG 2000, arXiv: errors common and non-trivial; cell-by-cell inspection the only technique shown effective (accessed 3 November 2026)
- What We Don't Know About Spreadsheet Errors Today, R. Panko, Proc. EuSpRIG 2015, arXiv: errors rare per cell but almost always present in large spreadsheets, hard to detect, overconfidence (accessed 3 November 2026)
- Impact of Errors in Operational Spreadsheets, S. G. Powell, B. Lawson and K. R. Baker, Proc. EuSpRIG 2007, arXiv: 50-spreadsheet study with errors in 0.8% to 1.8% of formula cells; 25-spreadsheet impact study (accessed 3 November 2026)
- Does High Public Debt Consistently Stifle Economic Growth? A Critique of Reinhart and Rogoff, Herndon, Ash and Pollin, PERI, University of Massachusetts Amherst: spreadsheet error excluding five countries and the corrected growth figure (accessed 3 November 2026)
- Find what's changed in a file, Google Docs Editors Help: version history, cell edit history limits, named version limits (accessed 3 November 2026)
- How long to keep your records, GOV.UK: at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline (accessed 3 November 2026)
- Exporting data from Trello, Atlassian Support: JSON and CSV export and plan limits (accessed 3 November 2026)
- Export your content, Notion Help Center: export formats (accessed 3 November 2026)
Questions this guide gets asked
How many commissions can I run from a spreadsheet?
There is no fixed number. The limit is less about rows and more about people and photos. One maker with five or six live commissions can manage well. Once two people edit the same sheet, or clients start asking for progress photos, the spreadsheet stops being the single place where everything lives.
Are spreadsheet errors really that common?
Research says yes. Raymond Panko's reviews of spreadsheet error studies conclude that errors are common and non-trivial, rare per cell but almost always present somewhere in large spreadsheets. A study of 50 operational spreadsheets found errors in 0.8% to 1.8% of formula cells, depending on how errors were defined.
What is the safest way to keep using a spreadsheet?
Keep inputs, formulas and outputs apart, use one row per commission with a unique ID, restrict entries with dropdowns, add a check column that flags impossible values, and review formulas cell by cell when you change them. Name a version before any big change so you can go back.
How do I move from a spreadsheet to software without losing anything?
Clean the sheet first, give every commission and client an ID, export a CSV copy and keep it read-only as an archive. Move only live commissions at first, run one commission in both systems for a week, then switch. Keep the old file for as long as your tax records need it.
Should photos live in the spreadsheet?
Usually not. Embedded images make files heavy and are hard to export. Store photos in folders named with the commission ID and link to the folder from the row. When you compare tools, check whether photos can be attached to each order directly.