Spreadsheet-to-app readiness score

Ten honest questions about how your team uses its spreadsheets. You get a score, a plain answer on whether to stay, use a no-code tool, or build, and the first modules worth building.

How the score works

Each answer scores 0, 1, or 2 points, for a maximum of 20. The first eight questions measure pain. The last two measure fit, so the score rises only when custom software is likely to pay off. Two answers also add a warning: a standard process is cheaper to buy, and a process that changes every month should settle before anyone builds it. The method builds on our post the signs your spreadsheet just became an ERP.

The ten questions. Each answer scores 0, 1, or 2 points, left to right. Maximum 20.
#	Question	0 points	1 point	2 points
1	How many people change the sheet in a normal week?	Just one person	Two to five people	Six or more people
2	How often do edits clash, or does nobody know which copy is current?	Never	Now and then	Every week or more
3	How often does someone copy or retype data from one sheet or system into another?	Never	Weekly or monthly	Daily
4	How many branches, stores, or warehouses does the sheet cover?	One	Two or three	Four or more
5	Do you need to control who sees what, and record who changed what and when?	No	Nice to have, we hide a few tabs	Yes, customers, auditors, or the law ask for it
6	What does one wrong number cost you?	A quick fix	Hours of rework	Lost money or an upset customer
7	Does the data need to reach other software, like accounting, a store, or a POS?	No	One system, by export	Several, or it must stay in sync
8	How many people understand the formulas well enough to fix them?	Several people	One or two	One, and they are busy or leaving
9	How standard is the process the sheet runs?	Standard: invoicing, payroll, basic stock	Mostly standard, with our own twists	Specific to how we work
10	How often does the process itself change?	Every month or so	A few times a year	It has been stable for a year or more

Score bands

Score bands and what to do in each.
Score	Band	What to do
0 to 6	Stay on the spreadsheet	The sheet is still a tool, not a system. Tidy it instead: give it one owner, add data validation and protected ranges, and use co-authoring in Microsoft 365 or Google Sheets so people stop emailing copies.
7 to 11	Try a no-code database or an off-the-shelf app first	You have outgrown a flat sheet, but not by much. Airtable gives you linked tables, forms, and permissions without code. If the process is standard, an Odoo app may cover it out of the box. Revisit custom software if you hit their limits.
12 to 15	Build a small first system around the worst pain	The sheet is costing you time and errors every week. Replace the one workflow that hurts most with a real database, users, and roles. Keep the sheet for everything else until the first piece is trusted.
16 to 20	Your sheet is already your system of record	The business runs on this file and it is not built for that. Plan a phased move: model the data, build the first modules, run both side by side for a few weeks, and switch over only when the numbers match.

The modules the tool picks from

Every build starts with users, roles, and an audit log. The tool then adds up to three of the other six, based on the answers that scored highest. This is the kind of system we build in our ERP and operations work.

Shared records with change history

One table per thing you track, edited through forms, with every change stamped by user and time.
Imports and sync jobs

Replace the copy and paste with a job that moves data on a schedule, logs each run, and alerts on failure.
Multi-location stock and transfers

Stock per location, transfers with a sender and receiver, and one total everyone sees.
Users, roles, and an audit log

Each role sees only its fields. Approvals and edits are recorded and cannot be quietly changed.
Validation rules and approval steps

Required fields, allowed values, and a second pair of eyes on anything that reaches a customer or an invoice.
Integration with your accounting or store

A tested link to the system that needs the data, with retries and a log, instead of a monthly export.
Business rules moved out of formulas

The logic hidden in nested formulas, written as code with tests so more than one person can trust it.

Questions clients ask

Short answers, no sales language. If yours isn't here, ask an engineer directly.

Ask us anything

When should a business replace Excel with software?

When the sheet runs a process other people depend on and it fails in ways that cost money: clashing edits, data retyped between files, errors that reach customers, or formulas only one person can fix. If only one or two of those are true, tidy the sheet or try a no-code tool first.

Will this tool always tell me to build software?

No. Scores of 0 to 6 say stay on the spreadsheet, and 7 to 11 say try Airtable or an off-the-shelf app such as Odoo first. If your process is standard, or still changes every month, the result says so even when the score is high.

Is Airtable a good middle step?

Often, yes. It gives you linked tables, forms, and permissions without code. Check the record limit per base on the plan you'd use: Airtable's pricing page listed 1,000 records on the free plan and 50,000 on Team when we checked on 2026-10-13.

What gets built first when replacing a spreadsheet?

Users and roles, so access is right from day one. Then the one workflow that does the most damage today. The tool picks up to three modules from your answers.

Does the tool store my answers?

No. It runs in your browser and nothing you pick is sent anywhere.

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Scored 12 or more?

Send us your answers. An engineer replies with a written scope for the first module, not a sales pitch.

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