business-solutions
When to leave spreadsheets behind for an ERP — and when not to
A practical checklist for SMEs in Egypt deciding whether they have outgrown Excel and Google Sheets.
Published 2026-05-12 · 4 min read
Most companies don’t outgrow spreadsheets — spreadsheets outgrow companies. Here’s how to tell the difference and what to do next.
The four signals you’ve outgrown Excel
- Three or more people edit the same file every week. Conflicts are the friction tax.
- Reporting is a manual job, not a click. If month-end means copy-paste, the tool has won.
- Tax authority deadlines are a fire drill. Compliance was bolted on too late.
- A single typo can cost six figures. No version history. No audit trail.
If three of the four are true, you’re paying ERP costs without ERP benefits.
What to do first
Don’t buy software. Document your process — workflow, exceptions, reports — then take that document to a vendor (us or anyone else). The companies that succeed at ERP rollouts are the ones who treated their workflow as something to clarify, not something to digitize as-is.
When ERPs are wrong
Under ~10 employees, under ~5 SKU, under ~EGP 20M/year revenue — spreadsheets still win. The maintenance cost of an ERP exceeds the productivity gain. Wait.