The most important software in your company is a spreadsheet only one person understands
It has grown over years, it works, and it is your biggest silent risk. We turn it into a tool several people can use at once, with a history, and with up-to-date figures on demand instead of on request.
Five sentences heard in every company with this problem
- „Only our colleague can do that, he built the file.“
- „Please do not open it at the same time or it breaks.“
- „There are three versions, the current one is on his desktop.“
- „We check competitor prices once a quarter, when we get round to it.“
- „We do not know who changed that in May.“
Each sentence describes the same thing: company knowledge sits in a file instead of a system. As long as nothing happens, that is convenient. When the person leaves or the file breaks, part of the business stops.
Not a big ERP. One tool that does one thing properly
- Your logic stays your logic. We read the spreadsheet, extract the rules and write them down properly. For many companies that step alone is half the value, because the knowledge is documented for the first time. Quite often it reveals that two sheets contradict each other.
- An interface instead of a formula maze. Enter, calculate, see the result. On desktop and phone, several people at once, with permissions and a history: who changed what and when.
- Data arrives by itself. If your calculation depends on external figures such as publicly visible competitor prices, material indices or exchange rates, the tool fetches them regularly instead of someone typing them in.
- A proposal, not an automatic decision. The system proposes, your expert looks at it and approves. That review step is exactly why tools like this get accepted on the shop floor.
Price maintenance in wholesale
A distributor has calculated selling prices for years in a spreadsheet one employee built. Competitor prices are checked by hand, irregularly. The result is items priced too high that sit in stock and items priced too low that cost margin, both unnoticed.
After the rebuild the tool pulls the publicly visible prices of the relevant suppliers daily, applies the stored logic and puts a list of proposals in front of the employee each morning. He checks, ticks them off, done. Half a week per quarter becomes a quarter of an hour a day, and prices are current for the first time.
For clarity: only publicly accessible data is retrieved, and only in ways the terms of the respective source allow. What is legally possible is settled before anything is built, not afterwards.
Basic
One spreadsheet, one logic, up to five people. Web interface, permissions, history, export to Excel and PDF, import from your existing files. Roughly three to four weeks.
2,900 €
one-off setup, then 99 € per month for hosting, backups, monitoring and maintenance
Pro
Several spreadsheets or data sources, automatic retrieval of external data, roles and approval paths, reporting. For companies whose margin depends on that file.
4,900 €
one-off setup, then 189 € per month
What the alternative costs
Ready-made database platforms such as Ninox or Zoho Creator cost roughly 8 to 25 € per user per month, and SeaTable and Baserow offer free entry tiers with EU hosting. If you can and want to build it yourself, that is the cheaper route, and I will tell you so in the first call.
What those platforms do not include is the actual work: extracting the rules from your grown file, understanding them and writing them down. That is what this offer is for. From around four users the Runline monthly fee is also lower, because it is charged per company rather than per head.
From 5,000 € project value the rule is: prototype first, fixed price second.
The first step is always a look at the real file. After that you know what is feasible, what it costs and how long it takes. The look itself is free.
When you should keep the spreadsheet
- If exactly one person uses it, it works well and nobody else ever needs access. Then Excel is the right tool.
- If the logic changes fundamentally every few weeks because the business is still finding its shape. Become stable first, then build.
- If your ERP already has the function and nobody has configured it. I will say so, even if it costs me the job.
Frequently asked
Can we still get at our data?
At any time. Export to Excel and CSV is standard, the database belongs to you. There is no format you cannot get out of.
Where does the data live?
On a server in Germany, encrypted, with daily backups. On request on your own premises.
Is there any AI in this at all?
Only where it can do something rules cannot: reading unstructured text, mapping positions, explaining outliers. The calculation itself is deterministic. A pricing formula belongs in code, not in a language model.
Does my team have to relearn everything?
Very little. The interface follows your familiar sequence, not somebody else’s logic. Training is included.
Have the file reviewed
Send me the file or an anonymised extract. Reply usually within 24 hours.