When has a spreadsheet grown too big for your business?

• Two people have it open at once, and one of them loses their changes.
• There are copies called "final", "final 2" and "use this one".
• The same thing is typed twice: once in the spreadsheet and once in the accounts or an email.
• There are formulas nobody dares touch.
• You're asked the same question every day, because only you can find the answer in it.
• Getting a simple figure out of it takes someone an afternoon.

A spreadsheet that's grown too big is the best specification a business will ever write. It shows exactly how the work really happens, workarounds and all, because people built it while they were doing the work.

A good system starts from it, not from a blank page. What's worth keeping comes across as part of the build, so nobody has to type it in again.

Not a big-bang replacement. Start with the part that hurts most, usually the part that keeps coming back to you, and build that properly. Leave the rest where it is until it's worth moving.

The test of the new system is simple: the question you're asked every day should be answered without you.

This is the most common way our clients start: a spreadsheet, an old system or a lot of email. In your first session you show us how the business really runs, and we show you what that could look like, built from the way you work.

After that, Binary Keep looks after the system and keeps improving it, with your OK at every step.