27 Nov 2020
Very often, a company starts off with Excel spreadsheets to store information, organize ideas, manage customers information, schedule employees’ shift, and for so many other purposes. But as the company grows, Excel can no longer keep up, and that will be the time when you can start to look for better alternatives, such as Accounting Software, CRM software, or an all-in-one fully-integrated Enterprise Resource Planning software which streamlines your entire business processes on a single platform.
Below are 5 key signs showing your business has outgrown Excel.
Work Is Not Automated
There should be no reason to spend time doing work that can be automated. For example: instead of manually counting all the inventories in the warehouse and updating the figures manually onto the Excel spreadsheet, companies should look into barcode scanning that is integrated with an Inventory Management Software or ERP software in order to have the number of inventories automatically updated into the software, without manual data entry. Not only this is time-consuming, but it may lead to human-prone errors too as numbers might be wrongly entered into the spreadsheet. With ERP software in place, the system will be able to automatically capture the data from the barcode scanner, and it can also send an alert or email notification to the users when the inventory level on hand falls below the minimum quantity required in the warehouse.
Data Breaching
Very often, a spreadsheet might include confidential information such as payroll, profits and revenue, personal information, or a company’s turnover. However, it seems like an Excel spreadsheet can be easily transported and it will be difficult to track since it can be easily copied, printed, emailed to an outside address, or uploaded to a shared space, and this might cause financial damage to your business. In this case, ERP software will be the solution as the company can pre-set the users access level for a more secure form of information storage. For example: only the payroll manager will be able to see all the employee’s salary to process their monthly payslip.
Difficult to analyze and consolidate multiple types of data
Each department in the organization will usually have a spreadsheet for their department to keep track of ongoing tasks and other information related to their department. It may seem well organized, but when it comes to analysis & consolidation, it might be a nightmare as your employees might need to open multiple spreadsheets and tabs to pull out the information needed. Moreover, the information in the spreadsheets might not be updated in real-time and it does not have advanced tools to manipulate data.
Now with a fully-integrated ERP solution in place, users can extract any data in real-time for quicker analysis and consolidation, such as the revenue and expenses generated by each department in year 2020 vs the past 5 years. With all the information in a single page, you can easily carry out your analysis.
Reporting is delayed
As we mentioned above, generating reports via an Excel spreadsheet is time-consuming. Imagine you have a weekly department meeting on Friday and you have to start preparing the reports on Thursday. Or if you are in the middle of a meeting and your superior requests for another type of analysis report. Excel spreadsheets will never be able to give you the report you require within a few seconds, but ERP software is able to! All you have to do is drag the fields to the report and it will be ready instantly!
Long Budgeting Process
There are lots of manual processes involved while budgeting on Excel spreadsheets. It is really time-consuming since users are involved in lots of manual data entry such as updating forecasts and formulas, creating actual vs budget reports, cutting and pasting information into the spreadsheet and more. Moreover, it is also error-prone since we are manually dealing with lots of numbers and we clearly know that when it comes to preparing financial statements, one single incorrect number might cost the company a fortune.
But with all types of software in the market, there is definitely one that suits your business the best which allows you to get rid of Excel spreadsheets.
If you’re spotting any one of these signs, it may be the time for you to start looking for software to digitalize your company’s operations as your company’s growth might be hindered by Excel.
As a leading ERP vendor in Singapore, Synergix Technologies has helped over 600 SMEs in Singapore throughout their business transformation journey by offering them a fully-integrated ERP solution.
Eligible companies that adopt Synergix ERP system are able to receive Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) of up to 80% of the qualifying cost. On top of this grant, companies can also tap on the Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) or the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit (which offers an additional SGD 7,000) to minimize the net cash investment. Should you have any questions regarding the software, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us for a free consultation.
