A spreadsheet genuinely is enough — up to a point
We are not selling the idea that every business needs software. A well-built spreadsheet tracks stock correctly for thousands of businesses, for free, and anyone can change it without waiting for a developer. If you are in the situation below, stay on the spreadsheet and spend the money elsewhere.
A spreadsheet is the right choice when: you have one warehouse or one shop, under roughly 300 distinct items, one person entering movements, and when something does not add up you remember what happened last week.
The problem is not the spreadsheet itself. It is that businesses keep using it long after those conditions stopped being true, because the change is not sudden — it is a slow degradation you only notice at stocktake.
The four thresholds where a spreadsheet starts costing money
Threshold 1: the second person writing in the file. The moment two people edit the same record, parallel versions appear. “Stock_final_v3_NEW.xlsx” is the classic symptom. Even shared online, two people subtracting from the same row in the same minute produce a wrong result nobody sees.
Threshold 2: the second warehouse or location. Transfers between locations are exactly the operation a spreadsheet cannot validate: subtract on one sheet, add on another, by hand, and if the second half is forgotten the goods vanish from the record without a trace.
Threshold 3: you can no longer answer “who changed this and when”. Software keeps a history of every movement: who, when, from what value to what value. A file keeps nothing. When a 40-unit discrepancy appears, all you have is guesses.
Threshold 4: you sell online what you do not have. If your online store holds its own quantities and the warehouse has a different file, the two will diverge, guaranteed. Every order cancelled for lack of stock costs both the margin and the customer.
What the “free” spreadsheet actually costs
The cost never arrives as an invoice, which is why it is hard to see. Here is where it goes, with numbers you can check against your own operation:
Stocktaking. On paper or in a spreadsheet, a stocktake of a mid-size warehouse takes 2–3 days with 2–3 people. With a scanner and a system, a few hours. Counting quarterly, that is 8–12 person-days a year on counting alone.
Goods ordered twice. Happens when the figure in the file does not match the shelf. Cash sits locked in stock that does not move, sometimes with an expiry date.
Lost sales. The most expensive of all, and invisible: a customer asks, the system says no, the goods were there. It shows up nowhere in the accounts.
Response time. “Let me check and call you back” instead of an answer on the spot. In B2B sales that loses orders to whoever answered immediately.
Add up the hours: if manual checking costs 6 hours a week at an internal €6/hour, that is nearly €1900 a year. A basic system costs €1200, once.
What software gives you, and what it does not
What it genuinely solves: one source of truth about stock, updated automatically on every operation; a complete movement history; low-stock alerts before you run out; barcode stocktaking in hours instead of days; role-based rights so staff cannot change what is not theirs; sync with the online store so you stop selling what you do not have.
What it does NOT solve: if goods arrive and nobody records them, no system on earth saves you. Software makes discipline easier, it does not replace it. If your real problem is that nobody logs deliveries, fix the process first.
Off-the-shelf or custom? Standard software costs €20–€60 per user per month and fits if your processes are ordinary. It becomes more expensive than a custom system when you have many users — at 10 staff that is €2400–€7200 a year, every year — or when you have specifics that do not fit standard software: dual units of measure, batches, expiry dates, returnable packaging.
How to decide, practically
Answer three questions honestly. How many people write into the record? More than one and the spreadsheet is already behind you. Can you say right now, without getting up, how much of item X you have? If not, the record is not working. Did the last stocktake balance first time? If there were discrepancies you could not explain, the cost is already there, you just cannot see it.
If all three answers are fine, stay on the spreadsheet — genuinely. If two of the three are not, you crossed the threshold a while ago.
At ARTYONIX inventory management software starts at €1200 for a single location, €2400 with multiple warehouses and barcode stocktaking, and €3800 integrated with your online store and invoicing. One-time cost, not a per-user subscription: if your team grows, the price does not. The source code stays yours. If you need more than stock — customers, sales, production — then the conversation is about a complete CRM/ERP system.
What to remember
- A spreadsheet is right for one location, under ~300 items and one person entering data.
- The real threshold is the second editor and the second location — that is where unrecoverable errors start.
- The cost of a spreadsheet is not the licence, it is stocktaking days, double ordering and lost sales.
- Software does not replace discipline: if deliveries are not logged, nothing helps.
- Per-user monthly licences become more expensive than a custom system at around 10 users.
- The fastest test: can you say right now, without getting up, the stock level of item X?