Outgrown your spreadsheets? Buy, connect or build
Stock that never matches the shelf, figures re-typed into Xero, and one person who understands the file. Here's how to choose what comes next.
For UK businesses of 5 to 100 people running stock, jobs or quotes on Excel, with Xero, QuickBooks or Sage for the accounts.
Open the guide
Written by Ben Atkinson, Streamlined Analytics. Prices checked against each supplier's UK pricing page, 10 October 2026.
- ✓ Seven signs your spreadsheets are holding you back
- ✓ Real UK prices for stock, job, quoting and CRM software
- ✓ When connecting the tools you have is enough
- ✓ When building your own pays, and when it doesn't
Why it matters
of business spreadsheets contained errors when they were carefully checked, cell by cell.
Panko, University of Hawaii, 2015 review
Covid cases went unreported in England in 2020 because an old Excel file format ran out of rows.
Public Health England, October 2020
fine for a UK bank whose regulator cited reliance on a few key people and spreadsheets that couldn't scale.
Prudential Regulation Authority, Metro Bank, 2021
Three things to know first
- Most businesses should buy first. Stock control, CRM and standard job management are solved problems, and a tested tool that links to Xero or QuickBooks usually costs £30 to £60 per user a month.
- If you already have decent tools that don't talk to each other, connecting them is the cheapest fix, as long as someone owns the connections and checks they're still running.
- Building your own only pays when the way you price or run jobs is what wins you work, and off-the-shelf tools force workarounds that cost more than the build.
What's in the guide
- 01Seven signs you've outgrown your spreadsheets
- 02Buy, connect or build: find your starting point
- 03Buying software: what it really costs
- 04Connecting the tools you already have
- 05When building your own pays, and when it doesn't
- 06The decision in one table, with three-year costs
- 07Before you switch: what to agree with your accountant
- 08How we help
Common questions
When should a business stop using spreadsheets?
When the spreadsheet is costing more than it saves: one person is the only one who understands it, figures are re-typed into Xero or QuickBooks, stock never matches the shelf, or month-end takes days. Spreadsheets are fine for analysis; they struggle as the system several people rely on.
Does Xero have stock management?
Yes, a basic version. Xero tracks up to 4,000 stock items but has no multiple locations, assemblies or raw materials. Past that, most businesses add a stock app that links to Xero, such as Zoho Inventory, inFlow or Unleashed.
Is it cheaper to buy software or build your own?
Usually buying is cheaper for standard jobs like stock control or a CRM. Building costs more up front (typically £12,000 to £35,000 for a focused tool) but has no per-user fees, so it can work out cheaper for larger teams or for work that doesn't fit any off-the-shelf product.
What should my accountant check before I switch systems?
That opening stock values match between the old and new systems, that the new system posts sales, cost of sales and stock to the right accounts, how it values stock, and that job costs are captured in a way that supports year-end work in progress.