Spreadsheets, no-code or a custom tool: what to choose as your business grows

Most small businesses and associations run a good part of their operations in Excel or Google Sheets. At the start, it's often the right call: it costs next to nothing and everyone knows how to use it.

As the business grows, with more orders and one or two more people on the team, the file that used to work fine starts producing errors. At that point you have to choose between organizing the spreadsheet better, moving to no-code, or having a custom tool built. Here's how we see each option, including the cases where custom isn't the right answer.

What a good management tool should do for you

For us, a good management tool does the mental juggling for the owner: you no longer have to remember which file is waiting for which document, or redo the same calculations every week. The tool knows, and it shows you.

That's what we built for Soglama, an anchovy cannery that exports from the port of Agadir. A single data entry there produces the export invoice, the packing list, the labels and the material requirements. Export paperwork that took about three days now takes around 30 minutes, and weekly payroll and social-security declarations are automated.

A very different case: BOWL.MA, a dark kitchen in Agadir, where everything depends on preparation speed. We built it a custom kitchen system designed around that speed: orders from the different platforms land in a single system and show up directly in the kitchen. The restaurant often ranks near the top on delivery platforms, largely thanks to that speed.

Excel: great for getting started and exploring

Excel has real strengths. When your way of working hasn't settled yet, a spreadsheet lets you add a column or change your mind the next day without asking anyone.

Before switching tools, organizing the file better is sometimes enough: one tab per type of data, drop-down lists, protected formulas, and a single shared online file instead of copies. But some signs show you've outgrown the spreadsheet.

• Several versions of the same file are going around, and you have to ask which one is current.
• The same data gets re-typed from one file to another, for example the order goes into the tracking sheet, then into the invoice.
• Only one person “knows how the file works.” When they're away, everything slows down.
• Errors are spotted by your clients.
• There are no real access rights: everyone sees the whole file and can change things they shouldn't touch.
• You redo the same calculations every week, by hand.

No-code: quick to start, hard to leave

Tools such as Airtable, Notion, Softr, Make or Zapier let you set up a database and automations without writing code, within days. For a simple internal workflow, low volumes or a prototype, they're often a good choice.

Our reservation fits in one sentence: a tool should adapt to the way you work, not the other way around. With no-code, you quickly become a prisoner of the tool. Subscriptions are usually priced per user, per number of records or per number of automation runs, so the bill grows with the business. And the day you need a rule of your own, such as a specific pricing calculation or an approval flow that doesn't fit the boxes, the tool decides what's possible.

Leaving is expensive too. Data can usually be exported, but the screens, the automations and the business logic stay with the vendor, and you have to rebuild them somewhere else.

Custom: more within reach than you might think

Many owners rule out custom software straight away, thinking of quotes they've already received. In our view, those quotes often stay high because they still rely on yesterday's methods, with long specification phases and large teams. Today, a focused business tool can be live in a few weeks.

It doesn't mean replacing everything at once. A custom tool covers the process that matters most to you, with your rules, and connects to what you keep, like your accounting software or your website.

It has drawbacks too: a higher upfront cost than a subscription, and a provider you need to choose carefully, since the tool will have to evolve with you.

A simple grid to decide

In practice, this is how we think it through when an owner asks us.

• Excel is enough if few people use the file, data doesn't move from one file to another, your process still changes often, and a mistake can be fixed without consequences for the client.
• No-code fits a simple internal workflow (leave requests, applicant tracking, room booking, a small inventory), low volumes, or a prototype to test an idea before investing. Plan from day one how you'll get out.
• Custom makes sense for your core process, the one that keeps the business running, when data flows through several steps (order, production, invoice, delivery), when you have rules specific to your trade, when clients or partners need access to a portal, or when subscription costs climb with volume.

Questions to ask, whatever you choose

Some criteria weigh heavily over time, and they rarely come up in a sales demo.

• Who owns the code and the data? For a custom tool, insist on owning the code and the hosting access. For a no-code tool or subscription software, at least check that you can export all your data in a readable format.
• What does leaving cost? Picture yourself changing tools in three years: what comes with you, and what will have to be rebuilt?
• Where is the data hosted? As soon as the tool holds personal data, about clients or employees for example, GDPR applies, or the revised Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP) in Switzerland. Hosting in Europe and a data processing agreement (DPA) with each provider make things much simpler.
• Who can make it evolve? If only one person, in-house or at a provider, understands the tool, you're back to the Excel file that only one person can handle.

Where to start

Start with a single process: the one that wastes the most time, or the one that produces the most errors. Note how many hours it takes each week and how many times the same information gets entered. That's often enough to tell whether a better-organized spreadsheet will do, or whether you need to go further.

If you're unsure, the 30-minute diagnostic is free: a video call to look at that process with you, followed by a written recommendation, even if it's to stick with Excel a while longer.