Short answer
Switch off Excel for stock when more than one person edits the same file or goods move between locations; the clearest signal is someone asking which file is current. With a few hundred SKUs, one warehouse and one person entering stock, Excel still works. A better spreadsheet, AppSheet and off-the-shelf software all sit between Excel and bespoke.
Key points
- Excel still works with a few hundred SKUs, one warehouse and one person entering stock.
- What decides it is how many people edit the file and how many places goods move between, not product count.
- An hour a day lost to re-keying is roughly 250 hours a year, per person.
- Three steps sit between Excel and bespoke: a better spreadsheet, AppSheet or Access, and off-the-shelf software.
- Migrate one warehouse at a time, run both side by side for a month, and retire Excel only when totals agree.
Can you still run stock control on Excel?
Yes, with a few hundred SKUs, one warehouse and one person entering stock; there is no reason to rush. The threshold that matters has little to do with how many products you carry. It is how many people edit the same file, and how many places goods move between.
The clearest signal is the moment someone asks which file is the current one. That question means the spreadsheet has become a shared database, a job Excel was never built for and no formula fixes.
Where is Excel already good at stock control?
In flexibility and cost. Need another column? Add it now. Need an odd calculation only your business does? Write it and move on. For a company whose counting rules are still settling, locking into a fixed system early makes the work harder.
Everyone already knows how to use it: no training, no per-seat licence, opens on any machine. For a young business that cost is zero, which matters a great deal while cash is tight.
So for plenty of businesses the honest answer is: not yet. Know where the line sits, and switch when you cross it rather than when it starts to feel overdue.
How do you know Excel can no longer handle your stock?
Watch for the six signs below. Every one costs real money that never appears as a line item, so it stays invisible until you sit down and work it out.
- More than one version of the stock file is circulating and people have to ask which is current
- The number in the file and the goods on the shelf routinely disagree, and you only find out at month-end count
- The same lines get re-keyed into accounting or the sales system every day
- Things run out with no warning, because nothing flags a line below its reorder point
- A second warehouse or shop opened and now there are two files that cannot be totalled together
- When a number is wrong, nobody can tell who changed it or when
What sits between Excel and a bespoke system?
Three steps: a better spreadsheet, a no-code app builder, and off-the-shelf inventory software. Most people frame it as two options, keep suffering or commission something expensive. There are at least four steps, and the right move is the cheapest one that actually solves the problem.
A better spreadsheet means moving it to Google Sheets or OneDrive so it edits concurrently and keeps a version history, locking the cells nobody should touch, and giving the person entering data a form rather than a raw grid. It is free and removes most of the which-file-is-current problem on its own.
No-code builders such as AppSheet and Access build straight on the table you already have and take days rather than months. They suit settled processes with a handful of users. Two limits show up later: per-user licensing climbs faster than expected, and these systems are usually built by one employee. When that person leaves, nobody else can change it.
Off-the-shelf inventory software means paying monthly and starting today. It fits when your way of working is not far off everyone else's in your industry. A bespoke system pays off only when the way you work is itself the advantage, and packaged software would force you to give it up.
- Better spreadsheetCloud editing, locked cells, an entry form. Free, and ends the which-file problem.
- AppSheet or AccessBuilds on your existing table; suits settled processes and a few users.
- Off-the-shelfPay monthly, start today, when you work much like others in your industry.
- BespokePays off when your way of working is the advantage packaged software would remove.
Excel, AppSheet, off-the-shelf or bespoke: how do they compare?
They differ on up-front cost, time to start, multi-user editing and who can maintain them. The table compares on the criteria owners actually decide by, not feature counts. Read the last row first: who can maintain it is the question most often skipped and the one that hurts most when something breaks.
| Excel / Sheets | AppSheet, Access | Off-the-shelf | Bespoke | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | None | Low, priced per user | Monthly, from a few hundred baht | Six figures and up |
| Time to start | Today | Days | Same day | Months |
| Several people at once | Collides as the team grows | Yes, but licensing scales with headcount | Yes | Yes |
| Fits how you work | Completely | Within the tool's limits | As far as the vendor allows | Completely |
| Who changed what, when | On cloud versions, but hard to follow | Partial | Yes | Yes, fully auditable |
| Who maintains it if the builder leaves | Anyone | Usually one person knows how | The vendor | Per contract: pin down who owns the code |
Is Excel really free for stock control?
No. Its cost is not paid in money but in hours and in stock that goes missing, and it is worth pricing once.
If the person handling stock loses an hour a day to re-keying and working out which number is right, that is roughly 250 hours a year, for one person. Multiply by their hourly cost and set it beside the annual software fee you are hesitating over.
The larger cost is harder to see: goods you did not have when a customer ordered, and goods you over-ordered that now sit still. Both come from not seeing true quantities in time, and both usually cost a multiple of the wasted labour.
- a day spent re-keying and chasing the right number
- 1 hour
- a year, per person, before stock-outs and dead stock
- ~250 hours
How do you move stock off Excel without stopping work?
One piece at a time. Start with the single warehouse or product group causing the most pain, run the new system alongside the spreadsheet for one full month, then compare the closing figures. Retire the old file only once they agree.
Clean the data before you move it. Duplicate SKUs, the same product spelled three ways, and units that mix pieces with cartons are the three things that most often make migrations overrun. They are also work your own team can do far more cheaply than an outside vendor.
Finally, keep the last spreadsheet, read-only. Do not delete it. The first year after a switch always brings questions about historical numbers, and that file is the only record of what they were.
- Clean the dataMerge duplicate SKUs, standardise names, separate pieces from cartons.
- Start smallBegin with the warehouse or product group causing the most pain.
- Run bothThe new system and the spreadsheet side by side for one full month.
- Compare totalsRetire the old file only when month-end figures agree.
- Keep the last fileStore the final spreadsheet read-only for historical questions.
Have you crossed the line yet?
- Does more than one person edit the stock file on the same day?
- Has anyone had to ask which file is the latest?
- When did the file and the shelf last agree?
- Are the same lines re-keyed into another system?
- Does anything warn you before a line runs out?
- Is there more than one location, with no way to total across them?
- If a figure is wrong, can you trace who changed it?
- If the person who built the file left tomorrow, could anyone maintain the formulas?
Frequently asked questions
Is free inventory software good enough?
For a small business, yes, and it is a sensible place to start before paying anything. The limits are consistent across vendors: capped users, capped SKUs, and backups you do not control. Before you commit data, ask whether you can export everything to a file later. If not, the product is not really free; the cost is being stuck there.
Which inventory software is best?
None is best for every business, because the deciding factor is how you count your own goods. Check three things before features: does it handle nested units, sold as pieces but bought by the carton? Does it support multiple locations and transfers? Can you export your own data without asking the vendor? Those three are the hardest to change later.
Do we need barcodes for stock control?
You need them once goods move often enough that typing codes by hand starts producing errors, which is roughly tens of movements a day. Below that, the scanners and labelling are not yet worth it. When you do start, a plain USB scanner is inexpensive and behaves like a keyboard. Handheld units can wait.
Can a factory use ordinary inventory software?
Yes for goods in and goods out, but not if you need production costing. A factory needs two more things: a bill of materials saying what each unit consumes, and purchasing planned against the production schedule. Ordinary inventory tools have neither. What fits is a manufacturing ERP or a bespoke system.
How long does moving off Excel take?
It depends on how many locations you have and how clean the old data is. Most of the effort goes on cleaning that data and agreeing what each figure actually means, well before any building starts. If your team fixes duplicate SKUs, product names and units first, that part shortens considerably.
Could we just build it in AppSheet ourselves?
Yes, and it is worth trying before spending real money, provided the process is settled and only a few people use it. Two cautions. Licensing is per user, so as the team grows the cost catches up with a bespoke build faster than expected. More importantly, these systems usually have one person who can change them; if they leave without documenting anything, nobody can touch it.