When a spreadsheet stops being enough for your stock

A spreadsheet is a perfectly good way to track stock, for a while. It is free, everyone already knows how to use it, and it bends to whatever you need this week. This article is about recognising the point where it stops keeping up, what an inventory system such as OpenBoxes does differently at that point, and what switching actually costs you. It is written for small NGOs, clinics and health programs, where lots, expiry dates and several sites are usually what tip the balance.

When a spreadsheet is still the right tool#

Be honest about this first. If you have one store room, a few dozen items, nothing that expires, and one person who keeps the sheet, a spreadsheet may serve you well for years. An inventory system adds logins, set-up and training. It pays for itself only when the sheet has started costing you something.

Seven signs the sheet is costing you#

1. Stock lives in more than one place. A central store and two clinics means three sets of numbers, and every transfer has to be typed twice: out of one tab and into another. When someone forgets the second half, the totals drift and nobody can say where. In OpenBoxes each site is a location, and a transfer is one stock movement from one location to another, so both ends of the transfer are recorded against the same movement.

2. You need to know which batch you have. Medicines and many medical supplies carry lot numbers and expiry dates, and the same product can sit on the shelf in three batches with three dates. A single row per product cannot hold that. OpenBoxes records every batch separately, with its lot number, expiry date and quantity, and suggests the lot that expires first when you pick stock. FEFO explained covers why that order matters.

3. Stock expires before anyone notices. If finding what expires next month means sorting a column and hoping every row has a date, things will be missed. In OpenBoxes the Inventory Browser shows the nearest expiry date next to each product, and Expiring stock: redistribute, return or write off covers what to do once you see it.

4. Several people edit the sheet, and a number changed. A spreadsheet can tell you what a cell says now, not who changed it or why. In OpenBoxes every adjustment is recorded with who made it, when, and a reason code, and the product's stock card shows every receipt, issue, adjustment and transfer with the running balance.

5. Answering a simple question means rebuilding history. "How much did we use last quarter?" should not take an afternoon of filtering. When every movement is a transaction, consumption over a period is a report, not a reconstruction. It is also the number you need for months of stock and for setting min and max levels.

6. You find stock-outs when the clinic calls. A sheet does not tell you anything; you have to look. In OpenBoxes you can set a minimum level for each product at each location, and OpenBoxes Lift can send a daily email listing what is below its minimum and which lots are close to expiry. The email is opt-in and comes at most once a day, only when something needs attention. Only products with a minimum level set are checked for being low; the expiry list does not need a minimum. See Stock alerts, and Catching stock-outs before the clinic does for a short daily routine to go with it.

7. Counts never match, and nobody can explain why. A physical count that disagrees with the sheet leaves you choosing which to believe. A count in OpenBoxes is recorded lot by lot, the differences are shown, and approving the count records the adjusting transactions, so next month's count starts from a known point. Cycle counting for small warehouses describes a routine that fits a small team.

If two or three of these are familiar, the sheet is already costing you more than it saves.

What switching costs#

Switching is mostly work on your own data, and it is worth knowing that before you start.

• Cleaning the product list. One code per product, consistent names, a unit for each. This is the largest job, and it is the same job whatever system you move to. Importing your product list from a spreadsheet lists what to fix first and what the importer handles for you.
• Deciding your locations. Which stores, clinics and bins exist, and what each is called.
• Starting stock. A count, or your current sheet, as the opening balance.
• Training. Time for the people who receive, issue and count to learn the new screens.
• Money. OpenBoxes is open-source and free to run on your own server, or you can pay a host to run it. Self-hosted or managed OpenBoxes: a total-cost worksheet helps you compare the two.

Moving the sheet across#

In OpenBoxes Lift you do not have to retype anything. The Import Data wizard takes the spreadsheet as it is, as CSV or .xlsx, maps your columns to products, locations, inventory and stock movements, and shows you a preview before anything loads. A stock card or consumption log kept in Excel can come across as transaction history rather than just a closing balance. Migrating data has the steps, and the one-minute video How to Import Data shows an import from upload to products in OpenBoxes.

Try it before you decide#

Two free ways to see whether OpenBoxes fits:

• The public demo at openboxes.cloud/demo is a full OpenBoxes instance with a sample health network already in it: a central warehouse, regional depots and clinics, with about two years of history. It is shared with other visitors and resets every day, so nothing you enter is kept.
• A 30-day free trial gives you a private instance for your own data. A payment method is needed at signup, and nothing is charged until the trial ends.

Summary#

• A spreadsheet is fine for one store, a few items, nothing that expires and one editor.
• Several sites, batches with expiry dates, several editors, history questions, late stock-outs and unexplained counts are the signs it has stopped being enough.
• The cost of switching is mostly cleaning your product list, and that work is the same whichever system you choose.
• Import the sheet as it is, and try the demo or a trial before you commit.