01The threshold
Look for operating responsibility, not spreadsheet complexity.
A sophisticated model may remain perfectly appropriate for analysis. A modest sheet may be dangerous if it is the only record of customer status, pricing rules, approvals, or job handoffs.
- Several people edit or email copies
- One person understands the formulas or exceptions
- Errors affect customers, jobs, invoices, or decisions
- The sheet needs permissions, workflow, history, or integration
- People are using colors, comments, and tabs as status
02The decision
Replace the responsibility, not necessarily the spreadsheet.
Separate calculation and analysis from operational workflow. Keep the spreadsheet for flexible modeling if it remains useful, while moving shared records, rules, approvals, or status into a system designed to own them.
The right answer may be controls, integration, automation, configuration, or an application.
03How to move
Model the process before rebuilding the interface.
Identify the entities, rules, owners, exceptions, inputs, outputs, and reporting needs. A direct cell-for-screen translation preserves accidental complexity. A process model reveals the smaller system the business actually needs.