Integrate the reality before replacing it
The existing sheets were mapped column by column to establish what each branch genuinely needed versus what had drifted. That distinction defined the schema and kept the build narrow.
A logistics business ran four branches on six shared spreadsheets. Each branch had adapted its copy over time, so the columns no longer matched, and head office spent a large part of every week reconciling them into a picture that was already out of date.
1
Dashboard, was 6 sheets
4
Branches on one system
2024
Delivered
Custom Software
Discipline
The problem
Six spreadsheets, four branches, no shared view of anything.
Six spreadsheets that had diverged, with no reliable consolidated view
Everyone could see and edit everything, including commercial data that should have been restricted
Version conflicts and accidental overwrites, with no history to recover from
Reporting rebuilt by hand each week, which meant decisions ran on last week's numbers
The approach
The existing sheets were mapped column by column to establish what each branch genuinely needed versus what had drifted. That distinction defined the schema and kept the build narrow.
Branch staff, branch managers and head office see different slices. Retrofitting permissions onto a tool people already use is considerably harder than starting with them.
A live operational view across all four branches, replacing the weekly reconciliation entirely rather than automating it.
Who changed what and when, so the version-conflict problem that made the spreadsheets untrustworthy could not reappear in the new system.
One branch live first, with its feedback folded in before the next went on. The last branch had a materially better experience than the first.
The outcome
Single operations dashboard with role-based access across branches.
Six divergent spreadsheets consolidated into one system
All four branches on a shared live view, with weekly manual reconciliation removed
Commercial data restricted by role rather than visible to everyone
Full change history, so disputed records can be traced rather than argued about
Capabilities used
More work
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