Why Small Manufacturers Still Use Spreadsheets (And When to Stop)

If you run a small workshop — whether you make food, cosmetics, candles, or anything else in batches — chances are you started with Excel or Google Sheets. And honestly, that makes sense. Spreadsheets are free, flexible, and familiar.

But there's a point where they break.

For most small manufacturers, that point comes when you start selling through multiple channels. Amazon knows its inventory. Your distributor has their own numbers. The local shop orders by phone. Suddenly you have five sources of truth and none of them agree.

The second breaking point is cost tracking. You have a recipe with 8 ingredients. One supplier raises prices. Another gives you a volume discount. Now the cost of your product changed — but the spreadsheet doesn't know that. You have to manually update every formula, every product, every SKU. Miss one cell and you're selling at a loss without realizing it.

The third is traceability. If you're in food or cosmetics, regulators want to know exactly which batch of raw material went into which finished product. Try doing that in Excel when you have 50 products and 30 ingredients.

At some point, the spreadsheet becomes a liability, not a tool.

There are solutions out there — from massive ERPs that cost thousands to simpler tools built for small batch production. One example is https://krafte.app — built by a team that actually runs a paint manufactory and got tired of spreadsheet chaos themselves.

The point isn't to sell you on any specific tool. The point is: recognize when your spreadsheet stops helping and starts hiding problems. That moment comes faster than you think.