Spreadsheets are where many good business processes begin.
They’re quick to set up, easy to share, and familiar to almost everyone. For small teams and early-stage organisations, they often feel like the most efficient option.
The problem is what happens when a spreadsheet stops being a temporary fix and quietly becomes critical infrastructure.
That’s the moment risk creeps in, and most organisations don’t notice until something goes wrong.
Why spreadsheets struggle as businesses grow
Spreadsheets are designed to store and manipulate data, not to manage live operational processes.
As organisations grow, processes naturally become more complex. Volumes increase, deadlines tighten, compliance expectations rise – challenges that become compounded when more people get involved and coordination becomes critical.
Spreadsheets don’t adapt well to that reality.
What often starts as a simple tracker slowly turns into a fragile system held together by manual steps, inboxes, and workarounds.
You may recognise some of these patterns:
- Multiple versions of the same file circulating by email or Teams
- Manual copy and paste between spreadsheets and other systems
- No clear ownership of tasks or approvals
- Updates relying on people remembering to do the right thing
- One person who “knows how it works”
At this point, teams are spending more time updating, chasing, and fixing the spreadsheet than doing the work it was supposed to support.
The hidden risks of spreadsheet-driven workflows
Spreadsheet-based workflows fail quietly, with deadlines slipping unnoticed, requests sitting in inboxes, and errors creeping in during manual handoffs, while reporting becomes retrospective rather than real-time.
Over time, this creates several types of risk.
Operational risk
When processes depend on manual steps, they slow down under pressure as work queues build up, bottlenecks form, and teams spend more time chasing updates than doing meaningful work.
A procurement process that should take three days stretches to two weeks because approvals happen in email chains. An onboarding workflow stalls because someone forgot to update the master tracker.
Knowledge risk
Critical processes often rely on individuals rather than systems. When someone is off sick, on leave, or leaves the business, progress stalls.
This isn’t about documentation. It’s about the fact that the process itself exists in someone’s head rather than in a system that can guide anyone through it.
Data and compliance risk
Spreadsheets offer limited audit trails. It can be difficult to prove who did what, when, and why. In regulated or process-heavy environments, this becomes a serious exposure.
Consider what happens when an auditor asks: “Show me evidence that this approval happened on this date.” If the answer involves searching through email or relying on someone’s memory, you have a compliance gap.
Scaling risk
What works for ten requests a week rarely works for a hundred, as spreadsheets don’t scale gracefully and the effort required to maintain them increases exponentially. The person managing the spreadsheet becomes a bottleneck while new columns get added, formulas break, and conditional formatting becomes impenetrable until eventually, nobody wants to touch it for fear of breaking something.
None of this is usually intentional. It’s simply the result of processes outgrowing the tools they were built on.
Early warning signs your spreadsheet has gone too far
Many organisations wait until something breaks before they reconsider their approach.
In reality, there are usually warning signs long before that point.
You may be relying too heavily on spreadsheets if:
- Losing access to one file would stop a process entirely
- You can’t see what’s overdue without opening multiple documents
- Approvals happen in email, chat, or verbally—never in the actual system
- Reporting is manual and time-consuming, often taking half a day each week
- People regularly ask, “Which version is the latest?”
- A process only works because one person keeps it moving
- New starters take weeks to understand “how things work”
- You’re building increasingly complex macros or scripts to keep things running
These are not technology problems. They are process maturity problems.
And they’re often more easily fixable than you think.
A quick self-assessment
Take 30 seconds to answer these questions about your most critical spreadsheet-based process:
- If the person who manages it was unavailable for two weeks, would the process continue smoothly?
- Can you produce an audit trail showing who approved what and when?
- Do people know what they need to do without being chased?
- Could you onboard a new team member to this process in under an hour?
- Does the system prevent common errors automatically?
If you answered “no” to three or more, you’re likely experiencing spreadsheet sprawl.
Why this matters more than ever
As organisations face increasing pressure to do more with less, manual admin-heavy processes become a drag on productivity and morale, with teams ending up firefighting instead of improving while leaders lack visibility into what’s actually happening and small issues compound into operational noise that drowns out strategic work.
In regulated sectors, the stakes are even higher. When auditors, regulators, or senior stakeholders ask how a process works, “it’s in a spreadsheet” is rarely a reassuring answer. It signals process immaturity and potential control weaknesses.
This is where workflow automation becomes a strategic decision, not a technical one.
Spreadsheets aren’t the enemy. Over-reliance is.
It’s important to be clear: spreadsheets still have a place.
They’re excellent for analysis, modelling, exploration, and ad-hoc reporting—the problem arises when they’re used to run live operational workflows day after day, particularly workflows that involve multiple people, approvals, handoffs, and audit requirements.
Modern workflow automation doesn’t mean ripping everything out or embarking on a risky transformation programme. It means recognising when a process needs structure, visibility, and accountability, and implementing targeted solutions that address specific pain points.
The goal isn’t to eliminate spreadsheets, it’s to use the right tool for the right job.
What workflow automation actually delivers
When done well, workflow automation provides what spreadsheets can’t:
Structured processes that guide people through the right steps in the right order, reducing errors and training time.
Automatic notifications that eliminate the need for manual chasing and keep everyone informed of their responsibilities.
Built-in audit trails that record every action, approval, and change automatically, satisfying compliance requirements without extra work.
Real-time visibility into process status, bottlenecks, and performance, enabling proactive management rather than reactive firefighting.
Scalability that allows processes to handle increasing volumes without requiring proportional increases in administrative effort.
Most importantly, it gives teams back the time they were spending on process administration and allows them to focus on the work that actually matters.
Taking the first step
At Warp Technologies, we often see organisations take their first step by automating a single workflow that has quietly become critical – usually one that’s causing visible pain or compliance concern.
The impact of that one change is usually immediate: fewer errors, faster cycle times, happier teams, and leadership gaining visibility they never had before.
You don’t need to solve everything at once. Start with the process that’s causing the most friction, automate it properly, and build from there.
What comes next
In the next part of this series, we’ll unpack what workflow automation actually means in practical terms: the key capabilities to look for, common implementation patterns, and how to choose the right approach for your organisation’s maturity level.
We’ll also address the question most organisations ask: “How do we move from spreadsheets to automation without disrupting live processes?”
Up next: What Workflow Automation Actually Means (Without the Jargon)
