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Process · 1 min read

Off spreadsheets in six weeks

How we take a business from a fragile spreadsheet to an app it owns, one week at a time.

JPJonah Price · October 8, 2026

Most businesses we meet run something important on a spreadsheet. It works until it doesn't. Here's how we move one onto an app the business owns, one week at a time.

Week 1: map the work

We sit with the people who use the spreadsheet and write down what actually happens, including the parts nobody wrote down.

Week 2: the data model

The columns become tables. The colour-coding becomes statuses. The comments become history.

Weeks 3 and 4: build in the open

You see working software every Friday. Real data, real screens, nothing hidden until a launch day.

Week 5: move the data

We import the spreadsheet, check every row with the people who know it, and fix what the import gets wrong.

The spreadsheet becomes read-only on the Friday of week five.

Week 6: hand over the keys

The repository, the database and the hosting account move to your name. We stay on if you want us to.

Related workBrightline Coffee: Wholesale ordering, off the spreadsheet.→
JP
Jonah PriceWriter

Jonah writes about process and how projects actually run.