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Key Takeaways
- Do not import every historic sheet. Import the entities you will operate next week.
- Run Excel and the new system in parallel for one cycle, then lock the sheet.
- OVN Technologies treats spreadsheet migration as a data and change problem, not only a UI problem.
How to migrate from Excel to custom business software is less about Vue vs React and more about who owns the “real” file. If that file is on one laptop, you do not have a database. You have a risk.
OVN Technologies builds the replacement application and the import. We will not pretend a weekend cutover is safe if masters are dirty.
Why Excel breaks
Multiple versions, no audit trail, formulas nobody understands, and a process that only one person can run. Excel is a great prototype. It is a poor system of record.
What to migrate first
The operational loop that hurts: orders this week, inventory this week, enquiries this week. Archive the 2019 dump. Historians can keep a read-only export.
Clean data before you import
Deduplicate customers, pick one code per SKU, agree GST fields. Importing 12 spellings of the same vendor trains the new system to be as bad as the sheet.
Cutover without a heroic weekend
- New system for new records.
- Parallel week with a reconcilation report.
- Freeze the sheet (read-only share).
- Only then build fancy dashboards.
If staff keep a “backup Excel,” the project has not launched. Fix incentives and access, not only features.
FAQ
Can you import all our old Excel files?
We can. We usually should not. Volume without cleanup creates a slow, untrusted app. We import what operations need going forward.
Is this the same as buying ERP?
Sometimes a packaged ERP is the right Excel replacement. Custom software is for processes that will never fit the package without painful workarounds.
How do we get the team off Excel?
Make the new tool faster for the daily job, remove write access to the old file after cutover, and train the actual users — not only managers.