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Stowa: Spreadsheet To Web App

If an important process runs on a spreadsheet that has grown too complicated, we rebuild it as a secure web app with logins, roles, checks on every entry and a record of every change. Your data moves across, and your team is trained to use it.

Get in touch →Check your spreadsheet

The problem Stowa solves

Many organisations have one. It started as a small file to track something. Then more columns arrived, then more people, then macros and links to other files. Now an invoice run, a register, a planning model or a client list depends on it, and the person who built it is the only one who fully understands it. Spreadsheets are a great way to work something out. They're a poor place to keep the records a business depends on.

86%

of spreadsheets had errors in the more careful audits of real business spreadsheets reviewed by Raymond Panko for EuSpRIG, the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group.

Panko, 2000
15,841

positive COVID-19 cases were left out of England's daily figures in 2020 when files exceeded a size limit in the loading process.

Public Health England, 2020
1 in 5

published papers with gene lists in Excel files had gene names silently converted into dates or numbers.

Ziemann et al., 2016
46%

of spreadsheets in one organisation were rated important or very important to the business.

Gable et al., cited in Panko

Has your spreadsheet become a liability?

Tick what's true
Tick the ones that sound familiar.Get in touch

What a web app gives you

Logins and rolesEach person sees and changes only what they should.
Checks on every entryA date has to be a date, required values can't be blank, options come from a list.
An audit trailEvery change is recorded with who made it and when.
One shared copyEveryone works on the same live data, so there are no versions to compare and merge.
Connections to other systemsData flows to your CRM, accounting or reporting without re-keying.
Approvals and remindersStatus, owners, reminders and sign-offs are built in.
ReportingDashboards and exports come straight from the data.
Backups, and access when you need itThe data lives in a managed database that is backed up for you, not on one person's laptop.

How it works

About 4 to 8 weeks for one core spreadsheet
Base campMap

We study the spreadsheet, talk to the people who use it, and write down what it really does, including the parts nobody documented.

Camp twoRoute

We agree what the app should do first, what can wait, and which systems it should connect to.

Summit pushClimb

We build in stages, run it alongside the sheet while you check it, migrate your data, train your team and retire the spreadsheet.

Every Stowa app is different

Each one is built around a different spreadsheet. Typical examples are invoicing runs, registers, intake lists, planning models and trackers. When several linked sheets or systems are involved, we deliver in phases.

When a spreadsheet is still fine

If one person uses it, it rarely changes and a mistake is cheap, keep it. Locking formula cells or adding a drop-down often does the job. We'll tell you when that's the case.

Manual work we've replaced

ACE AustraliaEducation · Invoicing

90% less manual work in invoicing

Manual effort
−90%
Measured over
5 months
ACE AustraliaRead the case →
ACE AustraliaEducation · CRM

EduSync: one system runs the whole agency

Admin per case
~25% less
First release
8 months
ACE AustraliaRead the case →

Got a spreadsheet you'd like to retire?

Tell us what it does. We'll tell you whether it should be an app, and what that would take.

Get in touch
  1. Panko, R. (2000). Spreadsheet Errors: What We Know. What We Think We Can Do. EuSpRIG Symposium. arxiv.org/abs/0802.3457
  2. Public Health England (2020). PHE statement on delayed reporting of COVID-19 cases. GOV.UK
  3. Ziemann, M., Eren, Y. and El-Osta, A. (2016). Gene name errors are widespread in the scientific literature. Genome Biology 17:177. doi.org/10.1186/s13059-016-1044-7