Have you saved up for an expensive CRM tool to have all your customer information set up in a spreadsheet? Spreadsheets can be practical, easy to access, and appealing at the beginning of your new business journey.
The spreadsheet challenge
The team behind Alunta is no stranger to using spreadsheets. Online spreadsheets created through Google have been a big part of our daily workflow for quite some time. In many cases, they still are. I’ve also had colleagues in the industry show me their massive spreadsheets filled with intricate color codes and dropdown menus. They understand their spreadsheets, but I would never be able to work in them—and the reverse would probably be true as well. It’s easy to see why spreadsheets are a popular and often preferred way to manage data. They’re super easy to create, and with a knack for keyboard shortcuts, you can quickly navigate and calculate the data you need. But it just wasn’t sustainable. The spreadsheet grew quickly. It required constant manual maintenance. On top of that, multiple people at Alunta had access to the same spreadsheet, each capable of making changes. It soon became a daily routine for me to log into the spreadsheet just to ensure no errors had crept in. Talk about a time sink… The spreadsheet containing all client information, payment dates, renewals, and agreements was neatly arranged in rows and columns. Employees could add comments to various cells, noting updates that needed to be made in other systems, such as e-conomic. Over time, a workflow emerged where comments were added to the spreadsheet, then manually processed and updated in e-conomic. This led to countless errors, and for those familiar with correcting mistakes in e-conomic, you’ll understand how much time was wasted trying to fix them.
The risk of errors with spreadsheets
So, as much as I love spreadsheets, I had to admit that the risk of errors was simply too high. And when those errors impact invoicing and revenue, we knew we needed a new way to organize this data and these workflows. While spreadsheets offer flexibility, they’re not designed for scalability or handling complex tasks like invoicing. I’ve seen large IT companies rely on multiple spreadsheets to manage projects, clients, and invoices. Impressive spreadsheets, filled with formulas and color codes. But even the most well-structured spreadsheet isn’t immune to mistakes. When employees manually input or update data, there’s always the risk of mixing up numbers, failing to copy cells correctly, or losing track of critical information like revenue. A single error in a cell can lead to incorrect invoices or faulty internal reports. These were the types of errors I encountered in our spreadsheets. And financial data, in particular, can have significant consequences for decisions made in other parts of the business. So, we had to replace our spreadsheets with a system—a system that became Alunta.
Fewer errors created more time
We said goodbye to our spreadsheets and started building Alunta. Our goal was to automate as many of our processes as possible. Not just a prettier frontend for entering data, but a system that requires less manual effort to run a subscription-based business. Previously, updates were based on comments in a Google Sheet. Now, changes are made directly in Alunta. From Alunta, we set up a direct connection to e-conomic, ensuring that the invoices we create in Alunta have the same information in both systems. This was the first area where we saw a dramatic decrease in errors within our bookkeeping. It’s a cliché to say this, but I truly experienced how more accurate bookkeeping and invoicing gave me more time for other tasks—or simply time to take a breather without falling behind. Read about how the billing process is automated here.
Do we need more integrations?!
When Alunta first launched, e-conomic was the only integration we needed—simply to automate the bookkeeping of our revenue. But we quickly learned from customers and industry colleagues that there was a demand for more integrations. That’s why we set up an integration with Zapier, which took data communication to a whole new level. From there, you can update Pipedrive with new customers or automate the addition of new subscribers to your newsletter with tools like ActiveCampaign. We also became increasingly interested in essential financial data ourselves. As a result, we built an integration with ChartMogul. ChartMogul is a platform that offers analysis of subscription data. By feeding ChartMogul with our financial data, we gained insights into crucial metrics such as customer lifetime value, churn, and conversion rates. The integration with ChartMogul opens up endless possibilities for analyzing and understanding your subscription business.
Scalability and control
By replacing spreadsheets with automated data handling, we unlocked opportunities for more detailed business analysis. We realized we could scale our data processing in an entirely new way—without it consuming a significant amount of our time. In fact, everything just moved faster. For a growing business, this need is obvious. Each month brings more customers and projects to manage. The real challenge is making the switch early enough, so the “monster” is as small as possible to tame, so to speak. Throughout this journey, we learned a lot from our customers. They highlighted how needs vary across different businesses, paving the way for us to create an open API. This API allows for unparalleled control and customization. In short, there are no limits to scalability. Both we and many Alunta users transitioned from large spreadsheets and bookkeeping errors to a system that handles everything for us. Instead of logging in to check for errors in a spreadsheet, I now log into Alunta. There, I’m presented with a list of customers ready to be invoiced. With just a few clicks, I create the invoices, and Alunta sends them to the customers and records them in e-conomic. All with a few clicks and no errors.
