What the sheet got right
Fast capture. Visible columns. No training. We keep capture short and the board readable — then add the rules a cell cannot enforce.
Leave the spreadsheet
FINAL_v8.xlsx is not a CRM. It is how the team pretends they have one.
A sheet cannot ping a silent deal, cannot gate a stage, cannot turn an accepted quote into an order, and cannot isolate one customer’s data from another with a database rule. Those are the frustrations that make people say they “hate CRM” — when what they hate is typing into a tool that does not save them on Monday.
Move the motion that hurts first: leads with an owner and a next action, opportunities with aging, quotes that are records. Import historic rows when you are ready. Start with a 30-day Professional trial so the radar is on while you wean off the file.
What it cannot do
Stalled-deal alerts. Quote PDF from line items. Forecast = board. Row-level tenant isolation. Stage gates. That is the need.
How teams switch
Run Pro for 30 days in parallel. When the aging queue finds a deal the sheet still calls “healthy,” you will not go back.