In this guide 6 sections
The weekly review stays on a spreadsheet because someone does not trust the system’s reports, or because nobody told managers to stop. Run the pipeline, overdue and stock reports inside the software, repair the gaps they show, and hold the meeting on that screen. Staff follow the record the meeting uses.
The sheet tells staff which record counts
Watch the team in the week after go live. The software is open on every desk. Then Monday arrives. An hour before the meeting the sales head pastes a CSV export into a pivot table, merging duplicate customers and adding the forecast column the system never had.
Staff read that signal. Whatever the owner opens on the projector is the real record. Everything else is homework. If the workbook wins, entry in the system turns into a chore done for nobody, and nobody notices the records going stale.
The sheet is rarely the problem. The hand off behind it is. Someone exports a CSV, deletes columns, runs a VLOOKUP against the price list and types a weighted forecast beside each deal. Find out who does that, on which day, and which column they cannot get from the system, because that single gap is usually what keeps the whole habit alive.
- Who builds the sheet and on which day
- Which columns come from the system and which are typed
- Which column the system report is missing
- Whether the person doing it was told to stop
Which reports to run inside the system
Start with the three views the meeting already uses. For a sales head that is the open enquiry list by stage, quotes sent but not answered, and orders due this week. For operations it is overdue jobs, stock below reorder level and dispatches pending, each grouped by customer, machine or route so the owner can answer for the line.
Save each one as a named report with a fixed filter, a sort order and an owner. A saved view called Monday pipeline beats a fresh export every week. Nobody re-types a filter. Two people see the same rows.
Where a field is missing, ask the vendor for it. Do not rebuild it with a formula. A field such as lost reason or next call date is usually a small change for the vendor.
- Open enquiries grouped by stage, source and owner
- Quotes older than seven days with no reply logged
- Orders due this week against what is ready
- Invoices past due, aged by customer
- Follow ups with no date set
What complete data looks like before the meeting
A report depends on how few blanks it has. If twelve enquiries have no owner and six quotes have no value, the sheet will look better than the screen, and the manager will be right to say so.
Run a blank check on Friday. Count records missing an owner, a lead source, a next action date or a quote value, then send each person their own list. It takes ten minutes. It saves a long argument on Monday.
Agree what counts as complete. A quote has a customer, a value, a validity date and an owner. A job has a due date and a status. Anything short of that gets chased before the review, never during it, and the person who left the field empty is the one who fixes it by Friday evening.
How to hold the meeting inside the software
Put the screen on the wall and walk the saved reports in order. Refuse a second document. If a number looks wrong, fix the record in the room, then move on.
The first two weeks feel slow. Expect it, and say so before the first meeting begins. A manager who says the sheet is faster is usually right about the first meeting and wrong by the fourth, once the blanks have been chased down.
Retire the workbook openly, in front of the same people who watched it being used. Archive the file, say so, and remove it from the shared folder. A sheet left lying around gets used again. Give the sales head the last word, because staff stop watching for a signal once the person who ran the old sheet runs the new screen.
- Open the meeting on the saved report, never a file
- Correct wrong records live
- Name one owner for each blank list
- Archive the old workbook after week four
Measure it and keep it going
Track two numbers each week: records edited just before the meeting, and blanks found on Friday. Both should fall over a month. If they do not, the report lacks a field, or a team was never trained on that screen. Perhaps a manager keeps a private copy of the numbers that matter to him.
Add the review to the next refresher session. Show managers how to filter, save a view and export only when a client asks for a file. Twenty minutes beats another round of email reminders.
End the first month with one question for the room. Which column did you miss from the old sheet? Add those, and the workbook has no reason left to come back.
Monday review readiness sheet
Three blocks on a single page. The first lists each saved report with its owner, filter and the column it still lacks. The second is a Friday blank check with rows for owner, stage, next action date and amount, and a count per person. The third logs wrong records fixed during the meeting.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Why do managers keep using Excel after go live?
Usually habit plus a missing column. The sheet has a field the system report lacks, or the data in the system has gaps. Fix both and the sheet loses its purpose.
Should we ban the spreadsheet outright?
Ban it from the meeting, not from the desk. People will still analyse an export. What must not happen is a hand edited copy becoming the version everyone discusses.
What if the system report is slower or uglier?
Say so and fix it. Check the filters, the column order and the saved view. A report that takes six clicks will lose to a sheet every time.
How long until the meeting runs from the system?
Plan on about four weekly meetings. The first is awkward, the second exposes the gaps, and by the fourth the blanks list is short.