Moving your warehouse off spreadsheets

Most warehouses start with spreadsheets, and for a while they work. Then the business grows: more SKUs, more orders, another shift, perhaps a second site. The spreadsheet that was “good enough” starts to cause missed orders, mispicks and long evenings reconciling stock.

This guide explains why spreadsheets stop working, what to prepare before you move to a warehouse management system (WMS), and how to plan the switch so the warehouse keeps shipping.

Why spreadsheets stop working in a warehouse

Spreadsheets are flexible, cheap and familiar. In a warehouse, they have four structural weaknesses:

1. They hold totals, not locations. A cell says 120 units, but not which bins the stock is in.
2. They cannot confirm what physically moved. Nobody scans anything, so the spreadsheet only knows what someone remembered to type.
3. They depend on one person. The file has an owner, and when that person is busy or away, updates stop.
4. They have no audit trail. When figures are wrong, there is no record of who changed what, or why.

The result is stock that cannot be trusted without checking, pickers who rely on memory, and managers who spend time reconciling instead of running the operation.

Fix the process before you choose software

Software will not fix a process nobody agrees on. Before you start demos, write down how these work today:

• How deliveries are checked in, and what happens when something is short or damaged.
• Where received stock goes, and who decides.
• How pick faces are topped up from bulk storage.
• How orders are picked, packed and dispatched, and what the cut-off times are.
• How returns are handled.
• How stock differences are investigated and corrected.

Walk the warehouse with this list. Where the real process differs from the documented one, decide which one you want the new system to follow.

The data you need to prepare

Clean data makes the difference between a calm go-live and a painful one. Prepare these before you load anything:

Data	Why it matters	Tip
Products and SKUs	Every scan and order line depends on them	Remove duplicates and agree one SKU format
Barcodes and pack sizes	Pickers confirm items by scanning	Check that every product has a scannable barcode
Units of measure	Prevents picking a case when a single was ordered	Decide how eaches, inners, cases and pallets relate
Locations	Stock is held and counted by location	Agree one naming scheme and label every location
Suppliers and lead times	Drives reordering and expected deliveries	Record minimum order quantities and usual lead times
Customers and price lists	Orders, pricing and credit control depend on them	Merge duplicates and check credit limits
Open orders	Work in progress on go-live day	List open sales and purchase orders separately

If you track batches or expiry dates, also prepare lot numbers and dates for stock on hand.

Set up locations and barcodes

A WMS is only as accurate as its locations. Choose a scheme that operators can read at a glance, for example zone, aisle, bay, level and position. Then:

• Print a barcode label for every location and fix it where it can be scanned without climbing.
• Mark pick faces separately from bulk storage.
• Create locations for goods in, quarantine, returns and dispatch, so stock is never “nowhere”.
• Keep a short written guide to the scheme for new starters.

Plan the go-live

A simple, well-rehearsed go-live is safer than a clever one:

1. Pick a quiet period. Avoid peak season, month end and major promotions.
2. Freeze changes. Stop creating new products and locations in the old spreadsheet a few days before.
3. Count everything. Do a full stock count against labelled locations and load it as opening stock.
4. Load open orders. Bring in sales and purchase orders that are still in progress.
5. Switch on one date. Avoid weeks of running the spreadsheet and the WMS in parallel.
6. Check closely for the first days. Review exceptions, short picks and stock differences daily.

Train the warehouse floor

Warehouse teams learn fastest by doing the work:

• Train by task, such as receiving, put away, picking or packing, rather than by system menu.
• Keep sessions short and on the floor, using real products and real locations.
• Choose a super-user on each shift who can answer questions and spot problems.
• Put a one-page guide for each task next to the relevant area.

The first 30 days after go-live

• Week 1: check every exception, short pick and stock difference daily.
• Week 2: start cycle counting the fastest-moving locations.
• Weeks 3 to 4: review pick accuracy and dispatch times against your old figures, and fix any location or barcode problems.
• End of month 1: agree which KPIs go on the wall, and who owns each one.

Checklist

• Current processes written down and agreed
• Product, barcode and unit-of-measure data cleaned
• Location scheme agreed and every location labelled
• Supplier, customer and price data cleaned
• Go-live date set in a quiet period
• Full stock count planned for go-live
• Open orders listed and ready to load
• Super-users chosen and trained for every shift

How Axera helps

Axera is UK warehouse management software with ERP built in. Standard plans include guided setup and Axera’s standard import templates. Data cleansing, historic transformations and bespoke imports can be scoped as part of a Custom Integration.

Once live, every warehouse task in Axera, from check-in and put away to picking, packing, dispatch, returns and cycle counting, is confirmed by a barcode scan on a phone or tablet and recorded in a stock movement audit trail.

Read our guide to choosing a WMS for a mid-sized UK warehouse, see the warehouse management features, or book a demo.