Tailoring ERP vs spreadsheets: when to switch

ERP is a heavy word for a simple idea: one system holding orders, stock, production, purchases and money, so that each one updates the others. Plenty of shops call it something else, or get by without it. Some should.

When a spreadsheet is enough

Keep the spreadsheet if most of these are true:

• One or two people enter everything.
• You make to order, and you keep little or no ready stock.
• You work from one location.
• You can hold the week's jobs in your head, and the sheet is a backup for that.
• Your materials are simple, and you buy for each order.

A bespoke tailor making six suits a month with one assistant does not need software that plans batches. A tidy workbook with an orders tab, a customers tab and a cost tab will do it. Add a column for the due date, sort by it each morning, and you have a production plan.

Spreadsheets have honest strengths. They are cheap, you already know them, and you can change a column in a minute without asking anyone. Shared online sheets also let several people work on one file, and tools such as Google Sheets version history let an editor see and restore earlier versions. Software you do not use properly will serve you worse than a sheet you keep up to date.

The point it breaks

A spreadsheet tends to drift from the truth a little at a time. These are the usual breaking points.

Stock by size and length

The sums get large faster than people expect. Six sizes by four lengths is 24 cells for one style. Thirty styles is 720 cells. Two shops is 1,440. Each sale, transfer and finished batch means someone changes a cell by hand. Miss one and the sheet says an XL is on the rack when it is not, and you learn that with the customer in front of you.

Materials going out and coming back

Stock in a sheet is usually one number that somebody overwrites. A workshop needs a record of movements: 15 grams of beads issued to whom, on which job, and what came back. When the number is wrong, a single cell cannot tell you why. If you are finding shortfalls you cannot explain, this is the likely reason.

Who has the job

The sheet shows what somebody last typed. A cutter with chalk on their hands will not open a laptop to mark a job done, so the owner walks the floor asking, then updates the sheet at night. By then it is already behind. When you are asking "where is this order?" several times a day, the sheet has stopped doing its job.

Measurements over time

Most sheets hold one row per customer, so a new chest measurement overwrites the old one. You lose the history, and with it the record of what you cut last time. Keep a new dated row for each set if you stay on a sheet.

Formulas that nobody checks

Errors in spreadsheets are normal, even among careful people. In a review by Raymond Panko of six inspection studies covering 85 operational spreadsheets, mostly commercial audits, 94% contained errors. Those were not tailoring sheets, but the lesson travels. If one person built your workbook and nobody else understands it, your costing depends on that person.

A worked example: cost per piece

Costing is where a stale sheet does quiet harm. Prices set too low are a familiar complaint on sewing forums, and a stale sheet is one way to get there. Here is an invented example, in any currency, for a batch of 40 abayas:

The batch should cost 165 × 40 = 6,600. Now suppose the cutter actually used 3 metres per piece. That is 0.2 m more, or 6 per piece, which is 240 on the batch. Your sheet still says 165, because nobody typed the real figure back in. You priced on a number that was never true.

You can fix this in a sheet if someone records actual use for every batch. Our garment cost sheet is a place to start, and we cover the method in how to calculate garment cost. The question is whether anyone will keep doing it in a busy month.

Five signs you have passed the point

1. You sell ready pieces as well as made-to-order, and rack counts are often wrong.
2. You have two or more locations, or stock moves between workshop and shop.
3. Three or more people need to update the same information each day.
4. You have promised a date and missed it because nobody could see where the job was.
5. You cannot say what last month's batch cost per piece without an evening of work.

One of these is a nuisance. Two or three, and the time spent fixing the sheet has probably passed what a system would cost. Work that out with your own numbers: hours a week, multiplied by what those hours are worth to you.

Try a better spreadsheet first, if you can

Sometimes the fix is smaller than new software. If your trouble is messy records, these may buy you a year:

• Keep one file, with one person who owns its structure.
• Add a movements tab: date, material, quantity, job, person. Work out stock from it.
• Lock the formula cells.
• Print a daily job list for the workshop, so the floor needs no laptop.

Moving without stopping the workshop

Do not change everything in one week. Pick the part that hurts most and move that first. Usually that is production stages or stock. Run new orders in the new system and let old orders finish on the sheet. Keep the spreadsheet until you have closed a full month without opening it, then archive it and keep the file. Choose a quiet stretch, away from your wedding or festival season.

Before you pick a system, compare a few properly. Our buyer's questions will help. Tailoq is one option for a business that makes and sells, and our page on what a tailoring ERP covers sets out the parts in more detail. If your shop still fits the first list above, keep your spreadsheet.