When Excel and email carry your processes
Orders come in through a shared mailbox, the status sits in the subject line, data lives in Excel files that travel by email. That works for a surprisingly long time — until a message is missed, two people edit the same file, or the one person who kept the overview is away. Attek Solutions turns that into a system that mirrors your familiar routines instead of replacing them. Rented, with no upfront investment, from €500 per month.
Excel and email are better tools than their reputation suggests
Anyone working this way usually has good reasons. Excel models any structure you can think of, without anyone having to ask permission. Email reaches everyone, inside and outside the company, with no rollout project. Both are available immediately and cost nothing extra.
So this way of working does not come from carelessness, but because it works — often for years, and through considerable growth.
What is missing is nothing that Excel or Outlook do badly. These are properties that neither of them can have.
What doesn't work without a system
The threshold where it tips
This way of working rarely fails step by step. It fails at a single event.
We rebuild your way of working, not a new one
The most common mistake when switching is that an off-the-shelf system is introduced which organises the work differently from how the business knows it. Then both systems run in parallel, and the Excel file stays — because it is faster.
We do it the other way round: your existing Excel file is the blueprint. It shows which details you actually need, in which order you work and which special cases occur. That is worth more than any requirements document.
What comes out of it:
The case has a home
All details, documents, messages and the current status in one place, visible to everyone involved.
The status is a status
No colour code, no subject-line convention — a field that everyone reads and that you can filter by.
Entries are checked where it counts
Mandatory fields, plausibility checks, no invoice without a tax rate. Not excessively strict, but at the points where mistakes get expensive.
Recurring work runs automatically
Reminders for deadlines, handover to the next step, follow-up tasks, following up. Without anyone having to remember.
Email stays where it belongs
For communication with customers and suppliers. Messages are linked to the case instead of sitting in personal mailboxes. The customer notices nothing of it — they carry on writing the way they know.
Excel stays as output
If you need a list in Excel, you export it. The difference: Excel is then the result, not where the data is held.
How it works
- 01Intro call, 30 minutes. You describe your problem. We tell you honestly whether custom software pays off for you or whether off-the-shelf software is the better choice.
- 02Personal demo. Instead of slides you get software: we take a problem you described in the intro call and show it to you as a working application. That way you judge from your own case whether the effort is worth it, before you sign anything.
- 03Requirements workshop. We go through your workflows until we have understood them completely. Free of charge.
- 04Signing the contract. After the requirements workshop you receive a fixed monthly price for your requirements, and we sign the contracts.
- 05First productive version after one to two months. This is when you start paying — not before.
- 06Operations and continued development. Your workflows now run automatically and your team gains time for the business. We take care of operations, maintenance and support.
The process in detail — including what you contribute yourself →
Start with one process — the one that hurts most. Anyone who tries to replace everything at once ends up replacing nothing.
The alternatives compared
| Option | Carry on as before | Excel in SharePoint or Teams | Introduce off-the-shelf software | Attek CSaaS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effort to switch | none | low | high | medium |
| One home per case | no | partly | yes | yes |
| Working at the same time | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Input validation | no | barely | yes | yes |
| Automatic reminders and handover | no | limited | yes | yes |
| Traceability for the GoBD | no | limited | yes | yes |
| Reflects your way of working | yes | yes | only partly | yes |
| Upfront investment | none | none | Licence and rollout | €0 |
| Risk | grows with the business | low | parallel operation remains | limited, one process first |
Putting an Excel file there solves the version problem and costs almost nothing. Everything else stays: no validation, no automation, no history. Sensible as an interim step, too little as a destination.
When not to change anything
If your cases are manageable, the people involved sit in the same room and someone being away would not mean that nobody knows the status — then carry on as before. With a small budget and standard cases, Excel and email are the right choice, and building a system nobody needs helps nobody.
Talk to us as soon as you want to grow or need to cut costs. If you have ever wondered what happens when one particular person is away for two weeks, your business runs on manual work — and manual work grows with every case, as do staff costs. A system that carries the same work without extra headcount starts at €500 per month, with no upfront investment.
Frequently asked questions
We work with Excel and email. When is custom software worth it?
When several people work on the same cases, when the overview depends on a single person, when mistakes from manual entry get expensive, or when commercial cases have to be documented traceably. As a rough threshold: as soon as someone spends more than one to two hours a day transferring, searching for or reconciling data, replacing it usually pays off quickly.
Do we have to give up Excel completely?
No. Excel remains useful for ad-hoc analyses and as an export format. The difference is that it is no longer where the data is held — you export from the system instead of working inside it.
Will our existing Excel data be carried over?
Yes, that is part of the project. Your files also serve as the functional blueprint: they show which details you need and how you work.
What happens to our email communication?
It stays. Messages about a case are linked to that case and are visible to everyone involved, instead of sitting in a personal mailbox. Your customers carry on writing the way they are used to.
How much effort is the switch for our staff?
Less than with off-the-shelf software, because the system mirrors your existing way of working instead of prescribing a new one. What your people do today in an Excel file, they do afterwards in a form that shows the same fields in the same order.
Is an Excel-based way of working GoBD-compliant?
As a rule, not without further measures. Among other things, the GoBD require that changes to accounting-relevant data are traceable and that the original state remains recognisable. An Excel file that is overwritten and sent by email does not meet that. Whether your specific case is affected is for your tax adviser to judge.
What does it cost?
Between €1,000 and €1,500 per month, with a lower limit of €500. No setup fee, no upfront investment, no hourly rates. First productive version after one to two months.
Wouldn't a cheap off-the-shelf tool do?
With a small budget and standard cases, yes — and then you should take it. Off-the-shelf software is cheaper and available immediately. It reaches its limits where your processes differ from what the tool provides for. That is exactly the most common reason why the Excel file carries on being used after the rollout: it can do something the new system cannot. As soon as you want to grow, need to cut staff costs or are paying per user, the conversation about your own system is worth having.
Show us the Excel file that holds everything together.
In the intro call we look at it and tell you what could come of it — and whether it is worth it. 30 minutes, free of charge.
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