PROBLEM / SPREADSHEETS TO APPS
Turn the spreadsheet that circulates by email into an app with an approval line.
Move request and approval spreadsheets that circulate by email into business apps with validation, approval lines and history. Existing spreadsheets are imported with column mapping and validation.
Architecture illustration
Requests arrive as spreadsheets and approvals end as email replies
Purchase requests, price changes and sample shipments are written in a spreadsheet template and sent by email. Each recipient edits and resends the file, and soon nobody knows which version is current. Finding who approved something means searching the mailbox, and once the template changes, old and new records no longer line up.
This work is too small for the ERP and too important to leave in spreadsheets. Giz moves it into apps, one workflow at a time.
How the work flows
- Template to app: Turn the fields of your current spreadsheet into an entry form and a list. Start from a business template, such as purchasing or sales, and adjust fields and rules.
- Import existing spreadsheets: Upload past spreadsheets, map columns to fields, validate the values and confirm a preview before saving. Invalid rows are flagged first.
- Approval lines: Configure sequential, all-approver, any-approver and quorum approval, with conditional routing. Delegates can be assigned, and requesters cannot approve their own requests.
- History and search: Requests, changes and approvals are recorded and can be filtered by owner and status.
What you bring and what you get
| You bring | You get |
|---|---|
| One spreadsheet template in use today | Entry form, list and required-field and format checks |
| The spreadsheet holding past records | Past records moved in after mapping and validation |
| Who requests and who approves | Approval line and role permissions |
| What people search for most | Lists and filters by status and owner |
Scope
Available: Spreadsheet import (column mapping, validation, preview and save) runs on today's screens.
Validated on your data during the build: Business templates, screen editing and approval lines are built and tested, but not yet demonstrated on a customer's workflow. Which steps of each workflow use an approval line is decided per workflow in the build scope.
Not included: Builds go one workflow at a time. We do not move every department's spreadsheets at once.
Check it on your own data in the first week
Send the spreadsheet template that goes around by email most often, with its past records. Within a week we show it as an entry form and a list, with the past records imported.
YOUR NEXT STEP
Bring us the workflow that needs to work.
Start with the files and systems you use today, and the work you want to change.