Growing businesses can find themselves in an awkward middle ground.

The combination of accounting software, spreadsheets and separate apps has become difficult to manage. But a full enterprise resource planning system - usually shortened to ERP - can feel like an enormous step in cost, time and complexity.

For manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors, that gap is particularly frustrating. Even a relatively small business can have complicated pricing, hundreds of products, multiple suppliers and orders that depend on stock arriving or production being completed.

You don’t have to be a large company to need proper control over those things.

When the spreadsheet becomes another job

Spreadsheets are useful. The problem starts when keeping them accurate becomes a job in itself.

Someone updates stock after an order goes out. Someone else changes the supplier price list. Sales keeps a separate record of what a customer was quoted. The warehouse has its own way of tracking what needs to be picked.

Then a customer changes an order, and everyone has a slightly different version of the truth.

The cost shows up in repeated work, missed purchases, incorrect deliveries and time spent finding answers. Your team can work flat out and still struggle to keep up.

Accounting software is only part of the picture

Your accounting system may still be doing exactly what you need it to do. The pressure is building around everything that happens before the invoice.

Has the quote been followed up? Is the stock available? Does anything need purchasing or manufacturing? What was promised to the customer? Is the order ready to ship?

When those answers sit across inboxes, spreadsheets and people’s heads, keeping the business moving takes constant checking.

The useful question becomes: how can we connect that work while keeping the accounting system we already use?

Buy for the work your business needs to do

Before comparing software, write down the jobs it needs to handle.

Start with one real customer order. Follow it from enquiry and quote through stock allocation, purchasing or production, dispatch and invoicing.

Mark every point where someone retypes information, checks another system or waits for a colleague to explain what is happening.

Then ask software providers to demonstrate that process using an example from your business. Include the awkward bits: a partial delivery, customer-specific pricing or an item that needs to be made before it can ship.

Ask what is included, what costs extra and how implementation, training and ongoing support work. A useful demonstration should make it easier to picture your team doing their actual jobs.

There is room between spreadsheets and a major ERP project

Growing businesses need options that match their operational needs and budget.

Tall Emu is an Australian-owned business management platform that brings customers, quoting, sales orders, inventory, purchasing, manufacturing and freight into one system. Two-way integration with MYOB and Xero connects those operations with accounting.

For manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors, that means being able to manage much more of the business in one place, with an Australian team providing implementation assistance and support.

If spreadsheets are struggling to keep up, it’s time to look at what the business needs next. Start with the problems costing your team time every day, and ask to see exactly how they would be handled.

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Tall Emu will be at The Business Show, ICC Sydney, 25–26 November, stand B761. If you’ve outgrown spreadsheets but the thought of an expensive ERP makes you wince, come and talk to our team. Bring us your double handling, stock headaches and disconnected systems. We’ll show you how it could all work together.