Excel vs Proboot
Almost every footwear business starts with Excel. It's at hand, familiar and flexible: one evening for an orders sheet, a week for a stock sheet too. The problems don't show up at once, but when the number of pairs grows and two or more people fill in the file.
Five places where a spreadsheet lets the workshop down
The size run sprawls across columns
A model in six sizes means six columns or six rows. Ten models in three colours already make 180 cells for one order. One formula dragged wrong, and the customer gets 40 pairs instead of 36 or finds a carton missing.
Stock is true only at the moment you count it
The sheet doesn't know that size 38 soles were already taken to the shop floor, or that yesterday's pairs are already in the finished goods warehouse. "How many do we have?" once again means "go and count".
One file, one person
"stock_new_final_2.xlsx" on the manager's laptop. Someone edits an old copy, someone deletes a row, the laptop breaks. Change history exists only in the cloud version, and finding who changed an order line there is awkward.
Cost is an average and a guess
Leather from one delivery came at one price, the next at another. Excel only counts what you type in: the tech card norm and an average price. Nobody knows how much really went into a pair or what it cost.
Documents are assembled by hand every time
Invoice, delivery note, packing list, waybill: each document is retyped from the same sheet. Every retyping is one more chance to get a quantity or price wrong.
How Proboot solves it
- An order holds model, colour and size run in one line, for example 1-2-3-3-2-1 across sizes 36 to 41. The system counts pairs, cartons and materials itself.
- Every pair gets a serial-numbered label at packing. One scan with a phone or scanner and the pair is in the finished goods warehouse, reserved for its order.
- Everyone works in one database with their own permissions: owner, manager, storekeeper, packer. You can see who changed what and when.
- Cost based on the actual material batch: what this particular leather cost and how much went over the tech card norm.
- Invoice, delivery note, packing list and Nova Poshta waybill are generated from the order, with no retyping.
- Who owes whom, shop floor payroll and monthly profit are calculated from the same data, so you don't need a separate money spreadsheet.
Comparison
| Criterion | Excel | Proboot |
|---|---|---|
| Size run | Columns or rows dragged down by hand | One order line with the breakdown by size |
| Stock | Accurate until the first change | Updated as every pair is scanned |
| Teamwork | One file, copies, conflicts | One database, roles and access rights |
| Change history | Only in the cloud version, cell by cell | Who changed what in an order, payment or price |
| Cost | Average, by the norm | By the actual material batch |
| Working from a phone | Awkward, spreadsheets are made for computers | Pair scanning and supervisor work from a phone |
| Documents | Assembled by hand | Invoice, delivery note, packing list, waybill from the order |
| Cost of ownership | Excel itself is cheap, but nobody counts the time spent on manual work and mistakes | Free in the beta, then from $55 a month billed yearly |
| Data security | Depends on where the file lives and who has copied it | Cloud with backups |
If you use Excel now
When Excel is enough
If you make a few pairs a day, work alone or with one other person and keep every order in your head, a spreadsheet is enough. Proboot becomes necessary when checking stock means walking to the warehouse and "what does a pair cost" has no exact answer.
How to switch
Your spreadsheets won't go to waste: we move your models, customers and stock ourselves. Implementation is remote and our team does the main work: we structure the data, enter it into the system and train your people. We recommend a stock count before the start, so the system begins with real numbers.
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