Moving Your Charity from Spreadsheets to a Proper System

Every charity starts with spreadsheets. Beneficiary names in one Excel file. Session attendance in another. A funding tracker in Google Sheets. A volunteer rota somewhere on someone's desktop. It works — until it does not. And by the time it stops working, you are managing a fragile web of interconnected files that only one person truly understands, held together by goodwill and VLOOKUP formulas.

You already know you need to move on. The Charity Digital Skills Report 2024 found that 31% of charities say they are poor at or not engaging with data collection and management, and many still rely on spreadsheets as their primary data management tool despite acknowledging that spreadsheets are inadequate for their needs. The problem is not awareness — it is that the transition feels enormous. Where do you start? How do you choose a system? What happens to the data you already have? And how do you get a team that has used spreadsheets for years to adopt something new?

This guide answers all of those questions. It is a practical, step-by-step migration plan written specifically for small and medium charities making this transition for the first time. No enterprise jargon, no six-figure implementation budgets, no assumption that you have an IT department.

What you will learn:

• How to recognise when spreadsheets are costing your charity more than they save
• What to look for in a charity data system (and what to avoid)
• A step-by-step migration process that does not disrupt your services
• How to get your team to actually use the new system
• The real cost of staying on spreadsheets versus switching

Who this is for:

• Charity managers who know they need a system but feel overwhelmed by the options
• CEOs and trustees responsible for digital infrastructure decisions
• Project leads drowning in spreadsheet maintenance
• Anyone who has lost data, found duplicates, or spent hours fixing a broken formula

How Do You Know When Spreadsheets Are No Longer Working?

Spreadsheets are genuinely useful tools. The problem is not that they are bad — it is that they are being used for things they were never designed to do. Excel was built for calculations and analysis, not for managing complex relational data like beneficiary records, case notes, attendance tracking, and funder reporting.

Here are the warning signs that spreadsheets have become a liability:

• Data lives on one person's computer. If they leave, the knowledge goes with them.
• You have multiple versions of the same file. "Beneficiaries_FINAL_v3_updated_JAN.xlsx" is a symptom, not a file name.
• Reporting takes days, not minutes. Pulling together a funder report means opening five spreadsheets, cross-referencing manually, and hoping the formulas are correct.
• You cannot answer basic questions. "How many people did we support last quarter?" should not require 45 minutes and a prayer.
• Data entry errors are common. Misspelled names, inconsistent date formats, duplicate entries — spreadsheets have no built-in validation.
• GDPR compliance is a worry. Spreadsheets with personal data stored on laptops, shared via email, with no access controls or audit trails.

Small charities typically spend a significant proportion of staff time on data management tasks that could be significantly reduced with appropriate systems. For a charity with three full-time staff, even 10-15% of capacity lost to spreadsheet maintenance is the equivalent of losing a part-time role.

What Does a Charity Actually Need from a System?

Before you start looking at software, define what you need. The biggest risk in this transition is buying a system that does too much (expensive, complex, underused) or too little (and you end up back on spreadsheets for the gaps).

Core needs for most small and medium charities:

A platform like Plinth covers all of these in a single system. The advantage of an integrated platform over separate tools for each function is that your data is connected — a beneficiary's attendance record links to their case notes, which link to their survey responses, which feed into your funder report. That interconnection is exactly what spreadsheets cannot do well.

What Should You Look for in a Charity System?

Not all systems are equal, and the charity software market ranges from free tools with limited functionality to enterprise platforms costing tens of thousands per year. Here is what to prioritise:

Must-haves:

• Designed for charities, not adapted from corporate software. A system built for charity needs will have concepts like beneficiaries, programmes, outcomes, and funders built in. A generic CRM will make you map charity concepts onto sales terminology (beneficiaries become "leads," programmes become "deals"). This matters more than it sounds — it affects how your team relates to the system.
• Easy to set up without technical skills. If you need a consultant to configure it, the ongoing cost is far higher than the licence fee suggests.
• Mobile-friendly. Your frontline staff are in community centres, not offices. They need to enter data from a phone or tablet.
• GDPR-compliant. Proper access controls, data retention settings, audit trails, and the ability to handle subject access requests.
• Affordable. According to the Charity Digital Skills Report 2024, 60% of charities cite finding funds for infrastructure as a barrier to adopting new technology. Your system should cost less than the staff time you are currently wasting.

Nice-to-haves:

• Built-in survey and outcome measurement tools
• AI-powered features for note-taking and analysis
• Automated reporting for funders
• Integration with existing tools you use (email, accounting software)

Red flags:

• Long-term contracts with no exit clause
• Per-user pricing that penalises you for growing
• No data export functionality (your data should always be portable)
• Requires extensive training before staff can do basic tasks

The test of a good charity system is whether a new staff member can start using it on their first day. If it takes a week of training, it is too complex for your organisation.

How Do You Compare Your Options?

The charity software market can feel confusing. Here is a framework for comparing the systems you are considering:

Request a demo from your shortlisted options and test them with your actual data and workflows, not just the vendor's example scenarios. Ask to see how you would complete your three most common tasks: recording a new beneficiary, logging a session, and producing a funder report.

Plinth offers free setup support specifically for charities migrating from spreadsheets, including data import assistance and team onboarding.

How Do You Actually Migrate Your Data?

Data migration is the step that terrifies most charity managers, but it does not have to be painful. The key is to do it incrementally, not all at once.

The phased migration approach:

Phase 1: Start with your active beneficiaries (Week 1-2) Export your current beneficiary list from your spreadsheet. Clean it up: remove obvious duplicates, standardise name formats, fill in missing fields where possible. Import this into your new system. You do not need to migrate historical records immediately — start with the people you are actively working with.

Phase 2: Begin using the new system for new data (Week 2-4) From a set date, all new beneficiary registrations, session records, and case notes go into the new system. Keep your spreadsheets accessible but read-only. This is your point of no return for new data.

Phase 3: Migrate historical data selectively (Month 2-3) Bring across historical data that you actually need — active case records, current year's attendance data, open grant records. Do not migrate five years of data you will never look at again.

Phase 4: Decommission spreadsheets (Month 3-4) Once you are confident the new system has everything you need, archive your spreadsheets and remove them from daily use. Keep them stored for reference, but they should no longer be the live system for anything.

In practice, most small charity data migrations take 6-8 weeks, not the 6-8 months that many fear. The biggest time investment is in data cleaning, not the technical migration itself.

Data cleaning tips before migration:

• Remove duplicate entries (spreadsheets accumulate these over years)
• Standardise formats (dates, postcodes, phone numbers)
• Delete records for people you have not contacted in 3+ years (check GDPR retention policies)
• Make sure each record has at least a name and one contact method

How Do You Get Your Team to Actually Use It?

Technology adoption is a people problem, not a technology problem. The Charity Digital Skills Report 2024 found that 44% of charities cite lack of technical expertise or someone to lead on digital as a key barrier. Your team has been using spreadsheets for years. They know where everything is. Asking them to change feels like asking them to work harder, not smarter — at least initially.

Strategies that work:

1. Involve staff in the selection process. If people help choose the system, they are invested in its success. Include at least one frontline worker in your evaluation, not just managers.

2. Acknowledge the transition cost. Be honest: the first two weeks will be slower. Things that took 30 seconds in the old spreadsheet will take 2 minutes in the new system while people learn. This is temporary, and it is normal.

3. Start with a quick win. Choose the task that is most painful on spreadsheets and show how the new system makes it easier. For many charities, this is funder reporting — show your team a report generated in 5 minutes instead of 5 days, and you have their attention.

4. Appoint a champion. Identify one person on the team who is comfortable with technology and give them extra training. They become the first point of contact for questions, reducing the burden on managers.

5. Keep the old system available (read-only) for 3 months. People feel safer knowing they can check the old spreadsheet if needed. After 3 months, they will have stopped looking at it.

6. Celebrate milestones. When you produce your first funder report from the new system, or when 100% of session records are entered digitally for a full month, mark it. Change is hard. Acknowledge the effort.

In practice, teams that initially resist the change often become the strongest advocates once they experience the difference. When staff see they can record a session from their phone in 30 seconds instead of filling in a paper form, there is no going back. The transition resistance melts away once the daily experience is genuinely easier.

What Is the Real Cost of Staying on Spreadsheets?

The cost of spreadsheets is hidden because it is paid in staff time, not invoices. But it is real, and it is significant.

The hidden costs:

• Reporting time. According to Plinth's research, charities spend 15.8 million hours reporting to funders across the UK sector. A disproportionate share of that time is spent compiling data from spreadsheets rather than on the reporting itself.
• Grant administration. Plinth's analysis found that 46% of grants cost more than they are worth once you factor in the administrative burden — and spreadsheet-based administration is the least efficient approach.
• Data errors. Research from the University of Hawaii found that 88% of spreadsheets contain errors. In a charity context, that means inaccurate beneficiary counts, wrong attendance figures, and reporting numbers you cannot fully trust.
• Staff frustration. Data entry and spreadsheet maintenance is consistently cited as one of the least satisfying parts of charity work. High admin burden contributes to burnout and staff turnover.
• GDPR risk. A single personal data breach involving unprotected spreadsheets sent by email can result in an ICO investigation and fines, as well as reputational damage.

Cost comparison:

For most small charities, the software subscription pays for itself within the first quarter through saved staff time alone. The bigger return is in better data, stronger funder relationships, and reduced organisational risk.

What About Charities That Are Not Ready for a Full System?

Not every charity needs to make the full switch immediately. If you are a very small organisation (1-2 staff, under £50,000 income) and spreadsheets are genuinely manageable, the priority is to make your current approach more robust rather than adding new technology.

Quick wins without a new system:

• Use a single shared drive (Google Drive or SharePoint) instead of files on individual computers
• Create a master data template with data validation rules to reduce entry errors
• Standardise your file naming and folder structure
• Back up weekly to a separate location
• Password-protect files containing personal data

However, if you are experiencing any of the warning signs listed earlier in this guide — multiple versions, data on one person's laptop, reporting taking days — you have outgrown spreadsheets, regardless of your size. The transition does not have to be expensive or complex. Plinth is designed specifically for small charities making this move, with guided setup, data import support, and pricing that reflects charity budgets.

For more on building your charity's digital infrastructure, see our guide on digital transformation for charities.

A Step-by-Step Migration Checklist

Here is a practical checklist for the full transition. You do not need to complete it all at once — work through it at your own pace over 2-3 months.

Before you start:

• [ ] Audit your current spreadsheets: list every file, where it lives, and who uses it
• [ ] Identify your top 3 pain points (the tasks that spreadsheets make hardest)
• [ ] Set a realistic budget (include staff time for setup, not just software cost)
• [ ] Get buy-in from your board or trustees

Choosing a system:

• [ ] Shortlist 2-3 systems designed for charities
• [ ] Request demos using your real workflows
• [ ] Check GDPR compliance, data export options, and support arrangements
• [ ] Talk to other charities of similar size who use the system

Data migration:

• [ ] Clean your existing data (remove duplicates, standardise formats)
• [ ] Export your active beneficiary records
• [ ] Import into the new system (most platforms offer import support)
• [ ] Verify the imported data matches your source files

Team onboarding:

• [ ] Train your team champion first
• [ ] Run a group training session (60-90 minutes is usually enough)
• [ ] Set a "go live" date for new data entry
• [ ] Keep spreadsheets accessible but read-only for 3 months

After migration:

• [ ] Review after 1 month: what is working, what needs adjustment?
• [ ] Produce your first report from the new system
• [ ] Archive old spreadsheets after 3 months of successful operation
• [ ] Plan your next phase (e.g., adding survey tools or partner management)

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to move from spreadsheets to a proper system?

Most small charities complete the core migration in 6-8 weeks. The first two weeks are data cleaning and import, the next two are learning the new system alongside spreadsheets, and the final weeks are full adoption. You do not need to migrate everything at once — start with beneficiary records and add other data over time.

What if we cannot afford a paid system?

Free and low-cost options exist, though they typically have limitations. Some platforms offer charity pricing or free tiers for very small organisations. Plinth offers pricing specifically designed for small charity budgets. Remember that the "cost" of spreadsheets is paid in staff time — a system that saves 5 hours per week at £15/hour is saving you £300/month, which almost certainly exceeds the subscription cost.

Will we lose our historical data?

No. Your spreadsheets are not deleted — they are archived. You migrate the data you actively need into the new system. Historical data stays in your archived spreadsheets, accessible if you ever need to reference it. Over time, the new system builds its own history.

What if the system we choose does not work out?

Always check that a system allows you to export your data before you commit. This is non-negotiable. If the system does not work for you, you should be able to export your records and move them elsewhere. Avoid long-term contracts with heavy exit penalties.

How do we handle GDPR during migration?

Data migration is an opportunity to clean up your GDPR compliance. Before migrating, delete records you no longer need (check your retention policy), ensure you have a lawful basis for processing the data you do migrate, and document the migration as part of your data processing records. The new system should have stronger GDPR controls than your spreadsheets — access controls, audit trails, and data retention automation.

Do we need IT support to set up a charity system?

Not if you choose the right system. Platforms designed for small charities, like Plinth, are built to be set up by non-technical staff. If a system requires a consultant to configure, it is probably too complex for your needs. Look for guided setup, import wizards, and accessible support documentation.

What happens if our internet goes down?

Most modern charity systems are cloud-based, which means they require an internet connection. However, some platforms offer offline modes for data entry that sync when you reconnect. For charities delivering services in locations with poor connectivity, check whether the system supports offline use before committing. Plinth is designed with mobile-first delivery in mind, including support for low-connectivity environments.

Should we hire someone to manage the transition?

For most small charities, no. The transition can be managed by an existing staff member with 1-2 days per week allocated over the migration period. If your data is particularly complex or you have thousands of records, a short-term consultant engagement (1-2 days) for the data cleaning phase can be worthwhile. But the ongoing system management should be something any staff member can handle.

Recommended Next Pages

• Digital Transformation for Charities — a broader look at how charities can build their digital capability
• How Charities Waste Time on Admin — understanding where your time goes and how to reclaim it
• Grant Management for Small Charities — managing funding pipelines and reporting requirements
• CRM for Small Charities — choosing and using a CRM that fits your organisation
• Impact Reporting for Charities — how Plinth turns your data into funder-ready reports

Last updated: February 2026