How Manual Tracking Holds Back Productivity in Financial Firms
The Hidden Cost of Spreadsheets
October 15, 2025 | Charles Ashwanden, Co-Founder & CEO
Let’s be honest: spreadsheets have their place. They’re flexible, familiar, and everyone knows how to use them. But when it comes to managing a data and application stack, they’re more of a crutch than a solution.
I can’t tell you how many firms I’ve seen still relying on spreadsheets for renewals, license counts, or usage tracking. On the surface, it looks harmless. But the reality? They quietly drain hours from your team every week, introduce errors, and stall decisions.
The Problem with Manual Tracking
The truth is, spreadsheets just can’t keep up with the complexity of today’s data stack. People lose hours digging through tabs for renewal dates. Teams don’t know who’s using what, or if licenses are sitting idle. Budget time turns into a scramble because no one has the full picture of value.
It’s not that people aren’t trying — it’s that the tools are working against them.
Evidence in Action
We’ve all been there, that renewal date that slips through the cracks until the invoice hits your desk. Two desks away, another team buys the same license you already have. Approvals that stall for weeks because no one has clean usage data in front of them.
Every one of these moments costs your team focus and momentum. It adds up faster than most leaders realize.
A Smarter Way Forward
This is why we built Sidelight’s Cost & Subscription Module. It’s designed to do one thing really well: free firms from manual tracking so they can get back to actual work.
Instead of hunting for data across spreadsheets, you get one real-time dashboard with everything in one place. Licenses, renewals, usage, spend — clean, accurate, and up to date. That means no surprises, no last-minute scrambles, and no wasted effort chasing information you should already have.
The Productivity Payoff
The best part? The shift is immediate. Teams gain hours back every week. Leaders finally have a clear line of sight into what’s driving value and what’s not. And instead of spending time updating cells, people spend it making smarter, faster decisions.
It’s not just about time saved — it’s about impact gained. If you’re still running your data stack out of spreadsheets, you know the pain. Stop wasting time on manual tracking. Book a demo with Sidelight today and see what your team could do with those hours back.