Okay ‘never be used’ is probably a bit strong. Spreadsheets (or Notion lists etc) have their place in asset management—until they don’t. For small businesses with only a few assets, they might work fine. But as soon as your asset count grows, spreadsheets quickly become a liability, costing time and money.
If you start having more types of assets, or a lot of one type of asset, you’re likely to run into issues quite quickly. This is why we believe asset management systems beat spreadsheets every time.
But what about asset management spreadsheet templates?
We often hear, 'but what about asset management templates?' as there are so many out there. While templates can provide a starting point, they still suffer from spreadsheets' core limitations. Unlike a proper database, spreadsheets lack validation, security, and automation.
Here, we break down 7 examples of why asset management spreadsheet templates shouldn’t be used.
Example 1 of why not to use asset management spreadsheets – errors
First and foremost, spreadsheets are very prone to errors. In fact studies have shown that up to 90% of spreadsheets have some form of error, whether that is incorrect formulas or the wrong data entered. It’s hard to add validation to spreadsheets to prevent these errors. Even just accidentally dragging and dropping a cell might mean you struggle to find an asset as its location is now wrong.
How asset management solutions avoid human error
These systems still have some level of manual input so don’t entirely prevent errors being introduced. But they help immensely with validation rules, granular permission levels, and they are more configuration based so the chances of copying data from one asset to another is basically to zero.
Example 2 of why not to use asset management spreadsheets – duplication
Duplicating a spreadsheet takes approximately 10-20 seconds. People might duplicate a spreadsheet because they don’t have edit permissions to the original or they just want to do their own analysis quickly and then they forget to remove the duplicate and then start using the duplicate over the original.
Duplication leads to confusion, scattered data, and becomes a nightmare if you need to do an audit.
How asset management databases avoid accidental duplication
Through granular permissions and shared access to the software tool duplication becomes impossible to do.
Example 3 of why not to use asset management spreadsheets – no dependencies
Spreadsheets are not databases, which means they lack the ability to create structured relationships between data. So if, for example, you also want to store your asset’s owner and their location and phone number people usually do one of two things–copy the info into the main sheet which is fine until people own multiple assets...
...or create a new tab and switch between them. 
How modern asset management solutions give you instant insight:
By being relational databases. This means that concrete links are created between an asset and its owner or vendor without duplicating data. Usually there is a way to view the extra information from the asset itself. So no more switching between spreadsheet tabs.
Example 4 of why not to use asset management spreadsheets – poor reporting
One strong element of spreadsheets is their data analytics capabilities. But garbage in garbage out means that if the data is wrong in the first place, you’re not going to get a great overview of assets. And we don’t even mean wrong asset information, spreadsheets require everything to be entered in the correct format. If one cell is formatted as a date but another as text, spreadsheets will struggle. Because there’s no validation, it’s also easy to enter locations of assets as say Stockholm but also Stockhoml. It's not a terrible error, a human would easily understand what was meant by it. But if that happens and you try to count the number of assets in Stockholm using formulas, you’re not going to get the correct answer.
How asset management solutions help reporting through data validation
Each attribute or column of an asset database can have validation applied. By choosing an attribute to be a date then you 100% know that every date entered will be a valid date. Or you can provide options of locations meaning reporting doesn’t depend on typing ability.
Example 5 of why not to use asset management spreadsheets – reactive work
Spreadsheets are quite basic, that’s part of what makes them attractive. They are quick to set up and everyone can use them. But their simplicity can also make more work for you. For example, how do you tell if your asset warranties are due to expire? You need to remember to go into the spreadsheet each month, check the warranty expiration dates, and then create a separate list of the assets that are due for renewal. Time-consuming and easy to forget to do.
How asset management tools help you become proactive
By sending alerts based on certain triggers or schedules. For example alerting you when a warranty is due to expire in 2 months’ time so you can plan ahead.
Example 6 of why not to use asset management spreadsheets – history
Spreadsheets do not provide a per-asset history. You can view previous versions of the spreadsheet, but understanding what changed for one specific asset is very difficult and incredibly time-consuming.
How modern asset management tools give you full asset history at a glance:
Every asset management solution provides some way to select an asset and see all the changes that have been made. The majority even let you search on asset histories so you can find all assets that moved to a particular location or got assigned on a specific date.
Not only that, but some asset management solutions have service management or ticketing capabilities, so you can also link service requests or incidents to the specific affected assets and get an even more detailed history of your assets. Perfect for identifying assets that keep causing you trouble.
Example 7 of why not to use asset management spreadsheets – no sophistication
Fancy features are not critical for asset management. The key part is knowing what assets you have, their age, their value, and where they are, and spreadsheets can do that. But we think there are lots of extra features that can make asset management significantly simpler for teams without costing a fortune.
How dedicated asset management tools make your life easier
Many tools provide extra capabilities such as QR code or barcode tagging so you can easily identify assets. The majority provide options to add images, perfect for registering known defects or visually identifying assets. Others provide ways to work with your assets, not just track them, such as creating forms where people can request new assets or report issues, helping asset managers collect their work in one place and giving them a simple way to track their to dos.
Summary
By now, you can see how spreadsheets fall short for asset management. A dedicated solution like Starhive, AssetTiger, or Asset Panda not only saves time but also ensures accuracy, security, and scalability.
Interested in seeing how Starhive can simplify asset management? We'd love to show you how.
