Inventory management with Google

The key facts

• Sheets' genuine advantage: one shared cloud copy — no file versions to reconcile, multi-user editing built in.
• The template that works: products and movements as two tables, quantity as a formula — the same ledger structure as any spreadsheet.
• The ceiling Sheets cannot fix: quantities that deduct when orders commit, and the accounting handoff — the record layer.
• BSimple's relationship: import, not rivalry — the sheet starts the record; the trial runs it live on any device, including a Chromebook.

What Google Sheets does well for stock

Sheets solves the problem that kills most spreadsheet inventory: file sprawl. One shared cloud copy, edited by everyone who needs it, with version history that shows who changed what — the "two people editing" ceiling of a desktop file is genuinely lowered. Pair it with the same ledger structure that works everywhere: a products table (code, description, cost, reorder level) and a movements table (date, code, quantity in or out, reason), with quantity as a SUMIF formula over movements rather than a cell anyone types into. Add conditional low-stock flags and data validation, and the sheet is a real system for one or two careful people. A barcode column plus a phone or scanner makes scan-entry work in Sheets too.

This is not a compromise — for a small operation it is the right tool, free, on devices you already own.

The ceiling Sheets shares with every spreadsheet

Multi-user editing was Excel's ceiling; Sheets clears it. What remains is the ceiling no spreadsheet clears: live deduction from commitments. An order that is taken should deduct the quantity the moment it is committed — in Sheets, the deduction happens when someone remembers to add a row, which at volume means overselling lives in the lag. And the accounting handoff remains manual: every sale and purchase needs re-entry or export into the books, which is a monthly tax paid in hours.

Those are record-layer jobs, and they are what dedicated inventory systems exist for. We build BSimple, so weigh that: it runs in the browser — on any laptop, tablet or Chromebook — imports your product list rather than making you re-type it, deducts stock the moment orders are approved, raises purchase orders from demand, and hands invoices to Xero or MYOB with payment status mirroring back. From $180/month AUD with everything in the core plans. Excel for inventory, compared and the free-in-Excel-and-PDF guide cover the spreadsheet craft; the inventory management pillar shows the record it becomes; the trial is the upgrade test on your own products.