Most small dealers start with a spreadsheet. It is free, you already know how to use it, and in the beginning it does the job. The trouble is that a dealership grows past a spreadsheet long before most people notice.
Where spreadsheets go wrong for dealers
Costs get lost. What you paid is easy to record. The bits afterwards are not: the new tyres, the valet, the paint repair, the advertising. Costs end up in a notebook, receipts, a bank statement or someone’s head, so you do not know the true profit on a car until much later.
Stock and the website do not match. If you list cars anywhere online, you now keep the spreadsheet and the listing in step by hand. Sooner or later a sold car stays listed, or a new car never gets listed.
Enquiries live in six places. Calls, texts, social media messages and emails. A spreadsheet cannot tell you who asked about which car.
Invoices are copy and paste. Re-using last month’s invoice file is how wrong amounts and wrong customer names end up on paperwork.
One person, one file. The moment a second person needs to see or update stock, you are emailing copies or arguing over which one is current.