Atlas CRM
The spreadsheet finally got retired. Deals, invoices, and month-end in a tool finance would sign.
Business Systems · Internal tool
Month-end is a button, not a hunt
Project brief
Revenue lived in FINAL_v7.
Two people understood the formulas. Month-end was a ritual. Hiring meant training someone on folklore.
Client
Atlas
Industry
Operations / Finance
Timeline
6 weeks
Unit
Business Systems
The challenge
A company run on folklore
The sheet was the product. Two people could touch it. Everyone else waited. A new hire was a two-week oral history, not an onboarding.
The stakes
- Month-end depended on two people and a fragile file
- No audit trail finance would accept
- Hiring meant teaching the folklore, not a tool
- Cutover had to happen with both systems running
What we scoped
Admin · export · 6 weeks
- Internal tool for deals, invoices, and month-end export
- Roles, audit trail, and the CSV finance already files
- Cutover weekend with both systems live, then a kill date
- Fixed scope signed before build
- Weekly demos with finance in the room
The solution
Map the sheet. Sign the export. Then build.
We wrote the jobs in the spreadsheet first. Finance signed the export format before we built a screen. Then we cut over with both systems running.
The impact
Numbers that moved the needle
60%
Less manual work
Month-end is a review, not a treasure hunt.
Sheet archived after cutover
6
Weeks to cutover
Signed jobs to a kill date on FINAL_v7.
Both systems ran, then one
1
Source of truth
Audit trail finance will actually file.
No more oral history onboarding
The sheet is archived. Month-end is a button and a review.
Timeline
Four phases, six weeks, one cutover
Week 1 · Discover & Define
Mapped the sheet, signed the export, wrote the admin jobs.
Week 2–4 · Build
Deals, invoices, roles, and the CSV finance already uses.
Week 5 · Parallel run
Both systems live. Finance compares. Folklore gets written down.
Week 6 · Kill the sheet
Cutover, archive, 30-day warranty.
Gallery
What we shipped
Deals · The jobs the sheet did
Export · The CSV finance already files
“We stopped being afraid of the file named FINAL_v7. That is the whole review.”
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