Comparison
Smilelink vs a spreadsheet: an honest comparison
A spreadsheet and a notebook have run more businesses in this country than any software ever will, and anyone who tells you otherwise has not looked closely at a working shop.
They are also free, flexible and completely under your control. So the useful question is not which is better. It is where the spreadsheet stops keeping up with you.
What a spreadsheet is best at
- Free, and you already know how to use it
- Bends to any shape you want — nobody decided the columns for you
- Works offline, forever, with no subscription and no account
- Perfect for modelling: a price change, a scenario, a what-if
What Smilelink is best at
- The record writes itself when the money moves, so there is nothing to remember to enter
- One stock figure across every channel, so the last one is sold once
- A payment identifies its own order, so nothing is matched by hand
- Your accountant gets a file rather than a reconstruction
Side by side
| A spreadsheet | Smilelink | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | Free to start, then a published monthly price and one transaction rate |
| Who enters the data | You, every time | The order and the payment enter themselves; cash and other-bank spending are yours |
| Payment confirmation | You check the bank app, or you take a screenshot on trust | An account number per order; the bank confirms it |
| Stock across channels | One figure you update manually, if you remember | One figure that counts down as payments settle |
| Two people editing | Two versions of the truth | One record, with who changed what |
| Books and statements | Reconstructed at year end | Posted as they happen; income statement and balance sheet any period |
| If you leave | It is your file | Export everything, any time. The domain goes with you too |
| Offline | Completely | Works on a poor connection; a rider can mark drops done offline |
When a spreadsheet and a notebook is the better choice
- You take a handful of orders a week and you already know every customer by name. Software will slow you down.
- Your business is mostly one-off project work with no stock and no bookings. An invoice template and a folder may be all you need.
- You need to model something — pricing scenarios, a loan schedule, a menu costing. A spreadsheet is a better thinking tool and always will be.
- You genuinely cannot rely on a connection. Smilelink works on a poor one and recovers from an interrupted one, but a notebook needs nothing at all.
When Smilelink is
- Orders arrive in more than one place and someone has to retype them.
- You have stopped being able to say, at a glance, who owes you what.
- Someone has shown you a transfer alert and you had to decide, on the spot, whether to believe it.
- Staff are entering things, and the entering has become the job.
- Your accountant's annual reconstruction is costing you more than software would.
How to read this page
We wrote a comparison that names the cases where we are the wrong answer, because one you can check is the only kind worth reading. If a fact here is wrong, tell us and we will change it and date the change.
Questions
Can I keep using my spreadsheet alongside it?
Yes, and plenty of people do for the first month. Export from Smilelink whenever you like — it is your data in a format your spreadsheet opens.
Can I bring my existing records in?
Your customers and your catalogue, yes. Historical accounting is usually better handled as an opening position: enter where you stand today and carry on from there.
What if my business is too small for this?
Then it probably is, and we would rather say so. Start free, and if it is not earning its place in a month, the export button is right there.
Try it for a month and decide with evidence.
- Free to start
- No card
- Talk to a person any time