The Spreadsheets in Between

Between any two systems that do not quite connect, somebody is doing something by hand. Those steps are load-bearing and undocumented.

What they look like

A spreadsheet that maps identifiers between two systems.

A weekly download-and-upload that someone does on Thursday.

A manual adjustment applied to a figure before it goes to payroll, for a reason nobody remembers.

A list of exceptions maintained alongside the system, because the system cannot express them.

Each was a sensible response to a real gap and each is now a single point of failure with a name attached.

Finding them

Ask the question directly: what do you do by hand every period?

Ask the people who do it, not their managers, who frequently do not know.

Look at what happens when someone is on leave, which is when the manual steps become visible.

And look at period end, because that is where they cluster.

Most organisations find more than they expected, and several that nobody can explain.

Deciding what to do with each

Automate it where the gap is a real integration deficiency and the volume justifies the work.

Document and assign it where automation is not worth it, which is a legitimate outcome — a manual step with a named owner and a deputy is a control, not a risk.

Remove it where nobody can explain why it exists, after checking carefully that it does nothing.

That third category is larger than expected and removing those steps is free.

The ones to worry about

Steps that change numbers, as opposed to moving them.

Steps only one person can do.

Steps that involve editing a file between export and import, which is where silent corruption enters.

Steps nobody has documented, which are the ones that fail when that person leaves.

The register

A list: what, who, when, why, and what happens if it does not run.

Reviewed annually.

It is also the business case for integration work, because a list of twelve manual steps with named owners is a more persuasive document than a request for budget.

The test

If the three people who hold the estate together were unavailable for a month, would the pay run complete?

In most organisations the honest answer is no, and the register is what turns that from an anxiety into a plan.

Worry about the ones that change numbers

Not the ones that move them.

A download-and-upload moves data; an adjustment applied before export changes it.

The second is a calculation living outside every system and every register.

Find them by asking what gets adjusted and why, and expect at least one where the reason has been forgotten and the adjustment continues.

A practical configuration prompt

During configuration, use project time tracking system to prompt questions about identifiers, ownership and output. Treat the page as a starting point and document each assumption.