By Hiran de Silva
Good morning, Ethan.
The woman you’re looking at is Miranda Cole. She runs the supply chain administration for a fast-growing apparel business. When she joined, the company had just one warehouse. She managed all orders on a single spreadsheet — simple, efficient, and all in her control.
When orders multiplied, Miranda turned to a popular YouTube tutorial — “How to Build an Inventory Tracker in Excel”, by social-media influencer Mynda Treacy, released in October 2025. Following it faithfully, she created what seemed like a perfect solution.
She built a Multilevel Dependent Cascading Dropdowns set to look up stock availability from the hundreds of YouTube video instructions. Notably those by Celia Alvez, Wyn Hopkins and Mark Proctor.
For a while… it worked beautifully.
But success can be a dangerous thing.
Because …business took off!
Now there are 20 warehouses, 50 call handlers, and a tsunami of spreadsheets: goods-in, goods-out, order status, returns, stock checks — all multiplying faster than anyone can count.
Every transaction now means opening dozens of files. Every mistake triggers a chain reaction. Miranda’s once-elegant system has become Excel Hell — one thousand spreadsheet movements deep.
When the crisis hit, expensive consultants were called in. Their verdict was unanimous:
“Excel can’t scale. You need a full ERP replacement — millions in cost, months of disruption.”
You need a proper system – Paul Barnhurst.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should – [who?]
But one voice — REG the resident excel guru — isn’t convinced. He believes Excel can scale. He believes what these experts call impossible is merely undiscovered architecture, and Excel capability they’re unaware of.
Your mission, Ethan, should you choose to accept it, is to prove them wrong.
Demonstrate how Miranda’s spreadsheet can evolve — from a fragile single file into a hub-and-spoke, database-driven system.
Your task:
- Allow every warehouse and call handler to work independently — yet synchronised.
- Restore real-time visibility to management.
- Save the company from a costly million-dollar detour into digital darkness.
Be warned: if you or your team are caught copying and pasting manually, the secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions — and sentence you to attend a 12-hour Power Query webinar.
This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.
Good luck, Ethan.
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