> A spreadsheet CRM is the right answer more often than vendors admit. How to build one that holds up, and the signals that it is time to move. Buyer's guide # CRM Excel templates in 2026, and when to stop A spreadsheet CRM is the right answer more often than vendors admit. How to build one that holds up, and the signals that it is time to move. Hanna Hylander · Updated 24 August 2026 In short - A spreadsheet is a legitimate first CRM. One sheet of companies, one of people, one of deals, with a next-step and next-step-date column on every row, covers a founder-led motion completely. - The columns teams forget are the ones that make it useful: next step, next step date, last contact, and source. Without them a CRM spreadsheet is a contact list. - Move when more than one person edits it, when you cannot answer what changed this week, or when the file is only as current as the last person who remembered to update it. Spreadsheet CRMs get dismissed by everyone selling software, which makes the advice around them worse than it needs to be. For a single person selling, a sheet is often the correct tool, and the failure mode is not that it is a spreadsheet. It is that most people build the wrong one. ## Building one that holds up Three tabs. **Companies**: name, domain, industry, size, owner, source. **People**: name, company, role, email, phone, LinkedIn. **Deals**: company, value, stage, opened date, close date, and the two columns everything depends on. **Next step** and **next step date.** Every open row must have both. A next step is a specific action (“send pricing to Anna”), not a status. Sorted by next step date, that column is your working day, and it is the difference between a CRM and a list of people you once spoke to. Add **last contact** so you can see what has gone quiet, and **source** so you eventually learn where deals come from. Then stop. Every formula and dashboard you add is something to maintain, and the sheet still in use in three months is the plain one. ## What it costs you Nothing, until one of three things happens. **A second editor.** Shared spreadsheets get overwritten, and the version that wins is whoever saved last. Cloud files reduce this and do not remove it. **No history.** A cell shows its current value, not what it was last month or who changed it. You cannot answer what moved this week, which is the question a pipeline review is made of. **No memory of its own.** The sheet is exactly as current as the last time someone chose to update it, and updating it is a task that competes with selling. ## When to move, and where | Move | Best when | Cost | | --- | --- | --- | | Stalar | The sheet is stale because updating it is a chore | Pay per contact found | | HubSpot | You want free, with room to grow | Free, tiers rise fast | | Pipedrive | You want a pipeline and nothing else | From ~€15/user/mo | | folk | You track relationships more than deals | From ~$25/user/mo | | Attio | You liked the spreadsheet’s flexibility | From ~$34/user/mo | **HubSpot’s free tier** is the honest next step from a spreadsheet for most teams: no cost, real contact records, and email sync that removes the typing the sheet demanded. **Attio** suits people who liked how malleable the spreadsheet was and want that with sync and history underneath. **[Stalar](https://stalar.ai/)** matters for the third failure specifically. The first two problems, editors and history, are what a CRM is for, and any tool above solves them. The third one follows you: every CRM in that table is also exactly as current as the last person who typed into it, which is the habit that made the spreadsheet stale. Stalar is the agentic workspace for sales and revenue teams. A sales brain records every prospect, conversation and touchpoint and learns from each one, and agents keep the record current from what was actually said, draft the follow-ups in your voice, brief you before meetings, and build lists with verified contacts, priced per contact found. You approve instead of typing. ## Deciding 1. Fix the columns before you switch tools. If your sheet has no next step column, you have not outgrown the spreadsheet yet. 2. Count the editors. More than one is the clearest signal to move. 3. Ask why it is out of date. If the answer is that updating it is a separate job from selling, changing tools without changing that gets you a stale CRM instead of a stale sheet. [The measured version of that](https://stalar.ai/blog/most-of-the-pipeline-is-fiction/) is what most connected pipelines look like. ## Frequently asked questions - **Is a spreadsheet good enough as a CRM?** For one person selling, usually yes. It costs nothing, opens instantly, and does exactly what you tell it. Most CRM rollouts at that stage fail on adoption rather than features, and a spreadsheet has no adoption problem. It stops being enough the moment a second person needs to edit it or you need to know what changed. - **What columns should a CRM spreadsheet have?** Company, contact name, email, phone, deal value, stage, source, last contact date, next step and next step date, plus a notes column. The next step and next step date pair is what turns the file from a list into a CRM: sort by that column and you have today's work. Most templates leave it out. - **What is the free CRM template most people should use?** Build it rather than download it. Three tabs, the columns above, one filtered view sorted by next step date. Downloadable templates are usually built to look impressive with formulas and dashboards you will not maintain. The simplest version is the one still in use in three months. - **When should I move from a spreadsheet to a real CRM?** Three signals: more than one person edits it, so versions and overwrites start costing you; you cannot answer what moved this week without reading every row; or the sheet is out of date because updating it is a separate task from doing the work. The first two mean you need a CRM. The third means you need something that maintains itself, which is a different purchase. Related comparisons - [Buyer's guide: The best no-code CRM platforms in 2026](https://stalar.ai/best/no-code-crm/) - [Buyer's guide: The best contact management software in 2026](https://stalar.ai/best/contact-management-software/) - [Buyer's guide: Using Notion as a CRM in 2026](https://stalar.ai/best/notion-crm/) --- Canonical: https://stalar.ai/best/crm-excel-template/ Site index for agents: https://stalar.ai/llms.txt