Get Out of the Spreadsheets

In 2019, Bob Falahee, founder of SunPro, stood on stage at the IFAI conference and gave a room full of fabricators, dealers and manufacturers the single biggest key to growing his business. It wasn't a new product line. It wasn't a bigger sales team. It was four words:

"Get out of the spreadsheets."

Over the years, we've thought about that line quite a bit. Not because it was clever, but because of what happened next.

From spreadsheets to a sale to Hunter Douglas

SunPro started working with us in 2016. Over the next seven years the business grew dramatically, and in early 2024 Bob sold the company to Hunter Douglas.

That is the dream for most people in this industry. Build something awesome. Sell it. Never have to worry about money again.

Bob did it. And when he was asked what made the difference, his answer wasn't about luck or timing. It was about how the business ran day to day: getting everything from quoting and ordering to production, transportation and logistics out of spreadsheets and into one system built for it.

The spreadsheet is the ceiling

Every made-to-order manufacturer starts in spreadsheets. They're free, they're flexible, and the person who built the pricing workbook knows exactly how it works.

That's the problem. It works because one person knows how it works.

Picture a normal Tuesday. A dealer emails a quote request. Your inside sales rep opens the pricing workbook, finds the right tab, and types in a width, a projection and a fabric. The total looks low, so they check it against last month's copy, the one saved as PRICING_FINAL_v3_USE_THIS.xlsx. Then they retype the whole thing into an order form. Then someone retypes it again into a cut sheet for the shop.

Every handoff is a chance for a wrong number. And every new dealer, product line or price increase adds more of them:

• Pricing lives in one person's head. When they're on vacation, quotes wait.
• Rules aren't enforced. Nothing stops a rep from quoting a motor on a frame that can't take one. You find out at the cutting table.
• Price increases become projects. Every tab, every copy, every dealer's version has to be updated by hand.
• You can't see the business. Margin by product, by dealer, by month? That's a weekend of copy and paste.
• Growth means hiring typists. More orders means more people re-keying data, not more people building product.

A spreadsheet doesn't break all at once. It just quietly sets the speed limit on how fast you can grow.

What "getting out" actually looks like

Getting out of the spreadsheets doesn't mean buying a bigger spreadsheet. It means one system that knows your products, from quote to cash to delivery, and every step reads from it.

1. Your products are defined once. Sizes, options, fabrics, colors and the rules between them live in one place, not across a dozen tabs.
2. Pricing follows the configuration. The price is calculated from what's being built, so a price increase is a single change, not a project.
3. Bad orders can't be entered. If an option doesn't fit, the order form won't allow it. Problems get caught at the quote, not the cutting table.
4. Dealers order directly. No email, no re-keying. The order your dealer submits is the order your shop builds.
5. The shop gets what it needs. Cut lists, parts and work orders are generated from the order, not typed from notes.
6. Delivery runs off the same order. Shipping, loads and delivery schedules come from what was built, so the truck leaves with the right product for the right dealer, and the invoice matches what went out the door.

Our CTO, Bradley Wittenbrook, wrote about why most ERPs struggle with exactly this in Your ERP Thinks in SKUs. Your Products Don't. It's worth a read if you've ever seen CUSTOM-AWNING on a sales order line.

That's what SunPro did. Not overnight, and not all at once. But each step out of the spreadsheets freed up time and headcount to sell, build and grow.

Your exit starts with your next quote

Most owners we talk to want what Bob got: a business that grows without them holding it together, and one a buyer wants to own. A buyer doesn't pay for a pricing workbook only one person understands. They pay for a business that runs on a system.

If your quotes, orders and cut sheets still live in spreadsheets, that's where growth starts. Take Bob's advice. Get out of the spreadsheets.

Start a conversation and we'll show you how Painless Manufacturing handles your products, your pricing and your dealers.