If you're running a small assembly or manufacturing workshop, there's a good chance your Bill of Materials lives in a spreadsheet. Excel and Google Sheets are familiar tools for managing parts lists, but shared files can become difficult to coordinate as projects grow.
It works. Until it doesn't.
Where Excel BOM Management Creates Friction
Excel feels familiar. You already have it, everyone knows how to use it, and for a 20-part assembly, it may be adequate. But as your projects grow — more parts, more suppliers, more team members — coordinating the files becomes more involved.
For an illustration, assume a 10-person assembly workshop spends 6–8 hours per week dealing with BOM-related administration: tracking down the right version of a spreadsheet, manually updating quantities across multiple sheets, chasing suppliers for delivery confirmations, and re-entering data from emails into a master file. At an average labor rate of $25/hour and 52 weeks per year, that assumption would represent $150–$200 per week — or roughly $8,000–$10,000 per year — spent on administration rather than production.
5 Excel BOM Problems to Review
1. Version Control Chaos
How many times has someone worked from the wrong version of a BOM? When your parts list exists as a file on a shared drive (or worse, in someone's email), there's no single source of truth. Engineers update one copy, purchasing uses another, and by the time you catch the discrepancy, you've already ordered the wrong parts.
2. No Real-Time Stock Visibility
Excel doesn't know what's in your stockroom. Every time a project starts, someone has to physically count stock and manually update the spreadsheet. Meanwhile, another project may be drawing from the same stock without anyone knowing — leading to shortages mid-build.
3. Manual Purchase Order Creation
Generating a purchase order from an Excel BOM typically means copying and pasting part numbers, supplier details, and quantities into a separate document — or worse, into an email. This takes time and introduces errors. A mistyped part number or quantity can mean a delayed delivery and a stalled build.
4. No Audit Trail
When something goes wrong — a late delivery, a wrong part, a cost overrun — can you trace exactly what happened and when? In Excel, you can't. There's no log of who changed what and when. This makes it almost impossible to learn from mistakes or to defend your position with a supplier.
5. Collaboration Breaks Down
The moment two people need to work on the same BOM simultaneously, Excel fails. Files get locked, changes get lost, and the inevitable "which version is the latest?" email thread begins. For a team of three or more, this happens daily.
What Does This Look Like in Practice?
Imagine a 10-machine order. Your BOM has 150 line items across 12 assemblies. Three team members need access — a project engineer, a purchasing manager, and a workshop supervisor. You're sourcing from 8 different suppliers with varying lead times.
In Excel, coordinating this requires recurring administration. Parts go on order without checking stock. Delivery dates are tracked in a separate spreadsheet that nobody keeps up to date. The project manager sends a weekly "status update" email compiled from three different files.
In a purpose-built BOM management tool, these records can share one workflow. Stock is checked against requirements before ordering. Purchase orders are generated from the project data. Every team member sees the same live data. Delivery dates are tracked against required dates, with warnings when something's running late.
Comparing Workflow and Tool Costs
The argument for sticking with Excel is usually cost. But the real question isn't "how much does BOM software cost?" — it's "how much does Excel cost me?"
For an illustration, if a team saved 5 hours per week through fewer manual steps, at $25/hour and 52 weeks per year that would be $6,500 per year. AssembleFlow's Workshop plan costs $29/month — $348/year — but any actual return depends on the team's workflow and outcomes.
When Should You Make the Switch?
Not every workshop needs BOM software. If you're making simple, single-assembly products with fewer than 20 parts and only one person needs access, Excel may genuinely be sufficient.
But if any of the following apply, it's time to consider a purpose-built solution:
- You manage more than 3 active projects simultaneously
- Your BOMs have more than 50 line items
- More than one person needs to access or update the BOM
- You're sourcing from more than 3 suppliers per project
- You've had a late delivery or wrong part order in the last 6 months due to a data error
If two or more of those are true, compare the cost of staying with Excel with the plans and workflow of a purpose-built tool.
Getting Started
AssembleFlow was built specifically for small assembly and manufacturing workshops. It replaces your Excel BOM with a cloud-based, multi-user parts list that connects directly to purchase orders, stock management, supplier tracking, and project cost control.
Start your free 14-day trial today. No credit card required for the first 14 days, and you can import your existing Excel BOM.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Excel good enough for a bill of materials?
For a small, single-person project with few parts, yes. It becomes a problem as projects grow: several people edit copies, formulas break, and nobody can say quickly what is ordered or late.
What are the most common Excel BOM problems?
Multiple versions of the same file, broken formulas or references, quantities typed as text, no link between the parts list and purchase orders, and no view of stock or delivery status.
When should a manufacturer move from Excel to BOM software?
When more than one person works in the same parts list, when you retype part data into inquiries and purchase orders, or when you reorder parts you already have in stock.
Free tools: the Excel templates (BOM, PO tracker, cost and quote worksheet), the margin calculator and a product tour need no sign-up.