The Spreadsheet Starting Point

Nearly every organization starts managing positions in a spreadsheet. It makes sense at first. Spreadsheets are familiar, flexible, and free (or close to it). A simple roster with columns for position number, employee name, job title, FTE, and salary can serve a small organization well for a while.

But as organizations grow, spreadsheets begin to break down in ways that create real operational problems. If your team is spending more time maintaining the spreadsheet than actually using the data in it, that is a sign the tool has outgrown its purpose.

Where Spreadsheets Fall Short

No Single Source of Truth

Position data lives in many places: HR has a version, Finance has a version, and department managers may have their own copies. When a position changes, someone has to remember to update every copy. In practice, versions drift apart quickly. The result is conflicting data and meetings spent reconciling differences instead of making decisions.

No Audit Trail

Spreadsheets do not track who changed what, when, or why. If a position's FTE was reduced from 1.0 to 0.5 last quarter, there is no built-in way to see who made that change or whether it was approved. This becomes a serious gap during audits or when leadership needs to understand how staffing decisions were made.

No Approval Workflow

Creating or modifying a position in a spreadsheet requires no formal approval. Anyone with access can change a cell. Organizations often try to layer approval processes on top using email chains or shared documents, but these workarounds are fragile. Emails get lost, approvals are unclear, and there is no reliable record of who authorized a change.

Formula Errors and Data Entry Mistakes

Spreadsheets are only as accurate as the person entering the data. A mistyped FTE, a broken formula, or an accidentally deleted row can cascade into budget errors that go unnoticed for weeks. Research from the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group has consistently found that a significant percentage of business spreadsheets contain errors.

Difficulty Tracking Vacancies

When an employee leaves, a spreadsheet shows an empty cell in the employee name column. But it does not automatically flag the vacancy, calculate the budget impact, or notify anyone. Tracking which positions are open, how long they have been vacant, and what they cost requires manual effort that often falls through the cracks.

Scaling Problems

A spreadsheet that works for 50 positions becomes unwieldy at 200 and nearly unmanageable at 1,000. Filtering, sorting, and cross-referencing across departments requires increasingly complex formulas and pivot tables. At some point, maintaining the spreadsheet becomes a specialized skill rather than a shared tool.

What Purpose-Built Tools Do Differently

Dedicated position control software addresses each of these gaps by design, not by workaround:

• One system of record. Everyone works from the same data. When a position is updated, the change is visible to all stakeholders immediately.
• Built-in audit trails. Every change is logged with a timestamp, the user who made it, and the context of the change.
• Approval workflows. Position changes require formal approval before they take effect, with configurable rules for who needs to approve and under what conditions.
• Automated calculations. FTE totals, budget impacts, and vacancy counts are calculated automatically, eliminating formula risk.
• Vacancy visibility. Open positions are clearly flagged with their associated budget, department, and job classification.

How FTE Tree Replaces the Spreadsheet

FTE Tree is designed specifically for organizations that have hit the limits of spreadsheet-based position management. It provides a centralized platform where HR, Finance, and department managers all access the same position data.

Every position in FTE Tree carries a unique identifier, FTE value, job code, and wage rate. Changes go through configurable approval workflows, and every action is logged for audit purposes. Departments can see their staffing plans, compare budgeted costs to actual costs, and identify vacancies without maintaining a separate tracking document.

If your organization is ready to move beyond spreadsheets, sign up for FTE Tree and see how a purpose-built tool can simplify your position management.