The community spreadsheet: why it ends up failing (even when it is well built)

Every community spreadsheet started out perfect. The one from the engineer neighbour, with its formulas and colours. And they all end up the same way.

The five structural failures

1. It lives on one computer: the computer of whoever made it. Zero transparency (nobody else can see it), zero availability (you have to ask for it), and the famous bus factor: if that person is not there tomorrow, the community loses its accounts.
2. Versions multiply: "dues_2026_v3_FINAL_good.xlsx" emailed around generates four parallel truths. Which one governs?
3. It calculates, it does not record: the spreadsheet says how much there ought to be — it does not keep the trace of every payment, every reminder, every decision with its date. When there is a dispute ("I paid in March"), there is no history: there are overwritten cells.
4. The handover is a masterclass: inheriting somebody else's spreadsheet means deciphering their mind. Most successors start a new one — and the history dies.
5. It only does numbers: notices, incidents, documents and meetings still live in WhatsApp, in someone's head and in a drawer. The spreadsheet organises one plot of the chaos, not the chaos.

When a spreadsheet is fine

Communities of three or four neighbours with complete trust and minimal management: go ahead. It is free and sufficient.

The underlying question

It is not "is the spreadsheet well built?" — it is "does the community's information belong to the community or to one person?". By the day the answer matters (a handover, a conflict, the sale of a flat), it is usually too late to change it.