Spreadsheets vs CRM: how far can a brokerage run its book on Excel?

Most brokerages start on a spreadsheet: one row per policy, columns for renewal date, premium, insurer, phone number, a colour for "chased". It works for a surprisingly long time, because a broker knows their clients and the spreadsheet asks for nothing. The trouble arrives by accumulation: two people editing the file, a "final-v3" copy on another laptop, reminders sent twice or never, and above all no record of what was said to the client.

A CRM is not an end in itself, and plenty of brokerages pay for one nobody uses. This comparison separates what a spreadsheet honestly does well, what a CRM genuinely adds (history, teamwork, compliance evidence), and the signals that say it is time to move. It also keeps the CRM distinct from the broker management system or policy administration platform (policy issue, commissions, insurer integrations) — a different subject. ORIS, for instance, is a WhatsApp CRM, not a policy administration tool.

Spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets)

Pros

• Free or already paid for, known to everyone, no training or configuration: the file exists from the first client.
• Total flexibility: one more column, a filter, a pivot table to see this month's renewals by insurer.
• Trivial export and import to any other tool, including a future CRM (a CSV is enough).
• Sufficient for a sole adviser with a few hundred policies and a disciplined monthly chasing routine.

Cons

• No record of interactions: the sheet says a reminder went out, not what the client replied or what the adviser promised.
• Fragile teamwork: competing versions, overwritten cells, a file emailed around with every client's personal information inside.
• Hard to evidence compliance: no granular access rights, no audit trail, no retention-based purge, data-subject requests handled by hand.
• No reliable automation: scheduled reminders, risk segmentation and reply tracking become improvisation.

CRM (generic, or built for brokers / WhatsApp)

Pros

• One record per client with interaction history, policies, consents and tasks; the whole firm sees the same thing.
• Native teamwork: assignment, roles, notes, an audit log of who changed what.
• Useful automation: renewal reminders, debit-order follow-ups, segments (at-risk clients, multi-policy households), campaigns on a channel.
• Compliance tooling: consent register, opt-out, export for an FSCA or FCA review or a data-subject access request, retention periods applied.

Cons

• Recurring cost per user, plus set-up and training time — routinely underestimated.
• Migration: cleaning the spreadsheet, de-duplicating, importing; a CRM fed with dirty data is useless.
• Orphan-tool risk: if the team keeps noting things in the spreadsheet or in their heads, the CRM becomes an empty shell.
• A CRM does not replace the broker management system (policy issue, commissions, insurer links); some firms will need both.

Criterion-by-criterion comparison

Criterion	Spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets)	CRM (generic, or built for brokers / WhatsApp)
Indicative cost	Nil or included in the office suite.	Per-user subscription, varies by vendor; add implementation time.
Interaction history	Absent, apart from free-text notes in a cell.	Complete per client (messages, logged calls, documents), time-stamped.
Teamwork	File sharing, version conflicts, no assignment.	Assignment, roles, per-adviser view, notifications.
POPIA / GDPR and record-keeping	Manual: untracked access, purge by hand, file easy to copy.	Access rights, audit log, per-client export and deletion, consents recorded.
Reminder automation	Filters and manual reminders; sends done by hand or through a separate tool.	Triggers on renewal dates, segments, campaigns from the tool (depending on CRM and channel).
Risk of data loss	High: local file, stolen laptop, overwritten version, adviser leaving.	Low if hosted and backed up by the vendor; check reversibility (export).
Link to policy administration	The spreadsheet often is the policy register.	CSV import and export; no native integration with broker management systems in most conversational CRMs.
Suitable firm size	One or two people, under a few hundred active policies.	From three people, or as soon as chasing becomes a daily job.

Our verdict

Keep the spreadsheet if you work alone or as a pair, your book fits in a few hundred policies and your client contact happens by phone and archived email. A CRM would cost you money and time to replicate what you already do properly. Two rules then suffice: a single master file, and a written note of every commitment made to a client, somewhere findable.

Move to a CRM when one of these signals keeps recurring: a client chased twice or forgotten; a "what did we tell him?" question with no answer; an adviser off sick whose files nobody can pick up; a data-subject request or a compliance review asking you to evidence consents; or a team answering clients on WhatsApp from personal phones. That last case is the most common, and it is the one a WhatsApp CRM like ORIS addresses: shared inbox, Customers & Segments imported from your spreadsheet as CSV, reminder campaigns on approved templates, and CSV export if you ever want to leave.

Pick the tool by the problem. If the problem is policy administration and commissions, you need a broker management system, not a CRM. If it is client relationships and reminders on WhatsApp, a WhatsApp CRM. If it is a complex multi-channel sales pipeline, a generic CRM — see our comparison generic CRM vs WhatsApp CRM for brokers.

Frequently asked questions

Can we keep Excel for policies and a CRM for conversations?

Yes, and it is the most common set-up in small firms: the spreadsheet or the broker management system remains the policy register, while the CRM handles conversations, reminders and consents. A CSV import one way and an export the other keep them aligned, provided you decide who updates what.

How long does migrating from a spreadsheet to a CRM take?

The work is not the import but the clean-up: phone numbers in international format, duplicates, lapsed clients, consents to qualify. For a few hundred rows, allow a few half-days; the import itself takes minutes.

Is a client spreadsheet compliant with POPIA or UK GDPR?

A spreadsheet can be, if access is restricted, the file is encrypted or securely hosted, retention periods are applied and the processing is documented. In practice those conditions are rarely met once the file travels by email or sits on several laptops.

Does a WhatsApp CRM replace the broker management system?

No. ORIS handles conversations, campaigns, opportunities and lapse risk, with CSV export; it does not issue policies, calculate commission or integrate natively with insurer portals. The two tools complement each other.