Excel is probably the most used — and most overused — tool in organisations. Client records in Excel, task tracking in Excel, inventory in Excel, calendars in Excel. If there's a process in your organisation that involves data, there's a 90% chance someone is managing it in a spreadsheet.
There's nothing wrong with Excel. The problem is when it's used for things it wasn't designed for.
What is Excel designed for?
Excel is an analysis and calculation tool. It's unbeatable for:
- Complex formulas and financial calculations
- Pivot tables and data analysis
- Charts and visualisations
- Financial models
- Mass numerical data processing
If you need to calculate, analyse, or visualise data, Excel is probably the right tool.
What are SharePoint Lists designed for?
SharePoint Lists are a structured data management and collaboration tool. They're ideal for:
- Records that multiple people need to view and update
- Processes with statuses (pending, in progress, completed)
- Data that needs approval flows or notifications
- Information you want to filter, sort, and search easily
- Data that connects to Power Automate or Power Apps
The problems with shared Excel
If you've ever managed a client register or project tracker in a shared Excel file, you've probably experienced some of these:
The locked file — "The file is in use by [colleague's name]". Only one person can edit at a time.
The versions — "Wait, which one is the right one? The one you sent yesterday or the one in the folder?"
Accidental errors — someone deletes a formula without realising. Or changes data they shouldn't have changed.
No audit trail — who changed this data and when? With Excel there's no easy way to know.
No automation — if you want to send an email when a record's status changes, with Excel it's very difficult.
When to use a SharePoint List instead of Excel
Use a SharePoint List when:
- Multiple people need to view and edit the data at the same time
- Records have statuses or phases (new, in progress, completed, archived)
- You need automatic notifications when something changes
- You want approval flows linked to records
- You need to quickly filter and search by multiple criteria
- You want control over who can edit what
- The data will be used in Power Apps or Power Automate
Practical examples
Client register → SharePoint List. Multiple sales people can update simultaneously, you can filter by status, sector, or owner, and connect it to automatic follow-up flows.
IT incident tracking → SharePoint List. Each incident has a status, an owner, and a change history. Power Automate can send automatic notifications when the status changes.
Asset inventory → SharePoint List. Filterable by location, status, or owner. With built-in change history.
Annual budget → Excel. You need complex formulas, pivot tables, and financial analysis.
Sales forecast model → Excel. Calculations, scenarios, charts.
Lists also have metadata
Just like document libraries, SharePoint Lists use columns to structure information. You can create columns of type text, number, date, choice (dropdown), person, yes/no, and many more.
Each list record can have as many columns as you need. And you can create custom views to see only the records you're interested in — for example, "all open incidents assigned to me".
Views — see the same data in different ways
One of the most powerful advantages of Lists is the ability to create multiple views of the same dataset. A view is a way of presenting the information — with different visible columns, different filters applied, different sort order.
Practical examples:
- "My pending tasks" view — filtered by current user and status = Pending
- "Due this week" view — filtered by deadline
- "By department" view — grouped by department
In addition to the standard table view, Lists offer special views:
- Calendar view — displays records in a calendar by date
- Board view — Kanban style, organised by status or process stage
- Gallery view — displays records as visual cards, ideal for catalogues or directories
With Excel, you have one sheet. With Lists, you have as many perspectives as you need on the same data.
Forms — collect data without giving access to the list
This is one of the most useful and least known features of Lists. You can create a form from any list and share it with people who need to enter data — without them having to access the list directly or see other people's records.
Use cases:
- A holiday request form that employees fill in, with data going directly to an HR list
- An incident registration form that the IT team manages from the list
- A materials request form that connects to an inventory
The form can be shared via link or embedded in a SharePoint page. Data arrives in the list automatically, ready to filter, approve, or automate.
Rules and no-code automation
Lists have two levels of automation that require no technical knowledge:
Rules — the simplest level. You configure automatic email notifications when specific events happen in the list:
- When someone adds a new record
- When the status of an item changes to "Urgent"
- When a record is assigned to a specific person
Configured in two clicks directly from the list, without leaving SharePoint.
Quick Steps — manual one-click actions you can run on a list item. For example, mark an item as completed and notify the owner with a single button. They're the middle ground between automatic Rules and full Power Automate flows.
Power Automate — for more complex automations: approval flows, integrations with other systems, advanced conditional logic. Lists are the perfect data source for any Power Automate flow.
The perfect combination
In many cases the answer isn't one or the other — it's both working together. Structured data lives in a SharePoint List. When you need to analyse that data in depth, you export it to Excel for analysis.
Power BI is another option — it connects directly to SharePoint Lists to create dashboards and visualisations without needing to export anything.
The first step
If your organisation has critical processes managed in shared Excel spreadsheets, migrating them to SharePoint Lists is one of the highest-impact changes you can make — more collaboration, fewer errors, automation possible from day one.
Not sure whether your case fits better with a List or Excel? Tell me what you're working on and I'll give you a concrete answer.