CRM spreadsheet template (Excel and Google Sheets)

What is inside the CRM Excel template

• Contacts tab: name, company, email, phone, a lead source dropdown (referral, website, LinkedIn and more) and an owner column so it is always clear whose contact it is.
• Pipeline tab: one row per deal with value in pounds, a stage dropdown (Lead, Contacted, Proposal, Won, Lost), expected close date and a next action date. Any open deal whose next action date is in the past turns red automatically.
• Dashboard tab: deal count and pipeline value by stage via SUMIFS, open pipeline total, win rate, and a live count of overdue follow-ups that highlights red when it is above zero.
• Example rows: three contacts and five deals are pre-filled so you can see how the stages, the red flags and the dashboard behave. Replace them with your own.

How to use the CRM spreadsheet

• Add your contacts first and pick a source for each one. In three months you will know exactly where your best leads come from.
• Log every deal on the Pipeline tab the moment it is real, and always set a next action date. The red flag only protects you if the date is there.
• Work the red rows first each morning. That is the whole follow-up system.
• When a deal closes, mark it Won or Lost rather than deleting it. The win rate on the Dashboard needs the history.
• Review the Dashboard once a week: pipeline by stage tells you where deals are stalling, and the win rate tells you if your proposals need work.

Formulas cover 200 rows out of the box and extend easily. Values in GBP, example figures illustrative. Rates last checked: 15 July 2026.

The private spreadsheet is the real CRM at most small firms

Spend any time on small business forums and the same confession keeps coming up: the company pays for a CRM, but the pipeline that actually gets worked lives in someone's private Google Sheet. That is not a moral failing. It usually means the official system asks for more than it gives back, so people route around it.

This template leans into that reality instead of fighting it. If a spreadsheet is where your sales process genuinely lives, make it a good one: consistent stages, a follow-up date on every deal, and a dashboard that answers "what is coming in" without any tidying. A structured sheet like this is honestly fine for a single owner or a two person sales effort.

The point where it stops being fine is predictable: multiple editors, drifting copies, deals slipping because nobody owns the follow-up, and Friday afternoons lost to rebuilding the numbers for a meeting. When the spreadsheet becomes the thing you manage instead of the thing that helps you sell, that is the signal to move, and moving well is mostly a data exercise: cleaning the contacts, mapping the columns and reconciling the pipeline before anyone touches new software. That data groundwork is exactly what we do at Digital Adaption, and our data migration readiness review exists for precisely this moment.

Can I use Excel or Google Sheets as a CRM?

Yes, and for a lot of small businesses it is the right call. If one or two people manage the sales pipeline and you have under a few hundred contacts, a well structured spreadsheet with a contacts tab, a pipeline tab and follow-up dates does the job without another subscription. The problems start when several people update it at once or follow-ups depend on someone remembering to look.

What should a CRM spreadsheet include?

Three tabs. A Contacts tab with name, company, email, phone, lead source and owner. A Pipeline tab with one row per deal: value, stage (Lead, Contacted, Proposal, Won, Lost), expected close date and a next action date. And a Dashboard that totals pipeline value by stage, works out your win rate and counts overdue follow-ups. This free template has all three built.

Does this CRM template work in Google Sheets?

Yes. Upload the workbook to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets. It only uses portable functions (SUMIFS, COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, IF and TODAY), so the dashboard, the stage dropdowns and the red overdue formatting all carry over.

When should I move from a spreadsheet CRM to a real CRM?

Watch for four signs: more than one person is updating the sheet and versions are drifting apart, follow-ups only happen when someone remembers to check, you cannot answer 'what is in the pipeline this quarter' without an hour of tidying, or the real pipeline has quietly moved into one person's private copy. Any one of those means the spreadsheet has become the bottleneck.

How does the pipeline dashboard work?

The Dashboard uses SUMIFS and COUNTIF against the Pipeline tab, so it updates itself as you type. It shows deal count and value for each stage, open pipeline value, win rate calculated as won deals divided by won plus lost, and a count of open deals whose next action date has slipped into the past.

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