Model the real business objects
Separate people, organisations, jobs and activities rather than putting everything in one spreadsheet. Define identifiers and relationships before building reports.
- Record types and relationships
- Required fields and validation
- Permissions and retention
- Backups and audit needs
Clean before migrating
Duplicates and inconsistent values do not become reliable because they move into a database. Test a representative sample, reconcile counts and keep a rollback plan.
Build the screens around actual work. Staff need a usable way to create, correct and find records, not just a technically sound schema.
Maintain it responsibly
Assign ownership for changes, data quality and backups. Document integrations and review access when people change roles.
Questions worth asking
Can a spreadsheet become a database?
Yes, but first decide which columns are entities, which values need cleaning and how records relate.
Advice here is general; the appropriate implementation depends on the people, systems and constraints involved.