Many US wineries start managing production with spreadsheets. It works for a while. Then the problems compound faster than the winemaker can fix them.
When Spreadsheets Work
- Less than 5,000 cases/year.
- 1-2 people managing data.
- No significant DTC or wine club.
- Fewer than 30 tanks/barrels to track.
- Minimal export.
When They Don't
Multiple people entering data
Two people editing the same file: conflicting versions, overwritten data.
Growing production
Above 10,000 cases, the number of daily records during harvest exceeds what a spreadsheet handles comfortably.
TTB compliance
Monthly reports assembled from scattered files are error-prone and time-consuming.
Wine club growth
Managing 200+ members, shipments, billing, and compliance across states requires structured data.
Export documentation
Building a traceability dossier from disparate files takes days. From a system, minutes.
Hidden Costs of Spreadsheets
- 15-25 hours/month of manual data entry.
- 8-15 hours/month for TTB reports.
- Days of work for export documentation.
- Accumulated errors discovered at audit time.
- Lost sales from slow response to importers.
Cepaos for US Wineries
Cepaos is designed for wineries that need traceability, TTB compliance, and cost tracking without the complexity of an enterprise ERP. Migration from spreadsheets is assisted.