Inventory Management Software in Excel: What It Can and Cannot Do for PH Sellers

Your Excel file says 14 pieces left. Shopee PH says 9. Lazada PH says 14. Somebody sold five units and nobody updated the sheet.

That is the honest limit of inventory management software in Excel. It can count, total, and flag. It cannot watch your marketplaces for you.

What Is Inventory Management Software in Excel?

Inventory management software in Excel is a workbook you set up to do a stock-control job: record what came in, record what went out, and show what is left. Strictly speaking, Excel is not inventory software. It has no stock module, no marketplace connection, and no alerts you did not build yourself.

Philippine sellers usually mean one of three things when they search this phrase:

1. A workbook you build yourself. A product list, a stock ledger, and formulas that total the ledger.
2. A ready-made template. Free or paid, with formulas and a dashboard already in place.
3. Excel plus marketplace exports. You download order files from Shopee PH and Lazada PH and let Excel do the counting.

All three share one trait. You are the connection. Every number in the sheet is there because a person typed it, pasted it, or imported it.

This guide covers what Excel does well, which setup fits your shop, how to get marketplace orders into a sheet, and where it stops working. For the step-by-step build, see our guide to an inventory management system in Excel. For column-by-column tracking, see the inventory tracking system in Excel.

What Can Excel Actually Do as Inventory Software?

Excel handles five inventory jobs well: working out stock on hand, valuing stock, flagging low stock, summarising sales by SKU and channel, and tracking supplier lead times. It does them only as fast as you feed it data.

Three functions do most of the work. SUMIF and SUMIFS total movements by SKU, channel, or date, as Microsoft’s SUMIFS documentation explains. XLOOKUP pulls a SKU’s cost or reorder point from your product list, per Microsoft’s XLOOKUP documentation. On older Excel versions, VLOOKUP does the same job.

Here is a worked example with made-up numbers, so you can swap in your own. These are illustrations, not benchmarks.

• A SKU sells about 6 units a day.
• Your supplier takes 7 days to deliver.
• You want a cushion of 12 units.

Reorder point = daily sales × lead time + safety stock = 6 × 7 + 12 = 54 units. If each unit costs ₱250, then 54 units on the shelf ties up ₱13,500 in that one SKU. Excel gives you both numbers in two formulas. To check your own SKUs, use our reorder point calculator.

Which Excel Setup Fits Your Shop: Template, DIY, or Excel Plus Exports?

Start with the lightest setup that matches how many channels you sell on. One channel and a small catalogue can run on a template. Two or more channels need a ledger you control, fed by order exports.

Templates are the fastest start, so check one before you trust it. A template worth using:

• Separates movements from the summary. It logs each sale or delivery as a row, and calculates stock on hand from the log. A single editable “stock” cell has no history.
• Has a channel column. You need to know whether a sale came from Shopee PH, Lazada PH, TikTok Shop, or a walk-in.
• Has reorder point and lead time columns. Without them it is a list, not a control system.
• Accepts your marketplace SKU codes. Use one SKU format everywhere.
• Uses formulas you can read. Be careful with macro-enabled files (.xlsm) from sources you do not know. Open them only if you trust where they came from.
• Shows prices in PHP. A template built around US dollars means editing every cost column.

How Do You Get Shopee PH and Lazada PH Orders into Excel?

Export the orders from each Seller Centre, paste them into one Orders tab with a Channel column, and let SUMIFS or a PivotTable total units sold per SKU. It is manual, but it turns many separate dashboard checks into one routine.

Here is the routine step by step:

1. Export orders from both Seller Centres. Both Shopee PH and Lazada PH let sellers download order data as a spreadsheet file. Menu names and columns change, so check what your current export offers.
2. Keep only the columns you need: order number, order date, SKU, quantity, and order status.
3. Add a Channel column (“Shopee PH”, “Lazada PH”) and paste both exports into one Orders tab.
4. Remove cancelled orders. A cancelled order should not reduce stock.
5. Total units sold per SKU with SUMIFS, or build a PivotTable following Microsoft’s PivotTable guide.
6. Post the totals to your ledger as Sale rows, then check stock on hand against each reorder point.
7. Update your listings. Most seller tools let you bulk-edit stock from a spreadsheet file. Check the current bulk-update option in each Seller Centre.

SKU codes are where this routine breaks most often. If Shopee PH has TS-BLK-M and Lazada PH has TSBLKM, your totals split in two and both look fine. Pick one pattern and use it on every listing. Our SKU generator builds consistent codes.

Cash on delivery adds a second trap. A parcel that fails delivery and heads back to you through J&T Express PH, LBC, or Ninja Van PH is still counted as sold until you log it. Give the ledger a “Return to sender” movement type, and post it when the parcel is back on your shelf, not when the courier updates its status.

Running Shopee PH and Lazada PH from one spreadsheet? Check that your reorder timing holds up with our free reorder point calculator.

Where Does Excel Stop Working as Inventory Software?

Excel stops working when the sheet cannot keep up with your orders. It has no live link to Shopee PH or Lazada PH, so every number is only as fresh as the last update.

Five things go wrong first:

• The gap. Between a sale and your next update, the sheet is wrong. On a quiet day that costs nothing. During double-date campaigns like 9.9 and 11.11, orders arrive faster than one person can post them.
• Overwritten formulas. One number typed into a SUMIF cell freezes that SKU’s stock. Nothing warns you.
• Two editors, one file. When two people save the same local file, the last save wins. Shared cloud files reduce this, but overlapping edits on the same row still cause lost entries.
• No scanning. Counting at the shelf means writing on paper, then typing later. Dedicated tools add mobile apps and barcode scanning, though features vary by tool.
• Variants. A T-shirt in 5 sizes and 4 colours is 20 SKUs from one product. Excel needs a row per combination, and the sheet grows fast.

Use this quick test. Count how many of these apply to you:

1. You sell on two or more marketplaces.
2. More than one person edits stock.
3. You have oversold at least once in the last month.
4. Updating stock takes you more than an hour a day.
5. You carry products with size or colour variants.

If two or more apply, Excel is probably costing you more than it saves. That is our rule of thumb, not an industry standard, so adjust it to your own shop.

What Does Dedicated Inventory Software Add?

Dedicated inventory software adds the one thing Excel cannot: a live connection to your marketplace stores, so stock updates when an order comes in instead of when you get around to it.

Based on our research, tools such as Ginee and Sellercraft connect to Shopee and Lazada stores and sync stock across them. Pricing depends on the tool, your order volume, and how many stores you connect, and it changes often. Some tools offer a free or low-cost entry tier. Check each vendor’s current pricing page before you decide. For a side-by-side view, see our inventory management software comparison for Philippine sellers.

Moving to a tool does not mean deleting Excel. Many sellers keep a workbook for cost sheets, margin checks, and month-end reports, and let the software handle stock counts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Excel inventory management software?

Not in the strict sense. Excel is a spreadsheet you can set up to do inventory work: totalling stock from a ledger, flagging low stock, and summarising sales. It has no built-in marketplace connection, so every update depends on you or someone on your team entering it.

Is there free inventory management software in Excel for Philippine sellers?

Free templates are easy to find, and building your own costs nothing beyond Excel or Google Sheets. The real question is fit. Check that a template has a channel column, a ledger, reorder points, and PHP pricing before you rely on it. Our free reorder point calculator and SKU generator cover two of the fiddliest parts.

Can Excel connect to Shopee PH or Lazada PH automatically?

Based on our research, neither Seller Centre connects to Excel on its own. Anything automatic needs a connector built on the marketplace’s platform interface, which is what dedicated inventory tools provide. Some sellers build custom imports, but those take setup and ongoing maintenance.

Should I use Excel or Google Sheets for inventory?

Both work with the same formulas, and both share the same limit: neither updates itself when a sale happens. Google Sheets runs in the browser and suits shared editing. Desktop Excel has stronger PivotTables and handles larger files better. Pick the one your team already opens every day.

When should I stop using Excel for inventory?

Watch for signals rather than a fixed SKU count. Selling on two or more marketplaces, having several people edit stock, overselling, and long manual updates are the common triggers. Use the five-point test above. If two or more apply, start comparing dedicated tools.

Keep Reading

• Inventory Management System in Excel: A Philippine Seller’s Guide
• Inventory Tracking System in Excel: What It Tracks and When to Upgrade
• Inventory Management Software for Philippine Sellers
• Reorder Point Calculator
• Ecommerce Inventory Management for Philippine Sellers