---
title: "Why do my spreadsheet formulas keep breaking? — PaprPlain"
description: "Replace fragile spreadsheet lookups with connected records and totals that stay right when an order, payment or customer changes."
source: "https://paprpla.in/answers/formulas-keep-breaking"
---

1. [Home](https://paprpla.in/)
2. [Answers](https://paprpla.in/answers)
3. Why do my spreadsheet formulas keep breaking?

[Answers](https://paprpla.in/answers)

# Why do my spreadsheet formulas keep breaking?

Because a formula like a VLOOKUP is holding two lists together by matching a name that somebody typed by hand — and sooner or later they type it slightly differently, move a column, or insert a row in the middle. You can patch it, and you will be patching it again next month. PaprPlain does away with the whole arrangement: an order simply knows which customer it belongs to, and a payment knows which order it is against, so there is nothing to match up and no formula to break. Open a customer and every order of theirs is sitting there; open an order and it tells you whose it is. You can even rename the customer and nothing anywhere stops working.

## Nothing to drag down

An order adds up its own lines. Change one and every total above it follows. Try to delete a customer who still has orders and it tells you what is in the way.

## Read next

- [**Why has our shared spreadsheet stopped working?**](https://paprpla.in/answers/spreadsheet-stopped-working)
- [**How do I turn an Excel sheet into an app?**](https://paprpla.in/answers/turn-excel-sheet-into-app)
- [**How do I stop staff entering wrong data?**](https://paprpla.in/answers/stop-wrong-entries)

## Bring your own file and see.

Half an hour, your own records, and a workspace built out of them while you watch. 7 days free, nothing to install.

[Book a demo](https://cal.com/parikshithv/30min) [See pricing](https://paprpla.in/pricing)