< Monday morning >

Client: "Let's use spreadsheets to track our assets and progress!"

Me: "We can, but it might be a good idea to start this in a relational database - we'll be able to not only add stuff, but we can set it so the stuff we change on one page is auto-updated one another."

Client: "Nah, we only need 2 spreadsheets."

< Monday evening >

Client: "We can do this with only 5 spreadsheets!"

< Tuesday morning >

Client: "We need another file with 3 more spreadsheets. This is so easy!"

Me: "This is the break-even point where relational databases make more sense."

Client: "No. My way is better."

< Wednesday evening >

Client: "I'm impressed you were able to set up the 12 spreadsheets across 4 different files to track our assets and promotion progress! I think we'll need a new spreadsheet to track the spreadsheets and the files and who updates them. Can you set that up?"

Me: "Sure, but we would have already had that if.."

Client: "..just do it."

< Friday evening >

Client: "This is working out better than expected!"

Me: "I can't work in the spreadsheets this weekend - I've got other obligations."

Client: "That's okay - you've set it up, and I can run it! Easy!"

< Monday Morning >

Client: "...I updated a spreadsheet and the other spreadsheets didn't update. How do we track time of updates and who updated what? How do I know what to update where? I think I mixed up the spreadsheets, but I created another spreadsheet to track the cleanup."

Me: "...what...?"

Client: "...nobody said this would get this complicated this fast. Do you have any suggestions?"

Me: "..we can set up a relational database."

Client: "That's just a collection of spreadsheets. We don't need more spreadsheets."

Me: "..."