List Guidelines

[Chris Gahlsdorf]

Is there a good rule of thumb or guideline for when to use a SharePoint Online List or having an Excel Document in a Doc Library? Asking for a friend.... 

Thanks!

[#2]

Not such a rule or guide...you are talking about different scenarios here:
1) Using a Excel file means you are working with a single document so each time you need to add / update information you need to open it and work with the file
2) Using a list implies that every record in the list is an independent piece of information that can be easily managed on a single click.
One good think of lists is that you can customize how to display information stored using view formatting, powerapps or even SPFx

[#3]

Hello @Chris Gahlsdorf 

A SharePoint list can be further leverage for automation events using Flow i.e. sending reminder emails based on a date. The row version history in lists allow for more granularity in restore/compare operations compared to Excel. It might be one less click to get to the list vs the Excel document (I'm grasping with this one).

If the nature of the content (columns) is known I would use a list. Inversely, if the content is not fully known I would use a spreadsheet.

I hope this helps.

Norm