We see this story and we think: good. The macro ban that stranded your team is not a setback, it's an invitation. Your staff already proved they can adopt a simple, reliable workflow. The problem was never their willingness; it was the tool's dependence on a security risk. VBA gave you convenience, but it also gave your IT department a reason to say no. What you need now is a solution that doesn't ask for special permissions, doesn't require a workaround, and doesn't demand that your team learn a new language. That solution already exists, and it doesn't involve Excel at all.
The most practical path forward is a web-based spreadsheet that runs in a browser. Google Sheets, for example, lets you build a timer with a single script triggered by a button click, no macros, no local execution, no security flag. The same "click to start, click to stop" pattern your staff already knows works identically, but it runs on the server, not on their machine. Your IT department can approve a known, whitelisted service once, and your team never has to ask again. The drop-downs for categorization carry over. The rows stay clean. The learning curve is zero because the interaction is identical to what they already do. The only difference is that the corporation's security policy no longer blocks it.
If your organization already uses Microsoft tools, SharePoint lists or Power Apps can achieve the same result without VBA. A simple form with start and end buttons, tied to a list, gives you the same data in a structured format. Your staff clicks, works, clicks again, categorizes, and moves on. No macros. No local files. No permission requests. The real insight here is that the constraint you faced, a corporate security ban, actually pushed you toward a more modern, more maintainable approach. The old VBA sheet was brittle. One corrupted file, one version mismatch, one policy change, and your process broke. A cloud-based solution survives all of that.
Your staff already proved they can handle a straightforward system. Don't let the complexity of the old workaround fool you into thinking the new one is hard. The hard part was the VBA. The easy part is the future. Pick the platform your organization already supports, build the two-button interface, and let your team do what they already do well. You don't need a macro. You need a better foundation.