If I could I would love spreadsheets. But I can't and here's why.
If you're looking for mountains of relatable meme's on the internet, simply look at #spreadsheets. They're hilarious, and painfully too much like some of our day-to-day. Truthfully, spreadsheets are both a wonderful tool and a major pain in the #$%. Their purpose is to make a business' usage data more clear. They should dispense great reports and insights into the data. Spreadsheets should be the very best friend to every accountant, manager, and business stakeholder. But they're not. Why?
Spreadsheets are fragile. They can be built like a deck of cards that falls apart when anything heavy is put into the mix. Or they can completely bulldoze your workflow when something is input incorrectly. Spreadsheets can be wonky and not fit to your products special requirements. And spreadsheets are not reliable. What start out as a sweet little spreadsheets can turn into what we call SPREAD MONSTERS and hinder productivity. (Here's more on SPREAD MONSTERS)
Who wants to be accountable for managing the spreadsheets?
Clunky spreadsheets are not made better because of the software you're using. Managing multiple spreadsheets with hundreds of lines longterm is difficult. When something goes wrong or it fails to perform, who suffers the consequences? Base level, the day to day person that inputs data and manages the spreadsheet may lose hours of their week trying to recover a lost spreadsheet or fix a spreadsheet with inaccuracies. A stakeholder may not have a clear vision of what is happening in their company when multiple spreadsheets show different data. And ultimately the customer suffers from a disorganized business handling their billing information.
We would blame it all on the SPREAD MONSTERS, but unfortunately it's all human errors that can be avoided.
Use a tool that is both organized and accountable.
So you have a bunch of spreadsheets that are giving you a run for you money. What can you do?
First, take a deep breath and get setup.
The main thing holding folks back from getting software that can dig them out of the hole, is the fear that they will lose everything. No worries, we have been there, done that. Find a software that can onboard your business smoothly without relying on you to start from scratch.
Second, automate the repetitive tasks.
Repetitive tasks take up valuable time. When you're stuck repeating the same responsibility before you can move on to a new or more detailed part of your workflow, you end up working longer or never getting to the next task. With automating predictable tasks such as monthly invoices or recurring payments, you will get back hours. Some of our customers have reported saving over 40 hours per month. Now your coworkers won't have an excuse to not clean out the employee fridge every week.
Third, make it custom.
Wait, your invoice, emails, and client portals aren't branded with your branding? Get on it! Eliminate your customer's anxieties by keeping the billing and payment process all consistently branded with your brand. Jumping through web pages of third party vendors can make a business's transactions seem untrustworthy. Customers who think "Who has my credit card information? I'm not comfortable, this seem fishy!" will be able to relax and know that their important information is secure.
Ready to crush your SPREAD MONSTERS and get organized?
