There’s no doubt about it: Microsoft Excel is a great tool to use in any field service business. From the ease of maintaining and sharing data to affordability and flexibility of use, there’s a reason why it’s everyone’s favourite spreadsheet program. However, as a small business owner who’s always in the field, there are many challenges you’ll face when you begin to use it for a growing business.

What if we could tell you that there’s a better solution to help run your home service business as an alternative to using spreadsheets when it comes to job management? Breaking up is never an easy thing to do, but now is a better time than ever to think about ending your (let’s face it) love-hate relationship with Excel.

At GeoNext, we’re here to share with you five reasons why moving to job management software may be a better investment for your business.

• You can keep your finger on the pulse with every project

Having job visibility is paramount when running a successful service business. It’s really important to have quick access to all your job related data. You’ll want to know whether the job was completed on time, your staff completed all the required safety checks and checklists. You’ll also want to maximise the use of all your team’s time – is there a gap you can fill with another project? A good job management platform will have a built-in dashboard and reporting capabilities, so you can view this kind of data in real time and feel more in control of your business. 

On the other hand, Excel lacks real-time accuracy, so you’ll need to manually update any data in order to populate an accurate report. Needless to say, this can take time to pull together and in some instances, by the time the action is completed, the data is outdated. Finally, we are aware that spreadsheets are notoriously known for not being mobile-friendly, which is never good for when you need to access the most updated data.

• No collaboration mistakes

Consider this: someone from your team opens your spreadsheet and makes a small edit. While they’re in the process of this change and they have not yet saved the new information, another team member opens up the same spreadsheet and makes a change to the information. Who has saved first? Which formula will be used? And more importantly, does the data clash? 

Because anyone in your business can access your spreadsheet, it’s easy for information to get copied or modified. This means there’s more likely to be mistakes with a data entry. With our job management software, multiple users can input data about a client, a job or a booking at any one time while enforcing data integrity.

• Improved data security

When it comes to Excel spreadsheets, there’s little security around who has access to what information and what data can be shared. For example, if a team member saves files to their personal computer and then leaves your organisation, it’s entirely possible for them to continue to access your company spreadsheet. You can password-protect your spreadsheet but you’ll have to remember to change that password should any team member resign.

When you use a job management platform like GeoNext, you can use secure credentials to sign into the software, granting permission to only those users who are still working within your company. 

• Prevents siloisation

Poor communication within projects is a common factor when it comes to spreadsheets, simply because there are multiple copies of the data being manipulated by different team members. It’s incredibly easy to press “Save As” and work on your own spreadsheet. In these cases, spreadsheets can become multi-authored. When this happens, the spreadsheet grows in terms of users adding in their own columns, notes, or calculations. A bloated spreadsheet becomes quickly unmanageable – and then useless.

With job management software, your team can enjoy a single database with no risk of individuals going rogue and setting up their own database with duplicate (and often out-of-date) data.

• Better lead management

With GeoNext, you can manage your team, clients, jobs/bookings and projects from quote to invoice. Unlike using a spreadsheet, you’ll have the capabilities to store detailed information about clients, quotes and potential jobs. Think things like their contact details, project locations, as well as products or services they are interested in, and the entire communication trail. You can even automate reminders to follow-up on tasks or to check in.

While Excel spreadsheets can store a lot of data, you’ll have to complete a lot of scrolling to get to what you need. This can be frustrating at best and incompetent at worst.

• Software that grows with you

Successful businesses need software that can support them at all stages. Excel and manual processes might work with a couple of staff and a handful of clients, but if you aspire to grow your business to more than five staff and lots of jobs every week, you need a platform that can grow with you to help manage your team, clients, jobs, schedule – and improve your cash flow.

Make the switch to job management software with GeoNext

Swapping your tried-and-true method for an entirely new way to run your business can be intimidating, but with our support and assistance, you’ll experience the benefits of job management in no time. 

If you’re ready to make the switch to job management software for your business, we can help. Contact GeoNext today for a FREE trial or in as little as 15 minutes we can show you some handy tips and tricks in a free, no obligation software demo. 

Click here to book a time.