From Excel to software — when to move
Excel is not the problem. It just stops keeping up past a certain point.
Where Excel is perfectly fine
Up to 20 or 30 trips a month, one person doing the writing, and bilties made by hand — Excel works. There is nothing wrong with it.
Where Excel breaks
- Two people cannot work at once — one has to close the file before the other opens it
- Bilties cannot be made from Excel; that stays a separate job
- When a formula breaks, nothing tells you which total went wrong
- A corrupted or deleted file takes everything with it
- Preparing a party statement takes hours
- Excel will not tell you how old an outstanding amount is
What changes with software
The biggest difference is this: enter a trip once, and the bilty, the party ledger, the supplier hire, the driver advance and the invoice all follow from it. In Excel those are five separate places to write, and missing one throws off everything.
Your existing Excel is not wasted
Your parties, drivers, vehicles and past trips import straight from the sheets you already have. Column names that differ are recognised anyway. You see a preview of what will be imported and what will be skipped, and nothing is saved until you confirm. And whenever you want, all of your data comes back out to Excel — it is your data.
Frequently asked questions
Will my old Excel data come across?
Yes. Parties, drivers, trucks and trips all import. Upload your file, check the preview, then confirm.
My column names are different — is that a problem?
No. "Party", "Party Name", "Customer" and "Bill To" are all understood as the same thing. Anything that cannot be read is called out clearly in the preview.
Can I get my data back out to Excel later?
Yes, any time, in one click. It is your data, and there is no charge or restriction on taking it with you.
Do I have to give up Excel completely?
No. Many people run both at first — a month in the software, checked against the sheet. Once they trust it, the sheet goes.