Why You Should Stop Field Service Managing with Spreadsheets

Field Service Management is a Complicated Business

Let’s see. In a typical field-service based business, such as furniture installation businesses, construction companies, and interior or landscape design companies, there are a lot of different factors that need to be kept track of and organized. A lot of businesses are still field service managing with spreadsheets, yet we think there is a better way.

 

It’s not that spreadsheets aren’t useful for many things. They are! If your business is very small and simple, then it might even work well for you. However, neither Microsoft nor Google made spreadsheets with the intention of managing complicated things like quoting, project tracking, work orders, billing, and customer databases.

 

Your field service management can be easier. Your installation can be easier. Construction, remodel, and design projects can be easier. Here are some reasons why spreadsheets aren’t making your life easier.

 

 

Reasons Field Service Managing with Spreadsheets Doesn’t Work

 

Spreadsheets aren’t sustainable or scalable in the long-run

Like we said, spreadsheets might work for very small and very simple businesses, but they aren’t scalable with your company. As you accumulate customers, projects, and services, the number of spreadsheets you’ll need to keep track of everything will accumulate and soon become unmanageable.

 

Spreadsheets don’t follow best practices

Whether you are modifying spreadsheets to work for you or using premade templates, it’s a good bet that they aren’t made with best practices in mind. That means, they don’t take into account the best ways to track, schedule, and manage quotes and work orders the way a software made specifically for your industry is.

 

Spreadsheets have limited functions

Spreadsheets are good for lists and simple formulas, but you can’t use them to automatically connect with clients from a database. You can’t use them to generate work orders. They integrate with other Microsoft or Google Drive applications, but little else. Anything else you need to do will require extra work on your part.

 

Spreadsheets involve too many manual processes

Everything about spreadsheets requires manual processes. Setting up the spreadsheet, filling it in, maintaining it, adapting it for different clients or services, and sharing data from it all make you work extra hard. Wouldn’t you prefer a system that does it all automatically or close to it?

 

Spreadsheets aren’t collaborative and don’t provide backup

Common spreadsheets, such as Microsoft Excel, don’t allow you to track who is making changes. Various users can’t edit them easily, especially not at once. For us, the real kicker is that once an Excel is saved, that is the version that is going to be remembered and goodbye to anything else. It’s just a disaster waiting to happen, frankly said.

 

Spreadsheets don’t give you reports or business insights

Maybe, just maybe, spreadsheets work just fine for you and your field service business. However, you still have the issue about how to improve management quality. Ideally, you would be able to generate reports based on your field service management, in order to analyze insights and make action plans for improvement. Field service managing with spreadsheets just doesn’t let you do that.

Stop Field Service Managing with Spreadsheets and Start with FSM Software

The biggest benefit to field service managing with spreadsheets is that it is relatively low cost. However, time is money, right? Can you afford the extra time and effort it takes to run a furniture installation company, design company, or house flipping business with such strenuous manual processes?

 

Field service project management software implies an investment, but the value in time and tears is worth it.

 

• Project management software scales with your business.
• The right software is built based on industry best practices and experience in the field.
• Software is built for the kinds of complicated functions and tasks that service-based businesses do every day.
• It’s automatic and oh so easy, just like it should be.
• Look for a project management software that allows for multiple users and backs everything up!
• With all of these great automatic and organized software features, generating reports and studying analytics is usually as easy as a single click.

 

The right software will help your business scale and be ready for the future. It might even help save your business if you are struggling to keep everything straight. It helps in ways that spreadsheets just don’t have the horsepower to do.