![\"Why](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Why-you-shouldnt-use-spreadsheets-for-project-management-cover.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nHow a spreadsheet app almost cost me a client<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I started my career as part of a small remote startup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The business took off quickly, and we had our hands full with over a dozen clients in the very first week \u2014 this was great, but also overwhelming. It was my first job, after all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, I kept putting one foot in front of the other. Everything was logged in our master spreadsheet, and things were going well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or so I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One Monday, we get an angry email from one of our first clients. At that point, 2 weeks had passed since our 5-day turnaround time \u2014 and his order was nowhere to be seen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went into red alert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I immediately notified my manager, and we scrambled to figure out how this could have happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The answer was both bizarre and ridiculously simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turned out that one of the team members had somehow accidentally hidden the row in the sheet that contained the client\u2019s order. And since everyone was focusing on the steady influx of new orders, nobody noticed that row 3 was missing in action.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"Would](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/would-you-have-caught-it-on-a-busy-day.png\")
However, this one could\u2019ve gone south very easily. We could\u2019ve lost a client and lost even more potential clients over a bad review \u2014 all because of one misclick of the mouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With spreadsheets, sadly, human errors like this can only be averted with a careful eye. The only alternative would be to use specialized task management software<\/a>, as notifications or even a simple confirmation prompt could prevent situations like this from happening.<\/p>\n\n\n Further down the line in my career, I found myself in another mixed role that involved lots of administrative tasks and a more complicated workflow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, once again, spreadsheets were involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, the problem was we had many clients across different time zones \u2014 and we\u2019d always note down the client\u2019s time zone manually before converting it to Coordinated Standard Time (UTC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at it in retrospect \u2014 yes, it was an absolute recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day we received an order with an urgent deadline set for the following Monday. My manager, entering the data while tired at the end of the day, accidentally noted CST instead of CEST as the client\u2019s time zone due to the app suggesting it based on previous cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That one letter and one minor slip in concentration made for a 7-hour difference. Essentially, we had one day less to complete the order \u2014 but we didn\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This time, I caught the error purely by accident when I decided to double-check the sheet Friday evening \u2014 and noticed the time zone discrepancy between this order and one of the client\u2019s earlier orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I notified the team, and we had to crash the project<\/a> over the weekend to meet the deadline since moving it wasn\u2019t an option. We completed the order successfully and delivered on time. We had no choice \u2014 it was a time-sensitive project, and failing to meet the deadline would\u2019ve likely cost us the client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, happy ending for everyone, right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, not quite. We finished the project and kept the client, but several people had to work over the weekend<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Overtime is part and parcel of some industries, but that doesn\u2019t make it a good thing. In fact, overtime can have many negative effects on your company, and nothing makes employees want to leave quite like unplanned overtime during the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udca1Plaky Pro Tip<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Want to learn more about the importance of a positive employee experience? Here\u2019s an article you may want to take a look at:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These two cautionary tales are not the only ones I have to share \u2014 if we were to go into detail about every time I learned why spreadsheets were a bad match with project management<\/a>, we\u2019d be here all day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, I\u2019ll just briefly go over some major reasons behind the \u201cwhy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cComputers don\u2019t make mistakes, people who program them do.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a quote from my high school IT class that really stuck with me. And, while it\u2019s not directly relevant here, it brings attention to an important truth for every workplace: human error is the one variable that can never be fully avoided. <\/p>\n\n\n\n People make mistakes, plain and simple. While we can\u2019t prevent mistakes, we can take steps to minimize the risk of mistakes happening and set up an easy and efficient means to correct them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, an incident like the one from the first story would never have happened if we were using proper project management software<\/a> because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep track of all task changes in Plaky<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing says wasted time and money quite like manually creating something complex in a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, have you ever tried creating a Gantt chart in Google Sheets<\/a>? It\u2019s not exactly a simple process. There are quite a few steps to follow, cells to format, formulas to set up \u2014 and, what\u2019s most frustrating, manual input is required to keep the chart up to date. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, with an app like Plaky<\/a> by CAKE.com<\/a>, all you need to do is click a button, and the app will automatically convert your table into a fully interactive Gantt chart.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n Try Plaky by CAKE.com today<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve ever tried to communicate with team members within a spreadsheet, you\u2019ve done it in one of two ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This may work in very small teams \u2014 but is probably not ideal if there\u2019s more than 5 of you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Comments left in spreadsheets can be easy to miss and things can be accidentally deleted. Because of that, most of the communication has to go through other channels, be it email or messaging apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This, in turn, means important information can be lost or simply be unavailable to other team members. And much like with the lack of automation, this can lead to all sorts of complications and costly mistakes further down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, most project management tools allow you to centralize important communication on one platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, in my day-to-day work using Plaky, I can leave comments, share files directly on the platform, and teammates are automatically notified of any changes, even if I don\u2019t @mention them directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoy effective team collaboration with Plaky<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Whenever my roles involved administrative responsibilities, my biggest problem weren\u2019t the spreadsheets themselves \u2014 it was the fact I always had to juggle a lot of them. And this lack of a unified workspace ties into all the things I\u2019ve mentioned above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you\u2019re trying to keep multiple sheets aligned with each other manually, the risk of error increases exponentially, as does the difficulty of catching and fixing the errors. It wastes time and resources, not to mention the nightmare of files getting lost or corrupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Project management software allows you to keep everything in one place, where you can easily cross-check data on different boards and ensure nothing gets lost along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Sheets and Excel are handy, but they can only get you so far when managing complex projects. Graduate from spreadsheets by switching to Plaky by CAKE.com for free.<\/p>\n So, with all that said, you can imagine how many things can go wrong when you use spreadsheets to track everything \u2014 especially as errors compound over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully, there are better ways to manage your project and track important information with specialized apps \u2014 such as Plaky by CAKE.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Plaky, you get a comprehensive overview of your project, a number of useful project management templates<\/a>, as well as features that you simply don\u2019t have with spreadsheets \u2014 file sharing, privacy controls, and more. Moreover, it all comes with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Put simply, if our team was using Plaky to form a centralized source of all important project information with automated functions, we\u2019d never end up in a situation where we\u2019d risk losing a client over a typo or a misclick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Things](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/things-cant-go-missing-in-a-pm-tool-without-people-getting-notified.png\")
How a spreadsheet app almost cost me a client\u2026 again<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Why you shouldn\u2019t use spreadsheets for project management<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ll make a mistake, sooner or later<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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You\u2019ll have to do almost everything manually<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Gantt](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/gantt-chart-in-plaky.png\")
You\u2019ll struggle to collaborate with your team<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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You\u2019ll probably have to juggle information from several spreadsheets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Plaky](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/cake-blog\/theme\/images\/banners\/default@2x.png)
\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n \n\n\n\nSpare your future self the headaches and pick the right tool for the job \u2014 try Plaky by CAKE.com for free<\/h2>\n\n\n\n