Spreadsheets are great for many things- Making salary receipts, automating a sales ledger, maintaining balance sheets, and so on. However, they do not serve as ideal project management and tracking platform. Spreadsheets are awesome, but they can’t do everything, and we’re not even judging.
Besides, Managing multiple complicated spreadsheets can get overwhelming, especially if you’re not savvy. The formulae, commands, and other technicalities can be annoying when you need to finish something immediately. Spreadsheets are bliss for many tasks, but project tracking and management aren’t one of their best features.
We are giving you 5 reasons to consider an Excel Spreadsheet alternative for your project management needs.
Collaboration on Excel Sheet is obsolete.
Excel Sheet has been an amazing platform for all professionals who know how to go about the nitty-gritty, but it hasn’t been quite the same for laypeople. It is challenging enough to maintain a sheet as an individual, but the ordeal becomes ten folds if two or more people are updating the sheet simultaneously. Some spreadsheet software allows multiple simultaneous editors; others don’t, so each user has to wait for their turn.
The data you and others enter is not getting updated in real-time, so you are never sure whether the information you see is accurate or not. Additionally, some of the data might get rolled back to a previous edition or accidentally deleted, and there would be no record of who did it and when- resulting in miscommunication.
Spreadsheets are as vulnerable to errors as they are difficult to maintain. It could lead to inexplicably embarrassing situations in front of bosses and clients.
Learn more about effective project management with TeamingWay here.
Excel Spreadsheets are unable to track time.
Assigning a different sheet in each team member’s name is great; you have put in all the necessary information like starting time, deadline, brief, and the resources needed. The most important feature, however, is missing in spreadsheets: tracking time and project progress. How would you know where a project stands and whether or not your team is delivering on time?
Spreadsheets don’t let you assign tasks.
Okay, it does, but not simply and effectively. You have to go about making different spreadsheets for everyone, breaking it down further by making rows and columns, and color-coding as per order and priority. If you micromanage every project to such an extent, you won’t have much time to finish the actual work.
The spreadsheet way is a rather meticulous way of assigning tasks. How else do spreadsheets allow you to assign tasks? They don’t. They wouldn’t know their responsibilities if they didn’t open the spreadsheet and explore it left, right and center.
Spreadsheets cannot track task progress.
How would you know if each team member is delivering tasks that were assigned to them? What if one person’s work is delayed due to another person’s absence or procrastination? Spreadsheets don’t track individual progress, and this little feature is no longer optional in today’s fast-paced working environment.
Excel Spreadsheets do not send notifications.
Some common things that happen at a workplace almost daily
- The client’s brief has changed, and we have to work on the project all over again
- The client needs revision- and it’s your last working day
- Someone resigned, and a new team member joined in and has to work on an ongoing project but has absolutely no idea about it.
- The deadline is drawing near, and there has been little to no progress from the team about the progress.
How do you inform your team of an urgent requirement or an important update? So aside from maintaining the spreadsheets, you’re now manually updating everyone by email or other communication platforms.
How does the team keep track of the deadlines? Each member has their own effective or ineffective way of remembering deadlines- post-its, calendar reminders, alarms, or even holding each other accountable. Regarding accountability, no one has visibility of other team members’ deadlines, the internal project schedule, or if they have missed a deadline that could affect collective team performance. And what if you or someone else is responsible for notifying everyone about the deadlines?
The redundancy of the whole process results in a loss of time and productivity.
Shifting project management on TeamingWay
Shifting your project management from spreadsheets to a project management platform can make a visible difference in your workflow. An effective project management software lets you assign tasks, set individual and team goals, track progress and collaborate seamlessly. Moreover, the automated system sends out notifications every time there is any update and sends periodic notifications about progress and changes in real-time. And these are some of the ways your life gets easier.
TeamingWay is a project management and collaboration tool designed to keep digital businesses, remote workers, and small to medium-sized businesses in mind. The platform allows you to Assign and manage projects, track ongoing work progress, keep the entire team aligned and updated, and let each member know their responsibilities and deadlines. You can also share files without worrying about losing them on TeamingWay. Moreover, the platform lets you host glitch-free HD video conferencing with unlimited participants.
TeamingWay also allows customization of your workspace as per your working style or your team’s. Overall, a project management software such as TeamingWay allows you a tailored experience and can act as a great alternative to spreadsheets.
