Almost every workload account begins in Excel. The spreadsheet is quick to make, everyone can open it, and it can be shaped around the department's own rules. In the first years it is often exactly the right choice.
But the spreadsheet grows. More staff, more norms and more exceptions arrive, and each time another formula, tab or note is added. It happens gradually, which is why you only notice late that the account has become hard to trust.
When the spreadsheet is enough
A spreadsheet can work perfectly well if the department is small, the norms rarely change and one person looks after the whole account. If staff do not need to follow their own account during the year, and management only needs a single summary once a year, there is little to gain by switching.
Signs you have outgrown it
- Formulas break. A row is inserted in the wrong place, a tab is renamed, and suddenly the total says
#REF!. - The account depends on one person. Only one person knows how the spreadsheet fits together, and when they are on holiday or leave, the work stops.
- There are several versions. The file is sent around by email, and nobody is quite sure which one is current.
- Staff ask about their hours. Every request means someone has to dig out the spreadsheet and send an extract.
- Exceptions live in notes. Part-time, leave and special agreements are typed in by hand instead of being part of the calculation.
- Cross-cutting questions take days. How many supervision hours does each section have? The answer needs a new sheet with lookups and copied figures.
If you recognise three or more of these, you probably spend more time maintaining the spreadsheet than using the figures.
What changes
| Task | In the spreadsheet | In Excelsior |
|---|---|---|
| A norm changes | The formula is fixed in every sheet that uses it | The norm is changed in one place, and every registration is recalculated |
| A member of staff goes part-time | The capacity is rewritten by hand | Capacity follows the job title and is adjusted as a percentage |
| A member of staff wants to see their hours | An extract is sent by email | They log in and see their own account |
| Who changed the figure? | There is no way to tell | Every registration has its own history |
| Hours per section | A new sheet with lookups | A pivot table built by drag and drop |
| A new year begins | The spreadsheet is copied and cleared | Registrations are transferred in the budget module |
The calculation lives in one place. Every activity has a norm for the year, and hours are worked out as units times norm. When you change a norm, every registration using it is recalculated, and each member of staff's balance is updated.
Capacity follows the job title. Each job title has a capacity per year, and a member of staff working part-time gets their share as a percentage. Leave and special agreements are registered as capacity adjustments, so they count towards the balance instead of sitting in a note.
Everyone sees what they should. Staff can see their own account and register in the years that are open. Section managers see their section, and management sees across the department. Confidential notes are only visible to those with access to them. Once a year is closed, staff can no longer change it themselves.
There is one account. There are no competing versions, and every change is stored with who made it and when.
The overview across the department
With every registration in one place, you can ask questions without building anything first. In the pivot tool you slice the figures by section, job title or category. With the budget module you start the new year from the previous one, and with an accumulated balance surpluses and deficits can follow a member of staff from year to year.
You are not locked in either. A pivot table can be exported as an Excel file, exactly as it looks on screen, so the figures can still be passed on or used in a spreadsheet when needed.
How the move works
You do not need to tidy up the spreadsheet first. We start from what you use today and set up norms, job titles and capacities so that Excelsior calculates by your rules. Then we go through the result with you before staff get access.
Excelsior is developed in Denmark and hosted in the EU, and support is free.
Good advice
- Gather your rules before you start. Norms, job titles and exceptions that today live in notes, or in one person's head, are the most important things to write down.
- Start with one year. Make the coming year the first one in Excelsior, and keep the old spreadsheet as the archive for earlier years.
- Give staff access early. Most errors are found once staff can see their own account.
- Keep Excel for what it is good at. Export a pivot table when the figures need to go to management or into a budget.