Excel, a calendar, or ServisBook?
Many service companies plan in a spreadsheet or in a shared calendar. Both work longer than people usually expect. Here is where they stop being enough.
Only interested in the comparison with Excel? A detailed comparison is on the page ServisBook vs Excel, including a shift plan template to download.
When Excel is enough
Three technicians, ten orders a month and one planner. As long as the plan does not change and nobody else needs to see it, a spreadsheet is faster than any software.
When the spreadsheet stops being enough
You recognise it by specific events, not by a feeling:
- A technician was scheduled in two places at once twice in a month.
- A technician calls the office to ask where to go because the plan has changed in the meantime.
- You answer a question about an appointment with a promise to call back.
- A recurring inspection was forgotten and the customer had to remind you.
- When the planner is away, nobody knows what was agreed.
One item is a coincidence, three are a pattern.
| What you need | Excel | Shared calendar | ServisBook |
|---|---|---|---|
| See the whole team on one screen | yes | only person by person | yes |
| Warning about overlapping appointments | with your own rules | shows the overlap | yes, including capacity |
| Who is on holiday, counted into capacity | manually | manually | automatically |
| Filter “who is free and qualified” | no | no | yes |
| The customer picks an appointment themselves | no | no | yes, with one link |
| The technician sees a change without a phone call | no | yes | yes |
| Attachments and notes right on the order | no | no | yes |
| Who changed what and when | no | no | full history |
| Several users working at the same time | yes, in a shared file | yes | yes |
| Price for 8 people per month | EUR 0 | EUR 0 to 64 | EUR 160 |
A shared calendar handles more than you would expect
Google Calendar or Outlook covers basic coordination. A technician sees their day on the phone, a change shows up immediately and overlapping events are visible. The basic version can come at no extra charge, but business accounts may be part of a paid licence. A calendar on its own does not connect an overlap with holidays, qualifications and the capacity of the whole team, and does not tell an offered appointment from a confirmed commitment to the customer.
What it costs
Eight active users according to the price list come to EUR 160 a month. The payback is not a universal number: it depends on your actual rate, the number of people and the time that coordination or unnecessary trips take today. Work it out with an illustrative method and plug in your own measured values.
When not to get ServisBook
In these cases we do not recommend it:
- You want to invoice from one place. ServisBook cannot invoice and will not be able to in the near future. It plans people and appointments, the rest stays with your accounting software.
- You need to work without a signal. The app needs a connection.
- You want to track technicians’ location. We do not do that and will not.
Frequently asked questions
Can data be imported from Excel?
Customers, yes. In Settings → Customer import you upload an .xlsx or .csv file, for example an address book exported from Pohoda, and see a preview before saving. A repeated import does not duplicate a customer. Moving orders and appointments from Excel is handled individually depending on what your spreadsheet looks like; tell us in advance what you need to move.
Do we all have to switch at once?
No, but we recommend it. With a long overlap the team does not switch, because the old plan stays binding. Set a day from which only the new one applies.
What if the app does not suit us?
You will find out during the thirty free days and pay nothing.
Plan next week in ServisBook
Thirty free days are enough to decide whether switching makes sense.
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