One of the most frequently requested solutions we come across is the need to manage jobs or orders within a small business. Most people are able to set up a simple spreadsheet to track and record work and this is a great way to avoid paying for costly out-of-the-box software which may not fit your requirements. But what about the next step?
Excel Job Tracking Workflow
Using lists, lookups, data validation and conditional formatting you can elevate a simple tracking sheet to become a vital workflow tool, providing the basis for processing the day’s tasks as well as acting as a data hub for reporting and provding valuable MI.
Add in some VBA code and your simple job tracker can start doing things like moving completed tasks to a separate sheet so that your team can focus on the work in progress. Or how about notifying users when a task is assigned to them or their department – use code to link up your drop-down lists to outlook and off you go.
Create Documents With Excel
Once you have orders, jobs or tasks input into your tracking sheet, the natural progression is to want to do more with that data that has been recorded. Data input is time-consuming and risky – keying in data more than once risks human error, so if you have already captured the data in the spreadsheet, why key it again into a purchase order, delivery note, job sheet or invoice?
Repeated processes like producing documents from a data table is what Excel is great at – if you don’t have the expertise to do this there are lots of resources out there that can walk you through it, or if you don’t have the time or inclination just get in touch with one of our friendly team and we will help.
The concept is essentialy that having recorded the data in your spreadsheet, it simply needs to be mapped into a template document. That template can be created in Microsoft Word or Excel itself, and at the click of a button, all the relevant information from a given job or order can be integrated into the appropriate fields in the template document.
There are lots of different ways to go about this in Excel – content controls, bookmarks, or good old copy and paste, depending on the level of complexity and the layout of the end document being produced. The document can even be pdf’d and emailed automatically if required.
Save Time And Money By Automating
This type of automation is just one of the thousands of successful solutions we have provided to our clients over the years. Any repeated process can be automated, and while every solution is bespoke, every solution we develop draws on the extensive expertise and experience of our team of qualified Excel consultants, so you can be sure we are providing you with a well-thought-out tool for your business.
If you would like to find out more about how automating processes within your business can benefit you, or would like help creating code to produce documents from a spreadsheet, just drop us a call, email or come and live chat with us and see what we can do for you.
Want to find out more from the author of this post? Get hold of Kate directly for help and advice.
