A spreadsheet alternative for your delivery route
Excel is free and you know it by heart. The problem isn't the program, it's that it wasn't built for delivery routes. Here's what changes with a system that was.
What each one actually does
When it makes sense to switch
You don't need 500 customers to think about it. The clearest sign is this: if you've already lost an order, if a driver has already called asking for an address that "was written down somewhere," or if the route falls behind the one day you're not around, you're already paying the cost of not having a system. You're just paying it in time and frustrated customers, not in a monthly subscription.
Frequently asked questions
Why not just keep using Excel if I already have it set up?
You can keep using it as long as it works for you. The signal to switch isn't the file itself, it's when it starts failing: a lost order, a route built by hand every morning, a customer calling because you never wrote their order down.
Is it hard to migrate data from Excel to Sodapp?
No. The initial load of your customers and products is included in setup, and we help you move the information over.
Does Sodapp fully replace the spreadsheet?
Yes, for everything a delivery spreadsheet does: orders, routes, history, and the status of each delivery.
Can I keep using Excel for some things?
Yes, and most people do at first. Plenty keep the spreadsheet for their own analysis or for things they built themselves, while daily order handling runs in the system. What is worth avoiding is entering the same data in both places, because that is where they start to diverge.
What if I want to go back to a spreadsheet later?
You can export your customers, orders and history in spreadsheet format whenever you want. It is a fair question to put to any vendor before signing, and this should always be the answer. If exporting your own data means filing a support request, treat that as a signal.
Is a spreadsheet not cheaper than paying for a system?
In direct cash, yes, a spreadsheet has no monthly fee. The honest comparison is against the time it takes to maintain and against what an error costs: an order never entered, a delivery made twice, a customer who stopped buying and nobody noticed. That cost is real, it just never appears on an invoice.
What breaks first as the delivery operation grows?
Almost always recurrence. A spreadsheet records what happened well enough, but it does not tell you what should be happening: that a customer who buys fortnightly has not appeared for five weeks. That prompt is the thing you cannot sustain by hand as the customer base grows.
Does it help if more than one person works on the same spreadsheet?
That is exactly one of the points where a spreadsheet stops working. Two people editing the same file end up overwriting each other, or working from different copies. A system with proper users solves that, though if you work alone today it is not yet your main problem.