5 signs you've outgrown your spreadsheet for client tracking

Spreadsheets work, for you! For your clients, not so much. You’ve outgrown yours the day a client asks how many sessions they’ve got left and all you can do is read them a number off a tab they’ve never seen.

That day comes sooner than you’d think. If you’ve got more than ten clients, or the admin eats an evening a week, you’re probably already there. Here are the five signs.

1. “I thought I had three left?”

They think three. Your sheet says two. Who’s right doesn’t matter, because you’ve got nothing they can see. So you either give the session away or have a small argument before a workout. Neither is a good start.

The sheet isn’t wrong because you typed it wrong. It’s wrong because it’s yours alone. A balance you both can see ends the question before it’s asked.

2. You find out who hasn’t paid at the end of the month

There’s a paid column. You tick it when the transfer lands, if you remember to check the bank. So the client who said “I’ll send it tonight” three weeks ago is still training, still unpaid, and now it’s awkward to bring up.

What’s owed should sit next to the client’s name, where you see it every time you open their page. Then you take card in the app, or record the cash or the transfer, and send a payment request instead of having the conversation.

3. Your diary says one thing, your sheet says another

You book in the calendar and log in the sheet, so every session exists twice. Move one, cancel one, forget to update one copy, and a month later the balance is out by two and you’ve no idea which way.

One record. Booked, then done, and the count moves because it was done. When the schedule and the balance live in the same place, there’s nothing to reconcile on a Sunday night.

4. A package ran out and nobody noticed

A sheet never tells you anything. It just sits there. So the client who bought ten in March and drifted off in May turns up in October with “five left”, at last year’s price. Or your regular hits their last session, nobody says, and next week’s is on the house.

Put an expiry on the package when you sell it, and let the count tick down where you both can see it. A package that’s nearly done becomes a chat about the next one, not a surprise.

5. You update it at nine o’clock at night, from memory

Did the six o’clock turn up, or move to Thursday? Did the eight o’clock say they’d pay tonight, or at the end of the month? The sheet doesn’t know. It only knows what you type into it, and tonight you’re typing from memory after a ten-hour day.

Log it when it happens, on the phone that’s already in your hand, and there’s nothing left to do at nine o’clock.

The honest bit about apps

Plenty of apps will replace your sheet. Most of them are built for online coaching: programme builders, check-ins, meal plans. Fine if that’s your business. If you train people in a gym, a park or their kitchen, you need the boring bit done well: sessions, packages, who’s paid, and a balance your client can see for themselves. That last one is the thing to check before you pay for anything.

Where Seshman fits

Seshman is the app for trainers, coaches and instructors who sell their time by the session. You issue the package, mark sessions done, take the money by card, cash or transfer and chase what’s owed, and your client sees the same balance in their own free app. You start with two sample clients to play with before anyone real sees it.

Still tracking in a chat thread as well? That’s its own problem.

Get the app on the App Store and Google Play. Free for your clients.