intheOffice or a spreadsheet
Most of the offices that come to us are running a shared spreadsheet or a poll in Microsoft Teams, not another product. So this is the comparison worth writing down.
What the spreadsheet does well, the four things it cannot do, and the case for leaving it exactly where it is.
What the spreadsheet does well
It is the incumbent because it works. Anything that replaces it has to be less effort than it, not more.
- Everybody already has it, and nobody has to be taught it.
- No account to open, no admin to appoint, no security review to pass.
- It changes in a second, and it bends to whatever this month’s rule is.
- It is yours. It exports itself, and nobody can switch it off.
The four things it cannot do
Not because the file is badly built. Because a grid of names records what people said they would do, and these four are about what happened.
Capacity
A spreadsheet will let a twelfth name go against a Tuesday with eight desks, and nobody finds out until Tuesday. In intheOffice the capacity of an office is set as a headcount, a percentage or the number of desks, and every day carries a gauge that turns green, amber then red as it fills, so a busy Thursday is visible on Monday while people can still move.
The Live Health & Safety Register
A spreadsheet records what people intended a week ago. The Register lists who is on site now, staff and visitors together, with who has checked in and who has already left, and it exports, so the roll-call can be taken outside the building. A tab called "who is in" is not that, and a fire officer will say so.
Scan In
Nothing in a spreadsheet knows who actually arrived. A QR code poster at the door, read with the phone’s camera, means a day holds arrivals as well as intentions, and it is what turns the Register from a plan into a record.
The desk that goes back
When somebody moves a day to working from home, their name stays in the spreadsheet cell and the desk stays notionally taken. In intheOffice, changing the day asks what to do with the bookings that person was holding, so the desk returns to the pool for whoever wants it.
Side by side
| The question | A shared spreadsheet | intheOffice |
|---|---|---|
| Who is in on Thursday? | Yes, if everyone remembered to fill it in, and if nobody typed over somebody else’s row. | Everyone sets a status for each day, In the office, Working from home or Away, or sets a weekly Routine once and the schedule fills itself in. |
| More people than desks | Nothing stops the twelfth name going against a day with eight desks. | Capacity per day as a headcount, a percentage or the number of desks, shown as a gauge on every day. |
| Desks, meeting rooms, parking spaces and lockers | A second tab, and two people can take the same desk in the same minute. | Each space has its own seats, for a day, a morning, an afternoon or an hour, and a taken seat is gone from the list. |
| Who is in the building right now | It holds intentions, not arrivals. | The Register lists everyone on site, staff and visitors, with who has checked in and who has left, and it exports. |
| Who actually arrived | No. | A QR poster at the door, read with the phone’s camera, records the arrival. |
| A booking when the plan changes | The name stays in the cell. | Change your day and you are asked what to do with the bookings you were holding. |
| A record three months later | Whatever the last person to edit the file left behind. | Attendance by day and by person over any date range, desk and room use, and the check-in log, all exportable to CSV. |
| What it costs | Nothing beyond the licence you already pay for, plus the asking. | Each module is priced per person per month, billed daily, plus VAT, with no contract. See pricing. |
When to stay on the spreadsheet
If all four of these are true of your office, the spreadsheet is the right tool and we would rather you kept it.
- One office, and more desks than people on the busiest day of the week.
- No visitors worth recording beyond the occasional guest somebody walks in from the door.
- Nobody outside the office asking for a record: no fire officer, no HR file, no landlord, no question about the lease.
- A team small enough that one person can hold the week in their head.
Come back when one of them stops being true. For most offices that is the day somebody asks who was in the building on a Tuesday three months ago, or the day there are more people than desks on a Wednesday.
What moving looks like
You do not throw the spreadsheet away. You import it. People come from Microsoft 365, or from a spreadsheet with first name, last name and email as the headers. Spaces come the same way, so a tab of desk names becomes desks people can book.
Then the part you were doing by hand moves to Routines: each person sets their normal week once and the schedule fills itself in, and they change a day when plans change. Your first two weeks sets out the order to do it in, and the how-to-choose guide has the questions to ask us and anybody else on your list.
No card, no contract, nothing to install.