The notebook
- Pros: free, immediate, no training needed.
- Limits: it gets lost or torn, only one person can use it at a time, and it is hard to find a subscriber or work out what is owed.
- Suits: a very small agency with few subscribers and a single collector.
The Excel file
- Pros: you can find subscribers, sort, filter and add up totals.
- Limits: it is hard to share, it needs a computer, formulas break easily, and it cannot tell who is allowed to see what.
- Suits: an owner working alone at the office with a small team.
Management software
- Pros: everyone works on the same information, on a phone, with different rights. Receipts, reminders and cash are built in.
- Limits: it takes time to learn and needs a subscription.
- Suits: any agency with several zones, several collectors, or that wants to stop losing money without seeing it.
When should you move to software?
Some signs never lie:
- You cannot tell, without spending an hour, how much your subscribers owe you.
- Your collectors report a different amount from what the notebook says.
- You rewrite receipts by hand every day.
- You regularly forget to remind subscribers.
- You would like to follow the agency from your phone when you are not on site.
Do not start again from zero
The move should not force you to retype all your subscribers. Prepare a clean Excel file, import it, and keep the notebook in parallel while you check. Our guide on importing subscribers explains how to prepare the file.