3 Serious Spreadsheet Mistakes!

If you're new to the learning industry, buckle up and get ready for a thrilling but sometimes bumpy ride!

Working as a course provider can be exhausting at times… as sometimes you’re expected to have answers for every problem you and your team encounter. 

The best tip that we can give course providers - is to make their life easier by being wary about using spreadsheets alone to manage their course or training business. 

While you might think that there are various advantages to using spreadsheets - there are also many disadvantages that come with the use of spreadsheets. In this day and age there are many better ways to manage your data and projects.

Choosing the right tools for analysing and storing data is crucial to your business... and choosing the right ones can be the difference between making a profit or a loss. Working with spreadsheets can result in confusion and your learners simply slipping through the cracks.

• Mistake 1: Spreadsheets are easily misinterpreted.

Spreadsheets don’t take into account your entire business’ operations. One of the major downsides of using spreadsheets in your business is that spreadsheets do not talk to each other. Effectively, spreadsheets are isolated data repositories that contain information that can easily be misinterpreted or taken out of context. 

By using a platform like CourseCo to manage everything from contact groups to financial records you can be sure to get a truer and more contextual picture of how your business is performing as a whole. CourseCo comes complete with an in-built CRM function and easy to generate reports.

• Mistake 2: Spreadsheets can be hard to use.

The other difficult thing about spreadsheets for many people is that they are damned hard to use! Sure, most of us have a good understanding of how they work - but when it comes to creating complex rules and formulas many people get stuck or start making mistakes. 

It’s simply not practical to make yourself and your staff learn complicated functions when there are tools out there that can perform these tasks in a matter of microseconds. Did you know for instance that CourseCo allows you to see everything from which of your courses are performing best to real time course bookings. Course providers need the ability to take action with the most accurate, current information without waiting for endless reports to be updated. 

• Mistake 3: Spreadsheets are not always secure...

Another spreadsheet mistake is that spreadsheets lack that extra layer of security that you need as a course provider. You simply cannot risk data corruption or data theft in the line of business that you are in.

Even spreadsheets containing sensitive financial with password protection can be at risk. By using an encrypted platform like CourseCo your data is stored safely in the cloud in a unified and organised fashion. CourseCo has built-in safeguards that protect your data from all types of cyber criminals and hackers.

With CourseCo, all of your spreadsheets can be eliminated and your most important and mission critical data can be hosted on a single and intuitive CRM platform with rich reporting. 

Want to find out how CourseCo’s features and in-built tools can help reduce risk in your business? Connect with us on social media or call our product team on +353 61 513 030 today! We can’t wait to hear from you!