From Excel sheets to a digital operations hub
The cleaning company fully digitised scheduling for 120+ cleaning staff — less effort, fewer errors, full transparency.
By Markus Dieing | November 2025
€45–60k
estimated annual savings
15–20h/week
planning effort saved
Planning tool
Excel
Before
Software
After
Excel at its limit — now digital
The cleaning company coordinates 120+ cleaning staff across more than 130 sites. All of their scheduling ran on Excel — weekly plans, shift plans, assignments, everything manual and almost unmanageable at that headcount.
In 2–3 months, SimplifieD Solutions delivered a bespoke software solution that moved the company from Excel-based scheduling to a digital operations hub.
Four problems with Excel-based scheduling
Hours of weekly planning
Assigning dozens of staff to different sites — availabilities, qualifications, client requirements, all in one spreadsheet.
Every change in five places
Every sickness or rescheduling meant manual changes in several places at once.
Errors unavoidable
Double bookings, forgotten sites, staff without shifts — problems that only become visible in Excel once it’s already too late.
At its limit past 120 people
What worked for 20 staff was a daily struggle at 100+. Excel simply didn’t scale any further.
How the scheduling system works
Manages all sites and staff centrally
Cleaning sites with intervals and requirements, staff with availabilities and qualifications — all in one place.
Spots conflicts before they happen
Double bookings, capacity shortfalls, missing assignments — caught automatically, not on the morning of the shift.
Generates shift plans at the push of a button
Individual shift plans for each cleaner are derived automatically from the overall plan — no copy-paste mistakes.
Updates every plan centrally when things change
When someone calls in sick, the change is made once — and ripples through every affected plan automatically.
Before vs. after
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Planning tool | Excel spreadsheets | Bespoke software |
| Weekly planning | Hours of manual work every week | Structured and significantly faster |
| Shift plans | Derived manually, error-prone | Generated at the push of a button |
| Changes when someone drops out | Manual edits in several places | Change once, everything stays in sync |
| Error rate | Double bookings, gaps | Automatic conflict detection |
| Transparency | Only inside the Excel file | Central, visible to everyone |
15–20h/week
planning effort saved
€45–60k
annual savings
“With 120+ people and Excel — it just stopped working. Now I have the whole week in one view, shift plans come out at the press of a button, and if someone drops out I don’t have to edit five places at once.”
— Management
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