Spreadsheets - The Ultimate Swiss Army Knife of Software

When it comes to organising player lists, payments, and even tasks, the first tool that badminton organisers reach to is often the Spreadsheet.

It's simple, familiar, and perhaps most importantly, free to use.

However, there are some hidden costs, especially if your toolbox includes other applications like messaging apps.

How socials use Spreadsheets

Badminton clubs and socials often use messaging apps to open up a session to a community of players to join.

When a session is ready, many organisers copy the list of players to a spreadsheet to:

• Mark whether players attended
• Mark whether players have paid
• Calculate income and expenses for the session

What spreadsheets do clubs and socials use?

Based on my experience, many clubs use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Sometimes even both.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is quite ubiquitous. It may be free if you bundled it with your Windows, but for personal use requires the Microsoft 365 subscription which is AUD $16/month.

If you're a student, you ought to be getting a discount, too.

But unless you're living under a rock, Google Sheets serves the same purpose, supports multiple users at the same time, and is free to use.

Google Sheets

Google Sheets is free and tends to be the favourite among groups with more than one organiser because it's easily shared and has supports multiple concurrent users.

It effectively does the same job as Excel, and while there are differences in the layout and function names, it's unlikely this will be a big deal for the purpose of organising badminton socials.

Why not both?

You don't have to pick and choose. I've seen some clubs use both Excel and Sheets:

• Sheets to mark attendance via mobile during the session
• Excel to calculate income and expenses, and tracking surpluses/deficits over time.

If you're feeling adventurous, you can switch them around.

Are there hidden costs to using spreadsheets?

Apart from the cost of Microsoft's 365 subscription (or even Google Workspaces), there are other hidden non-financial costs to using spreadsheets.

Copy-pasting

Clubs often use messaging apps to let players RSVP to badminton sessions, which then need to be transferred to a spreadsheet via copying and pasting.

Copying and pasting names must wait until the list is finalised (often 24 hours before a session), otherwise it can become out of sync with the RSVP list quickly. This can be tricky if you have players pull out last minute.

Copying and pasting names from messaging apps is easier done on the desktop than on mobile.

Human Error

Finally, there's always human error. Marking attendance and payment manually may occur on the wrong row, especially if the width of a row is too wide.

How does Courtex solve using spreadsheets?

Courtex solves a few of the hidden costs to using spreadsheets.

Session management automatically includes checkboxes against each player's name for attendance and payment, effectively what organisers would be building in spreadsheets.

Therefore as players RSVP to your badminton sessions, the list is always up to date, including players who cancel their position on the RSVP list.

Marking attendance and payment is still the responsibility of the organisers, and so human error is not eliminated. However, correcting mistakes is easy with a toggle.

When a session is completed, Courtex also opens up the ability to add income received from attendance, and expenses such as court hire and shuttles, allowing you to track surplus/deficit per session.

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