Against a spreadsheet and a notes app
The real competitor is not other software. It is a phone, a calendar and a memory, and it works better than software people admit.
What it genuinely does better: it costs nothing, it does exactly what you built it to do, nobody changes it under you, and there is no subscription to justify in a bad month. Those are real advantages and a comparison that pretends otherwise is not worth reading.
It fails at three specific points, not gradually:
1. You cannot remember what you quoted. Usually somewhere between twenty and forty customers. The symptom is quoting the same job differently twice, and it costs trust rather than time.
2. The access details are in a text message you cannot find. Gate code, alarm code, which dog, where to park. Every one of these that goes missing is a wasted slot or an awkward phone call from a driveway.
3. You are losing money to no-shows. A spreadsheet has no way to take money before the work, and a no-show on a long job is the most expensive routine failure in this trade. What a no-show actually costs.
Until you hit those, a spreadsheet is a defensible answer. After them, you are paying for the workaround in a currency that does not show up on any invoice.
What each side actually does
| Spreadsheet and notes | Rigsheet | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Nothing | From $4/mo |
| Scheduling | A calendar, no drive time | Drive-time gaps between jobs |
| Quotes | Typed each time, or copied | Packages with size modifiers |
| Consistency | Depends on the day you are having | Same numbers every time |
| Deposits | Not possible | Stripe, at booking |
| Payment | Cash, transfer, chasing | Card, from the job |
| Customer notes | Wherever you put them | On the customer, on the job |
| Recurring work | Rebooked by hand | Created on schedule |
| Photos | Camera roll | Attached to the job |
| Data ownership | Total | Export whenever you want |
The row that decides it for most people is deposits, and the second is customer notes, because those are the two that cost real money rather than time.
Where a spreadsheet is genuinely the right answer
Under about twenty customers. You can hold it.
Single-service, single-price work. Nothing to compute.
Cash-in-hand local work with no no-show problem. If your customers are neighbours and nobody has ever failed to be in, the deposit argument does not apply to you.
When money is the binding constraint. $4 a month is not nothing when there is no revenue yet, and the honest answer is that the pricing tools and guides on this site are free and useful without buying anything. Your first week in business.
Where it quietly costs more than it saves
Underquoting. A quote made from memory drifts toward optimism, and an SUV or a four-bed deep clean priced like the last small job is a loss you never see itemised. Why you are underquoting. · Stop underquoting large vehicles.
No-shows and cancellations. No deposit step means every gap is total. Cancellations and reschedules.
Chasing payment. The gap between finishing and invoicing is where unpaid invoices come from, and a spreadsheet does not shorten it. When a customer does not pay.
Missing recurring work. For cleaners this is the whole business model, and rebooking by hand means the visit that does not get rebooked is revenue that quietly disappears. Recurring cleaning route planning.
No before photographs. Until the first "it was already like that", at which point it costs a job or a refund. Before-and-after photos that protect you.
If you switch
Do it in the quiet months. A migration during your busiest weeks is how a migration goes wrong. Seasonality and the slow months.
Move customers first, history later. Names, numbers, addresses, access notes. Past jobs can stay in the spreadsheet; nobody needs them in two systems.
Set up packages before importing anything. The packages are what make quoting fast, and importing customers into a system with no prices attached just moves the spreadsheet.
Keep the spreadsheet for a month. Not as a fallback you maintain, as a file you have. Anything that says you cannot leave later is telling you something.
The honest position
Rigsheet is our product, and this page exists because pretending a spreadsheet is not a real option would be obviously untrue to anyone who has run one.
It costs $4 a month at the Starter tier, which includes unlimited jobs, customers, quotes and invoices, scheduling with drive-time gaps, deposits, card payments and recurring jobs. No per-user fees on any plan. The threshold to clear is whether it saves you more than that, and for someone under twenty customers with no no-show problem, it may not yet.
What each plan includes. · The best app for a mobile detailer starting out. · The best app for a solo house cleaner. · The full comparison against every major competitor.
More in this section
About Rigsheet
Rigsheet is a job app from Baker Ventures LLC for one-to-three-person mobile service businesses: mobile auto detailers and residential cleaners first. Scheduling with drive-time gaps, quotes with vehicle and home-size pricing, deposits, "on my way" texts, before and after photos, invoices, and automated review requests. Plans start at $4 a month, with unlimited jobs, customers, quotes and invoices on every tier and no per-user fees.
It exists because the alternatives charge a solo operator team prices. A one-van business is not a small version of a ten-truck business, and pricing built around seats and add-ons makes that mistake expensive. The pricing calculators and operator guides on this site are free and need no account.
Questions and answers
Can you run a detailing or cleaning business on a spreadsheet?
Yes, and plenty of people do it profitably for years. It works while the number of customers is small enough to hold in your head, and it fails at predictable points rather than gradually.
When does a spreadsheet stop working?
At three points. When you cannot remember what you quoted someone, when a customer's access details live in a text message you cannot find, and when you start losing money to no-shows because there is no deposit step.
What does a spreadsheet actually do better?
It costs nothing, it does exactly what you built it to do, and nobody can change it under you. Those are real advantages and any comparison that pretends otherwise is not worth reading.
Is paper worse than an app?
Not automatically. A system you actually use beats one you do not, and an operator with a reliable paper diary is in better shape than one with an app they stopped opening in week three.
What is the single biggest thing software adds?
Deposits, because a no-show on a long job is the most expensive routine failure in this trade and a spreadsheet has no way to take money before the work.
Should you switch mid-season?
Switching during your busiest weeks is how a migration goes wrong. The quiet months are when this is a two-hour job rather than a distraction during a full week.
Rigsheet. “Against a spreadsheet and a notes app.” Baker Ventures LLC, September 7, 2026. https://rigsheet.bakerventuresstudio.com/compare/rigsheet-vs-a-spreadsheet/