Last updated: 13 August 2026
Spreadsheets work for longer than you might think — until the day they don't. Where exactly the limit lies and what switching costs.
A small agency can be run with Excel, Word and Outlook. But the workload does not grow steadily, it grows in leaps: every new client means another rotation to be extended by hand, another contract to be copied together, and another invoice that someone types up again every month. On top of that, nobody but you knows where everything is.
Industry software such as HerzensManagement costs from €7 per active client per month, €11 for the full package. With ten clients, that is €70 to €110 a month — usually less than the working time that monthly invoicing by hand costs on its own.
In short: Switching does not pay off from a certain size, but from the moment you are doing repetitive work that software can handle.
| Task | With Excel, Word and Outlook | With HerzensManagement |
|---|---|---|
| Creating a new client | Row in the spreadsheet, folder in the file system, details gathered by phone | Family registers itself via a one-time link, structured assessment included |
| Finding a suitable caregiver | Look through the spreadsheet, match in your head | AI matching suggests suitable caregivers, AI search answers questions like “Caregivers with a driving licence” |
| Planning a rotation | Extend the calendar by hand, enter changeover days one by one | automatically from start date and rotation length, changeover days separately, conflicts are reported |
| Creating a care contract | Copy the Word template, type in the details, print, post or scan | fills itself from over 400 placeholders, goes out by email, is signed on a mobile phone |
| Issuing the monthly invoice | type each invoice from scratch, track incoming payments in a second spreadsheet | recurring invoices generated and sent automatically, payment status in the system |
| Handing over to accounting | Collect receipts, retype figures | BMD export (for the Austrian accounting software BMD) |
| Keeping relatives informed | Phone and email | their own app access with health overview, invoices, contracts and chat |
| Language barrier with the caregiver | Translation app, misunderstandings | Chat with automatic translation in both directions |
| Tracing something back | “Who changed this?” | Change history and audit log |
| Data backup | hopefully someone | daily backups |
| Responsible person unavailable | Knowledge is in her head and her files | everything in the system, any colleague can take over |
Table scrolls horizontally.
The three places where spreadsheets really hurt.
The date is in the spreadsheet, but nobody gets a reminder. In the system, the rotation is extended and the conflict is reported.
With twenty clients, a missing monthly invoice is only noticed during bank reconciliation. Recurring invoices run automatically.
Client data in spreadsheets on a local computer, contracts in the mailbox, photos in the messaging app — in the system they are in one place, with permissions, a log and a daily backup.
We migrate clients, caregivers, contracts and documents from your existing files free of charge and rebuild your Word templates as PDF templates. After 7 days at the latest, you are working productively. You keep your old files, of course.
All about switching →
€11 for the full package with all four modules. No setup fee, no minimum size, no base fee. If you switch from another provider, you pay nothing until the end of your current notice period — the cancellation confirmation is enough. And if it's not right for you: your money back for 6 months from go-live, informally by email, no reason needed.
Made in Austria. In use in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.