As long as one planner manages the file and everyone else only looks at it, Excel is fine and by far the cheapest option. As soon as the shop floor, sales, and the planner all need to make changes, every day of delay is another day of double bookings and rescheduling work.
The four signals
- planning v7 DEFINITIEF(2).xlsx. If your filename contains a version history, you've already gone too far. Someone is working in an old version right now and doesn't know it.
- A crew is double-booked. Once is bad luck. Twice a month is a system failure. Every duplicate booking costs a trip, a call to the customer and sometimes half a day's production.
- Sales doesn't know what fits in the schedule. Something is promised that the schedule can’t deliver, or capacity goes unused because sales didn’t know it was available. The latter costs more than the former.
- Rescheduling takes half a day. If one sick technician or one delayed delivery means someone spends an afternoon rearranging things, you're paying a fixed price for a lack of visibility.
What it costs you now
Run the numbers with your own figures:
At a company of twenty people, that easily runs up to over €30,000 per year. That is not the amount with which you justify a ERPThe system where your accounting, inventory, purchasing and sales come together.-system, but it is more than sufficient for a decent planning solution.
The way it works now
- The appointment is in one colleague's mailbox
- Data is manually retyped from one system to another
- The person who knows is on vacation
- No one can see afterwards why this decision was made
As it is
- The agreement is stored with the client, findable for everyone
- Once entered, information flows through to the rest
- Work continues, even if someone is absent
- Every decision has a source, an owner, and a date
Three options, from cheapest to most expensive
Route 1 — Shared planning using what you already have
For whom: 3 to 30 employees, one type of work, scheduling by day or half-day.
What: a list or planning board in Microsoft 365 (SharePoint, Lists, Planner), with a view by employee, week, and project. Everyone sees the same thing, changes are visible immediately, and the history is retained.
Costs: no extra licenses if you already have Microsoft 365. Setup: € 1.500 – € 5.000 if you have it done for you.
Limitation: not a real capacity calculation. For the vast majority of SMEs, that's fine.
Route 2 — A specialized planning tool
For whom: installation and service companies with many field staff, or manufacturers with machine capacity.
What: a package built for your type of planning, with a shop-floor app, work orders, and time tracking.
Costs: € 15 – € 50 per user per month, plus implementation.
Limitation: you also get a system that you have to connect to your accounting software; otherwise, you'll still have to retype everything.
Route 3 — Your ERP’s planning module
For whom: companies that already use AFAS or Exact extensively and whose planning is tightly linked to orders and hours.
What: planning within the package you already have.
Costs: often included in your license, with implementation costs.
Limitation: ERP planning is rarely user-friendly for the shop floor. Expect resistance and a parallel Excel file that quietly reappears anyway.
The choice in one line: workfloor only views → leave Excel in place with one owner. Workfloor edits and work is uniform → route 1. Field staff with work orders and hours → route 2. Planning is directly linked to orders and estimates → route 3.
The biggest mistake: choosing a tool first
Almost every failed planning project started with a demo. A package is chosen, and only then does it become clear that nobody agrees on what "scheduled" means, who is allowed to shuffle and what happens with an urgent job.
So answer these five questions first:
- Who is allowed to change the schedule—and who isn’t?
- What’s the smallest unit: an hour, a half-day or a day?
- When is work definitively scheduled and no longer allowed to move?
- What takes priority when there’s an urgent job, and who decides?
- Where does the work come from — orders, quotes or reports?
Anyone who has these five answers on paper can set up any tool. Without them, no tool will get up and running.
What you can have in four weeks
| Week | What |
|---|---|
| 1 | Answer the five questions, recreate the current schedule on paper |
| 2 | Set up the planning board and fill it two weeks ahead |
| 3 | Run in parallel: Excel and the new board, discuss the differences |
| 4 | Turn off Excel, agree on a weekly cadence |
That parallel week three may seem unnecessary, but it isn’t. That’s when the exceptions nobody mentioned come to light.
The biggest gains usually don’t come from the planning board itself, but from connecting it to what Sales has sold. Read how to approach that in Connect AFAS and Exact and what an AFAS integration costs.
Frequently asked questions
No. Excel works very well as long as one person manages it. The problem isn't Excel, but sharing a file that wasn't designed for shared use.
Yes, and that's usually the biggest gain. Once an order is in AFASDutch ERP package for administration, HR and payroll. Many SMBs have their single source of truth in it. or Exact, it can automatically appear as work to be scheduled.
Within Microsoft 365: € 1.500 to € 5.000 one-off, with no additional licenses. With a specialized system: € 3.600 to € 12.000 per year in licenses, plus implementation.
Allow half a day for training and two to three weeks to get used to it. If it takes longer, the solution chosen is too complicated.
Almost never just for planning. You buy an ERP for your administrative core, not for a planning board.
Unsure which route to take?
We watch your planning for one day and tell you honestly whether you need something new — even if the answer is no. We don’t sell software.
From knowing to doing
This article helps you get oriented. Then view the concrete approach for connecting systems in SMEs.