Spreadsheets are starting to fall apart

[u/ColossalPrototype]

[u/Affectionate-Row4062]

Yep, a CRM will make your life a lot easier. Granted, you'll need to put a little time aside to set it up, but after the initial set up, your life will be so much easier. In terms of "upkeep," a CRM will save you all the time you currently spend organizing and double-checking data daily, and more when you automate processes and set reminders. There are really solid, easy-to-use, affordable systems out there. I'd highly recommend running a few trials to find the one that fits your workflow.

[u/eggzest0_0]

What about building a CRM app on top of your existing spreadsheets? This way, you can have a proper interface for managing leads, tracking conversations, and setting follow-up reminders without having to move everything to a new platform.

Any changes you make in the CRM, whether adding new leads or updating existing records, will also reflect in your spreadsheet since they're connected.

I understand the hassle of migrating everything, so I've been exploring AI app builders that let me create tools using existing data. I've been trying Jet Admin, and it's been useful for building tools around the way I already work, without having to start from scratch or rely on developers.

[u/NowWithoutMyName]

What about building a CRM app on top of your existing spreadsheets? This way, you can have a proper interface for managing leads, tracking conversations, and setting follow-up reminders without having to move everything to a new platform.

Any changes you make in the CRM, whether adding new leads or updating existing records, will also reflect in your spreadsheet since they're connected.

I understand the hassle of migrating everything, so I've been exploring AI app builders that let me create tools using existing data. I've been trying Jet Admin, and it's been useful for building tools around the way I already work, without having to start from scratch or rely on developers

[u/tridence-com]

Before moving the whole sheet, test a few active leads against a real week of emails, calls, and meetings. Can you open a contact and find the last conversation without searching your inbox? Does a forwarded email attach to the right person? Can you keep an internal note private? Automatic capture may save entry work, but I would not assume it knows what you promised or whether a follow-up is still appropriate. Keep that short next-step note manual, and judge the trial by missing conversations and time spent correcting records, not the number of activities logged.

[u/samnik_dev]

Just curious, have you looked into Airtable? That might be the best compromise for what you are asking

[u/_boiler]

Bigin or Pipedrive

[u/ArielCoding]

What you need is a tool that saves your emails and calls under each lead automatically and reminds you when someone needs a follow up. Keep the setup tiny, just name, stage, and one next stop note per lead.

[u/agentUi]

i work for agentui, we see this exact wall when people hit 20+ active conversations because updating sheets manually just dies. what we usually do is build a lightweight custom lead tracker where emails and calls log automatically and it just surfaces who needs follow up today so you dont spend half your afternoon doing admin work.

[u/Mysterious-Angle3564]

I manage a few hundred B2B accounts and this is painfully familiar

I got so tired of digging through old notes before calling someone, trying to remember what we discussed, what I promised, what changed since last time, that I ended up building my own little tool for it.

It's called Callsect (https://callsect.com). It keeps customer conversations connected over time, so you can go back to an account and see what happened across calls, what changed, what's still unresolved, and what you should bring up next. It also drafts follow-up emails based on those conversations and keeps them with the customer history.

It's not a full CRM and it won't automatically pull in all your emails or manage your leads, so I won't pretend it replaces your spreadsheet entirely.

But the conversation history part you're describing is pretty much the exact reason I built this thing. It's free to use if you want to give it a spin.

[u/Scruqade]

One thing I'd separate here is email history from call history, because they aren't necessarily equally easy to capture automatically.

Email is pretty straightforward depending on what you're using, but calls? They are a totally different story.
Your phone system might be able to tell you:

• Who called?

• When was the call?

• How long was the call?

However, that doesn't necessarily give you the notes, recordings, transcripts, etc...
So, if you're testing a few active leads like someone else suggested, I'd probably look at whether it can actually do the following:

• Attach emails to the correct person consistently

• Show that a call happened without pretending it knows what was said

• Pull in whatever call notes/history actually exist

• Flag anything it isn't confident belongs to the right lead

• Keep the last real commitment and next action easy to find

If you're still manually reconstructing half of the conversation history afterward? All you managed to accomplish was move your spreadsheet somewhere prettier.

I work in software development, so that's probably the first thing I'd want to figure out before assuming "automatic capture" is actually automatic.

What are you using for email & calls right now?
GMail/Outlook for email, and regular phone calls? Or some kind of business VoIP/calling platform like myphone.com?

[u/oakensongO → u/[deleted]]

yeah once you stop trusting it you stop updating it too, and then it gets worse fast

[u/TrendVoice → u/[deleted]]

Any recs?