CompareEverywhereUpdated 6 October 2026
Novteam or Excel? The honest comparison.
Many teams build their schedule in Excel. Here is when it is enough, when Novteam becomes useful, and how to switch from one to the other.
The verdict
- 1.Keep Excel if one person does the schedule, hours rarely change and nobody needs to see it anywhere else.
- 2.Switch to Novteam when the team needs its schedule on the phone, requests leave and clocks in, and the month has to go to your fiduciary in good order.
| Excel | Novteam | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Often already installed | CHF 4.80 per person per month, all included |
| Getting started | Immediate, if you already have a template | The same day: your workspace, the team, the first schedule |
| Everyone’s schedule | A file or a photo, sent by hand | Published, everyone gets it on their phone |
| A last-minute change | A message, then the file to fix | Shift up for grabs or swap, you are notified |
| Leave requests | By message, to copy into the file | In the app, approved in one click, balances up to date |
| Time clock | A sheet to fill in | Phone or tablet as a time clock |
| Payroll variables | Compiled by hand | Closed month, PDF, Excel or import file |
| Records | The file’s history, if there is one | Every request keeps its date and decision |
| Flexibility | Total: everything can be changed | The app’s framework: what it provides |
Comparison made on 6 October 2026.
Keep Excel if… · Switching to Novteam
Keep Excel if…
- Your team is small and its hours are fixed.
- One person does the schedule and pins it on the wall.
- You have no time clock and no payroll variables to prepare.
Switching to Novteam
- 1.Create your workspace: no credit card, a few fields.
- 2.Add your team, one person at a time: everyone gets their code by email. There is no staff file import yet.
- 3.Carry over balances: you enter each person’s opening holiday balance.
- 4.Create your shift templates, build the first week, then copy it.
- 5.Keep your file: your Novteam data can be exported to Excel.
In Novteam
SchedulingQuestions
Can we import our Excel schedule?
No, not for now. You create your shift templates once, then each week starts from the previous one.
Can we go back to Excel?
Yes. Your data can be exported to Excel whenever you like, and there is no commitment.
Tonight, it’s all sorted.
Schedule published, hours approved, instructions read. Try Novteam for 14 days, ready the same day.
Ready the same day · 14-day free trial · no credit card · no commitment · 5 languages