Spreadsheets vs CRM for artist managers: when to switch
Almost every agency starts with spreadsheets. They are flexible, free and familiar. A sheet of artists, a sheet of engagements, a sheet of contacts and a shared calendar can run a small roster for a while. Gigwell's article on common pitfalls for booking agencies argues for a unified platform that brings scheduling, contracts, communication and reporting together. The question is when the switch is worth it. This guide lists the warning signs and how to migrate.
What spreadsheets do well
- Quick to start, no training needed.
- Flexible columns for whatever you need.
- Easy to share a single list.
For one manager with a few artists, that can be enough.
Where spreadsheets break
| Problem | Why it happens |
|---|---|
| Dates typed twice | Engagements in a sheet, dates in a calendar |
| Holds lost | Inquiries live in email, not in any sheet |
| Version confusion | Several copies, or several people editing |
| No history | Overwritten cells lose what happened |
| Commission errors | Formulas copied wrong, rates changed by hand |
| No link to contacts | Presenter details in another file |
| Slow reporting | Every report is a manual exercise |
| Hard to share safely | Artists see too much or too little |
Seven signs it is time to switch
- You have nearly double-booked an artist (how to avoid it).
- More than one person books or manages the same artists.
- You keep a separate calendar and engagement sheet and they disagree.
- You cannot quickly say which castings are open for an artist.
- Commission or statements take hours to prepare (statements).
- A staff member leaving would take key contacts with them.
- Artists ask for their schedule and you have to build it by hand.
What a CRM adds
A classical artist management CRM links the pieces: castings become contracts, contracts generate calendar entries and invoices, and contacts are connected to every casting and contract. In ArtistHub that includes castings, contracts, a season calendar with iCal for artists, invoices, finance, contacts, producers and orchestras, mailers and reports (buyer's guide).
How to migrate
- Choose a cut-over date, ideally between seasons.
- Clean your artist list: names, voice types or instruments, key materials.
- Clean contacts: merge duplicates, add organisations.
- Import future engagements first; they matter most.
- Add open castings and holds.
- Decide how much history to bring. Past contracts and invoices are useful, but not always worth importing in full.
- Set up iCal feeds for artists and check them together.
- Run one week with both systems, then stop updating the spreadsheet.
Keep the spreadsheet as an archive
You do not have to delete old sheets. Keep them read-only as an archive, but stop editing them. Two live systems are worse than either one.
What about cost and effort?
Moving takes time, and any CRM has a learning curve. Weigh that against the hours spent reconciling spreadsheets and the risk of one serious mistake. If you are considering specific tools, read Overture vs ArtistHub and Gigwell, Prism and Overture.
A cost comparison you can do yourself
You do not need industry statistics to decide. Track your own time for one month:
| Task | Time spent per month |
|---|---|
| Updating calendars and engagement sheets | |
| Reconciling holds from email | |
| Preparing invoices and commission | |
| Preparing artist statements | |
| Building reports | |
| Answering artists' schedule questions | |
| Fixing errors |
Compare the total with the time a CRM would need for the same tasks during a trial. Add the risk of one serious mistake, such as a double-booking or a missed invoice, which is harder to price but easy to recognise.
What to look for in your first CRM
- A model that matches your work: castings, contracts with rehearsals and performances, presenters and their staff.
- A calendar generated from contracts, with iCal feeds for artists.
- Invoices and commission calculated from contracts.
- Import tools or help with migration.
- Export, so your data is never locked in.
- Mobile access for managers (manager app guide).
Common migration mistakes
- Importing everything, including years of messy history, before the team has learned the system.
- Leaving holds and open castings in email because they are "not confirmed yet".
- Letting one person keep their own spreadsheet "just in case".
- Skipping the artist iCal check, so artists lose trust in the new schedule.
- Not agreeing naming rules for castings, stages and contact types before importing.
Getting the team on board
People are attached to their spreadsheets because they know them. Involve the team in choosing the stages, fields and reports, and show quick wins early: an artist schedule that updates itself, an invoice generated in a minute, a report that used to take a morning. Once the new system saves time every week, the old sheets stop being opened.
After the switch
Within a season, the agency should be able to answer basic questions instantly: which castings are open for each artist, which weeks are free next season, what commission was earned last quarter, which invoices are overdue. That visibility is the real return on the move.
FAQ
Can a small agency stay on spreadsheets?
A single manager with a small roster can, but the risk rises quickly with more artists or more staff.
What should I import first when moving to a CRM?
Future engagements and open castings, then contacts, then history.
Run your roster in ArtistHub
ArtistHub is a CRM built for classical and opera artist management: castings, contracts, the season calendar, logistics, invoices and the opera database in one place.