About Us
ExcelManage and its Heritage
ExcelManage was started with the desire to empower start-ups, managers, and the efficiency-obsessed.
One single question drives what we do: “why pay monthly fees for data management when excel, google, and free-to-use task management software allow you to achieve the same results?”
Hi, I’m the owner and my name is Mark Zolotar, a philosophy MA-holder with a love for new and exciting projects. ExcelManage operates out of its parent company, Beyond, from Sendai, Japan, but our excel wizards work remotely from Canada, the United States, Japan, and the Philippines.
About our parent company, Beyond: it began as an English school in Japan (https://beyond-ets.jp), leading into a child education company which provides lessons not only at our school but also at kindergartens, private schools, and colleges all around the Tohoku (northeast) region of Japan. With multiple bilingual staff, we’ve also branched into translation (https://beyond-ets.jp/business/). Since then, Beyond has hired web developers to offer website localization & website development.
Why Did You Start ExcelManage?
Let me tell you a story. I’ll try to keep it short, I promise.
Once upon a time a friend invited me to a tech fair in Sendai, the city where I currently reside. I was looking for things I could use to help manage my English school (also I love cool gadgets and software). A guy called me over and asked me what I did. I told him, and he said “Oh, you run an English school? We’ve got several school owners just like you using our software, and I’m sure it’ll be the perfect software for you”. He showed me a program in which I could create student profiles, keep track of their payments, manage lesson schedules, and more. I admit it was impressive, and I thought I could make great use of something like that. So I said, “cool, looks good, how much does it cost?” His reply… 20,000 yen (about $200 USD) per month! I nearly laughed out loud. I thought to myself ‘200 bucks a month dude? I could make that myself on Excel or Google Sheets!’
And… that’s exactly what I did.
I finished and implemented a handful of offline (Excel) and online (Google Sheets) documents that accomplished all of those tasks for free (if you don’t count the opportunity loss of the ime it took me to make them). Then, I had a thought, ‘hey there’s got to be a bunch of people who actually pay that ridiculous amount for software that custom-made excel and google sheets can replace. If I can tell them that there’s a better way, and save them a ton of money, maybe I can fight back against this crazy SaaS trend and make a new business while doing so. Two birds with one stone; that would be an idealogical and a financial victory in one. Fantastic. Let’s go!
And thus ExcelManage was born.
I still think back and laugh. Imagine I had subscribed and started using that $200 a month software. It’s been 3 years since that tech fair (longer now at the time that you’re reading this). I’ve saved over $200 x 36 months = $7,200. Now imagine 10 or 20 years! Holy $$$! Even if I hadn’t made those Excel documents and Google Sheets myself, and instead had paid someone a couple hundred, even a couple thousand, dollars to make those Google Sheets for me, I’d still have saved a fortune.
What Sheets Do We Use?
All of our staff and affiliate companies’ staff use Excel and Google Sheets every day.
Here’s what we use Excel and Google Sheets for:
Client and student management – Excel. For our larger teams, files with macros and VBA present a user-friendly interface to input sales data, client information, and export relevant numbers into balance sheets. For smaller teams, simpler excel sheets with one or two worksheets use formulas to churn out order sheets and invoices.
Staff Schedules – Google Sheets. Originally we used excel until we grew larger and needed to share more widely. Now, on our Google Drive we have restricted-access sheets which administrators full view and control of all staff schedules, and the data from these master schedules is used to automatically create individual staff schedules in a separate worksheet simply by typing in the employee’s name.
Tasks Management – Google Sheets or taiga.io. Most of our teams use custom Google Sheets, but our web devs prefer taiga.io. What is the task, who is working on it, what is the due date, what are the required steps (subtasks)? With the ability to link files to the task management interfaces, and the ability for workers to continually update the task progress, so project overseers always stay on top of it.
Salary, Part-Timers, and Paid Holidays – Excel. Using work-hour and work-type inputs to easily calculate everything for our payroll staff. Adjacent tab is a separate worksheet that generates pay slips automatically.
Balance sheets – Excel. Revenue, expenses, accounts receivable and accounts payable. Bonus projections and profit vs. time calculations for new tasks, events, and projects. Separate worksheets for feasibility analyses, ad funnel calculation, and more.
We use Excel and Google Sheets for almost everything data-related.
And every single one of our sheets is custom-made.
So there is nothing missing and nothing extraneous.
We Believe This Is Effiency, Full-Throttle.
And if we can do it for all of our companies and staff, then we can do it for you, too.
Companies Proudly Served
The following company owners have graciously given us
permission to display their logos in addition to their testimonials:
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Testimonials
Testimonials 1-5
- Mark and his team have done a great job on creating a custom inventory and order-input document for us. It has made our order creation, invoicing, and inventory tracking exponentially easier. – Alexander, Canada Natural Care
- Based on my several experiences with them, I have seen that they have an impeccable sense of customer satisfaction. They’ve never disappointed me. Looking forward to the next one! Thanks! – Francis
- I was working on a tight budget, so I asked Excel Manage to create a document that prioritized function over beauty. The final result is simple and works perfectly. Highly recommend! (Translated from JP) – Yoshitaka Sasaki, Freelance Web & App Programmer
- Like I told Kaleem, who made most of the nitty-gritty parts of the excel file, I didn’t know excel could do that! Thanks so much for simplifying my work life. – Jennifer, Top Crops
- Excel Manage were super flexible with their pricing. They gave me a few options to choose from in terms of budget and depth, but the file they gave me was much more than I expected. They clearly take pride in their work, and it shows. – Sara Bucci, Administrative Assistant
Testimonials 6-10
- I’ve followed [ExcelManage] from the early days, since Mark is a personal friend of mine. When he explained this business idea, I thought they would be stretching themselves too thin. But when he showed me the excel and google sheets his staff use, I certainly changed my mind. I had them make a few management documents for my company. These guys pursue excellence in everything they do. (Translated from JP) – Hiroki Shimizu, CEO, SoraFune Marketing
- Thank you very much, the financial projection and risk analysis sheets you guys made for us are working like a charm. It really helps to put values on the different uncertainties and it is much easier to understand if falling short even a little bit will result in a net loss. I think this will help our business a lot! – Eugene
- I had no idea how to make this kind of tool. Simply by putting the number of participants and their age range (child, adult, senior), the excel sheet that Kevin and Mark made can tell me how much food and drinks (alcohol/non-alcohol) we need, how much it will cost, and roughly how much profit we will make. It’s an all-in-one calculator. Thanks so much. – Melinda Brown, Convention Manager
- I was impressed by how professional the staff are. But the time zone difference made it a little difficult to set up the first Skype meeting quickly. Anyway, once I could sit down and talk to ExcelManage staff on Skype, they assessed my needs, we had a good laugh, and they got to work on my project. Would definitely use again. – Roger Yim
- I requested a quote and I was good with the bottom range of the price range. I asked ExcelManage what kind of document they could make for that price and explained what I needed. They matched the price to my needs and I got exactly what I wanted for my staff schedule management. If I need any more excel docs, I know where to go. Thanks! – Matt
Testimonials 11-15
- ExcelManage are really creative, they came up with a much simpler way to accomplish what I imagined in my mind. I’m very happy with the service! – Suneet
- I’m glad I gave them a try. They made a very nice worksheet for me; it was like a trial run at first. Now, I’ve asked them to make multiple worksheets and even some VBA for me. They’re great. (Translated from JP) – Taichiro Saito, Little Bird Nursery School
- Thanks for the explainer video and the google sheet, it has made my life a lot easier these past two weeks since I started using it. – John Chuck, jchuckphotography.com
- We quickly needed to put a more effective system into place for our delivery company during the outbreak, and ExcelManage certainly did that for us! Fast and professional, it was a pleasure doing business with you. – Jeremy Grant, FastFresh
- We manage a lot of students at our soccer school and we host a lot of events, mostly for soccer tournaments. The more complex google sheet that was prepared for me makes it easy to keep a record of students’ information and payments. The other, more basic, google sheet makes it easy to share information with all of the tournament coordinators. I’m looking forward to the school financial calculator [ExcelManage] are putting together. (Translated from JP) – Eiki Onodera, ENG Academy
Testimonials 16-18
- As a company that manages and provides wedding staff (singers, organists, flutists, and pastors) it is difficult to keep track of staff payroll because they change from day to day and sometimes from wedding to wedding (we often do multiple weddings a a day on weekends). ExcelManage made a document for me that makes it easy to input work hours and see how much I need to pay each person during payroll the following month. Easy list management so I can add/remove staff, and dropdown menus make it quite simple. I really like the layout and logical flow of it. (Translated from JP) – Arikawa, Aki Pro
- To be honest, I needed financial calculations with visual representations (charts and such) for a work report, but I don’t know how to make that stuff well. They made a nice, clean file and a short explainer video for me. The good thing is my boss was really impressed. The bad thing is, my boss may ask me to make more excel stuff lol. – William
- Works great! My wife and I buy and flip houses. I wanted a document that did the financial calculations when it comes to planning out initial investments, renovation costs, and profit/margin based on selling price. We were using some templates before, but every house is different and it was difficult to customize the documents. Mark quickly understood our needs, took a look at the doc I was using before, and either him or one of his team prepped something much, much better within a few days. Super satisfied, thank you! – Rathees Uthuyakumar
Price Range
Typically, simple orders range from $50 ~ $150.
As complexity and nuance increases, so does the price.
The average range for more complex orders is $150 ~ $250.
For Enterprise-level work orders, please consult with us.
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