BravaSpacevsSpreadsheets
BravaSpace or a spreadsheet: what fits your agency?
Almost every agency began with a sheet. They are free, fast and familiar. They are also where tasks go to be forgotten. Here is the honest line between the two.
Free for 14 days. No credit card needed.
Clients need to see their own work, approve things and pay invoices, and more than one person on your team keeps the picture up to date.
You have a handful of clients, you are the only person touching the data, and you mostly need a list or some quick sums.
What you get with BravaSpace
When the sheet stops being enough.
Each client sees only their own work, and the record of what was agreed keeps itself.
At a glance
Where each one is strong.
Our own score, out of 5, for how well each tool fits client work. It is our opinion, not a test. We built one of these two, so keep that in mind.
- Clients see only their own work, under your brand
- Approvals with a record of who said yes
- Invoices and getting paid
- Messages and files per client
- Quick lists, sums and one-off analysis
- Zero cost and zero setup
Side by side
The jobs, one by one.
| Feature | BravaSpace | Spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|
| A private view for each client | Yes | Separate sheets or sharing rules you manage by hand |
| Your brand on what clients see | On every plan | No |
| Task statuses and due dates | Yes | Columns you set up |
| Team-only notes clients cannot see | Yes | Hidden columns are easy to expose by accident |
| Approvals with a clear yes or no on record | Yes | No |
| Messages and file history per client | Yes | No |
| Invoices with Pay now, and contracts | Yes | No |
| Formulas, pivot tables and custom analysis | No | Yes |
| Free and instantly familiar | Free trial, then paid plans | Yes |
| Works for any kind of data | No | Yes |
Where BravaSpace is better
- Each client sees only their own space, so you never have to worry about sharing the wrong tab.
- Approvals, messages and files keep a trail, so “when did we agree to that?” has an answer.
- Invoices can be paid from the same place they are read.
- The status of work is never stale because the people doing the work update it as they go.
- It scales with you. Adding the twentieth client is the same as adding the second.
- Brava can draft a report or document from a client’s data in your brand, which you check before it goes anywhere.
Where Spreadsheets is better
- They are free, and everyone already knows how to use them.
- For quick sums, lists and one-off analysis they are hard to beat.
- You can make them do almost anything, in about five minutes.
- They are a perfectly good place to keep a list of clients while you are small.
You do not have to pick one
Using them together.
You do not need to throw the spreadsheet away. Keep it for budgeting, forecasts and anything numerical. If you already hold clients and tasks in a sheet, BravaSpace imports clients, contacts and tasks from CSV or Excel, so you do not start from zero. A good moment to switch is when you catch yourself sending the same status update by email more than once a week. Our article on what a portal should do helps you decide what to move first.
Switching from A spreadsheet
Bring your sheet across.
It is one chat with Brava: say where you’re coming from, drop in the export, check, import. You see everything before it is added.
- 1
Tell Brava where you’re coming from.
Choose Add a client, then Switch from another tool. Pick your tool, or Something else, and Brava gives you its export steps.
- 2
Drop in your export.
Your clients and contacts from your current tool, and projects or tasks if you want them: CSV, Excel or a ZIP. Brava reads only the column names and the first 20 rows to map the columns. Change any it got wrong.
- 3
Check, then import.
A short summary, like “9 clients and 11 contacts; 1 row needs a look.” Fix that row or leave it out, then press Import once. You can still undo the import afterwards.
Read the full switching guide, or talk to us if your export looks unusual.
Questions
Fair questions.
Three signs: clients keep asking where things are, more than one person edits it and versions drift, and you have started worrying about which tab a client can see. Any one of those is a good reason.
Yes, for clients, contacts and tasks. Choose Add a client, then Import a list, and drop in a CSV or Excel file. Brava matches the columns, you check a short summary, and nothing is sent to clients until you invite them. Undo this import takes it back.
A little. The tasks page is a sortable table, so it feels close to a sheet. The main change is that updates go in one place that clients can also see, instead of in several.
This comparison is about spreadsheets in general, such as Google Sheets and Excel, rather than any one product. See our plans and prices, how it works or every comparison.
Read next
Try it with one client.
Add some work. Share a file. Ask for feedback. See what your client sees, with your name on it. Free for 14 days. No credit card needed.