How to manage your ADI business without a spreadsheet
Somewhere on your laptop or phone there's probably a spreadsheet. A list of pupils with columns for phone number, lesson balance and test date. Maybe a monthly income tracker as well. Maybe both, and they don't quite agree.
Plenty of ADIs run their business this way, and it does work, in the way that doing the weekly shop across four different shops works. You get there. It takes longer than it should.
What the spreadsheet is doing for you
Before replacing it, be clear what it covers. A typical solo ADI tracks:
- Pupils: name, phone, email, current stage, test date
- Lesson history: date, length, what you covered, notes
- Balances: lessons paid for, lessons taken, money owed
- Income: lessons this week or month, total income, outstanding payments
- Expenses: fuel, insurance, the car, CPD, phone, software
- Tests: results, dates, who's nearly ready
That's a lot of jobs for one file. A spreadsheet stores all of it and does nothing with it. It won't send a reminder, stop you double-booking or update itself when a lesson happens.
Where it breaks down
Unpaid lessons. A pupil owes you for two lessons and you don't chase it straight away. The debt gets older and more awkward to raise. The spreadsheet won't remind you.
Remembering what you covered. A pupil says "we did roundabouts last time". With 25 pupils on the go, your memory is the weak link. A note written on your phone straight after the lesson beats a spreadsheet you catch up on at the weekend.
Finding a figure fast. If you need your income for a particular quarter, how long does it take to add it up?
Making Tax Digital. MTD for Income Tax started on 6 April 2026 for sole traders with qualifying income over £50,000. It reaches those over £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and over £20,000 from 6 April 2028 (HMRC). Once you're in, you send quarterly updates using compatible software. Spreadsheets aren't banned: HMRC's software guidance describes bridging software that connects to spreadsheet records and makes the submissions. But the spreadsheet alone can't send anything to HMRC. We cover the detail in spreadsheets and the digital-links rule.
Taking on another instructor. Your spreadsheet was built for one diary. Add a second instructor and you end up with two spreadsheets, then a merge headache.
What changes with proper software
| Task | Spreadsheet | ADI software |
|---|---|---|
| Who owes you | Open the file and add it up | Outstanding balances on the dashboard |
| Logging a lesson | Update it later (or forget) | Record it on your phone after the lesson |
| Chasing unpaid lessons | Check the sheet, then message the pupil | Automatic balance reminders to the pupil |
| Quarterly figures | Total the columns by hand | Income and expenses already grouped by quarter |
| New pupil enquiry | Type in a new row | The pupil fills in their own details when they book |
| Lesson notes | Rely on memory | Saved against each lesson |
What to look for
Lesson blocks and balances. You record a block of lessons, each completed lesson draws it down, and you can see what's left without adding it up.
Pupil self-booking. A booking link you share with pupils. They pick a free slot, and it goes straight into your diary. No texting back and forth about when you're free.
Payment reminders. When a pupil owes you money, the system nudges them so you don't have to.
Lesson notes. A short note after each lesson, kept on that pupil's record, so you can see what you covered three weeks ago.
Digital records for MTD. Income and expenses kept in a form that compatible software can use for your quarterly updates, if and when MTD applies to you.
Works on your phone. You're between lessons, not at a desk. If it's slow or fiddly on a phone, you won't keep it up.
How to make the switch
The worry is usually migration: getting everything across without losing anything. A realistic plan:
- Export your pupil list from the spreadsheet (name, email, phone, lesson balance)
- Import it into the new system, or add pupils by hand if there aren't many
- Set each pupil's current balance. You don't need their full history, only where they stand now
- Send existing pupils your booking link and ask them to use it from now on
- Stop updating the old spreadsheet. Running both causes more confusion than it saves
- Give it two or three weeks before you judge it
Orbit as a spreadsheet replacement
Orbit is free for instructors. You can import pupils from a CSV file, with or without their lesson history. Pupils get a booking page where they pick a slot and pay by card, and a portal where they can see their lesson history and balance and pay what they owe. Pupils who owe at least a threshold you set get a push notification reminder, at most once a week, without you chasing them. Your dashboard shows who owes what and which pupils have tests coming up, and the financials section groups your income and expenses by MTD quarter.
Orbit (listed with HMRC as DrivePro) is built on HMRC's Making Tax Digital for Income Tax API and is completing HMRC's software recognition process; live submissions open once HMRC approves it. It does not provide personalised tax advice.
The spreadsheet was fine at five pupils. At twenty it's a job in itself. If you want to see what replaces it, start with the booking page.