Episode 10 – Spreadsheet Your Way to Success. What You Need To Know with Michael Adamo

It’s time to completely change the way you think about spreadsheets! Why? Because with a few simple steps and strategies, you can save yourself a huge amount of time, money and stress.

In this episode, our special guest, Courtney Adamo’s husband, Michael Adamo joins us to share how to use spreadsheets to keep your renovation on schedule and on budget. 

Spreadsheets encourage all parties to be thorough, anticipate issues or decisions, be collaborative and streamline processes wherever possible. 

This can include: 

• Tracking costs – both the building company’s costs and the ‘client supply costs’, which are the things you paid for directly
• Tracking communication – this gives you a paper trail, and is especially useful for tracking meeting notes to document what was discussed and agreed
• Sharing Specification –a shared Google doc is helpful when specifying all items to be installed, including their location in the home, the product name, brand, supplier, finish, dimensions, quantity, an image, price, link to the item’s website, and link to the installation manual or specification drawings. This includes:
• Fixtures & fittings
• Internal materials & finishes
• External materials & finishes
• Appliances 
• Lighting fixtures & ceiling fans
• All tapware & plumbing fittings

Michael also shares valuable tips on how to use spreadsheets more effectively, especially when it comes to tracking costs and communication.

• Ask if your builder uses Fieldwire, a project management application that builders use to track their projects, and that clients can sometimes access with their own login
• Build and share spreadsheets in Google Sheets for the convenience of sharing and editing a live document
• Choose one form of digital communication to keep all project decisions and conversations in one place that is also searchable

• Keep a shared Google Drive folder with all invoices and receipts for quick reference
• Keep a shared Google Drive folder with all product specifications and installation guides for all the appliances, sinks, taps, lighting fixtures, etc. for quick reference

NOTE: This is the last episode of Season 1. Make sure you subscribe to the Renovation Ready Podcast so that you get the first episode of Season 2 downloaded straight to your phone.