Comparison
The spreadsheet is free, flexible and already open. Here's what it can't do.
Most agencies we're built for run compliance on a spreadsheet, and it deserves a fair hearing: it costs nothing, it bends to anything and it leaves with you. It also has three failure modes that no amount of discipline fixes. A spreadsheet cannot see what is missing, it cannot remember for you, and it cannot finish a job.
| What matters | The spreadsheet | Verixad |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | winsFree | From £29.99/month |
| Set-up | winsNone, since it already exists | Minutes to sign up, and the import brings the sheet in |
| Flexibility | winsAny column you like, instantly | Structured records, with the flexibility limited on purpose |
| Knowing what's MISSING | Only shows rows somebody typed, so an absent certificate is an absent row and stays invisible | Each property carries its required certificates, and nothing-on-record is shown as loudly as expired |
| Remembering for you | Remembers nothing, so someone must open it, and on leave or a busy week nobody does | A morning email on days something is urgent, a weekly summary, and live expiry status |
| From problem to fixed | The sheet can't chase an engineer or file evidence, so that falls to a person's memory | Gap → dated action → contractor instructed (email drafted) → certificate read on return → record closed |
| More than one person | Conflicting copies, overwrites, 'FINAL_v3', and everyone sees everything | One live record, with roles and per-property access enforced at the database |
| The certificate files themselves | The sheet doesn't hold them, so PDFs sit unlinked in inboxes and folders | Drop in the PDF or a photo and the type, dates and property are read for you, then confirmed by you |
| When a landlord asks | An hour of copy-paste into an email | A live per-owner report you can print or send as a drafted email |
| When something goes wrong | No record of who changed what, or when a date was quietly edited | Activity is kept on the record, and deletions stay reversible for 60 days with who and when |
| If you leave | winsIt's your file (genuinely a strength) | Complete export any time, and real deletion on a schedule you can see |
Rows the spreadsheet honestly wins are marked. If your portfolio is a handful of properties and one careful person, the spreadsheet may genuinely be enough. The switch is worth making at the point where absence-blindness, forgetting and multi-person chaos start costing real money, which for most agencies is somewhere past ten properties.
Test the claim on your own portfolio
The free compliance audit finds the certificates the spreadsheet cannot see because they are simply absent, and it needs no account and no card. When you’re ready, the import brings the spreadsheet in rather than making you retype it.