How can a small temp agency stop managing candidates in spreadsheets?
Clean the spreadsheet first: one row per person, one column per fact, mobiles and postcodes tidy, duplicates removed. Save it as CSV and import it into a CRM that matches columns for you. Then keep availability, documents and bookings in the CRM, not the sheet, so everyone on the desk sees the same week.
Last checked 26 October 2026.
Signs the spreadsheet has run its course
- Two people edit the same file and one set of changes goes missing.
- Nobody can say who is free on Thursday without ringing round.
- A licence, CPC or DBS date passes because nobody looked at that column.
- The same person appears three times with three different mobiles.
- Client rates live in someone's email, not next to the job.
None of these mean a spreadsheet was wrong. Plenty of agencies start on one. They mean the business now has more people and shifts than one file can hold safely.
Spreadsheet or CRM: what changes
| Job on the desk | Spreadsheet | Tempbench (our product) |
|---|---|---|
| Who is free this week | Whatever was last typed in | Free, booked or off for each day, with a usual week and date changes |
| Two people booking at once | Overwrites and clashes | Week planner blocks double bookings, overnight shifts included |
| Document expiry | A column you remember to check | Expiry dates on right to work, licence, CPC, DBS and FLT, with warnings |
| Finding people near a site | Filter and guess | Sentence search with distance from a postcode and a map |
| Weekly ring round | A printed list | A call list that resets weekly, with Done and No answer |
| Cost | What you already pay for Excel or Google Sheets | £12.99 a seat a month plus VAT |
| Getting your data out | It is your file | Full CSV export any time |
Clean the sheet in five steps
- One row per person. Merge duplicates; keep the newest mobile.
- Split names into First name and Last name columns if you can. A single full name column also works.
- Tidy mobiles and postcodes. Excel often drops the leading 0 from mobiles; Tempbench's import puts it back, but check a few.
- One position and a list of skills per person. Separate several skills with semicolons, for example "Counterbalance FLT; Reach truck".
- Save as CSV. In Excel choose File, Save As, then CSV UTF-8. In Google Sheets choose File, Download, then Comma separated values.
Free candidate CSV template
The template has the ten columns Tempbench's import recognises: First name, Last name, Mobile, Phone, Email, Postcode, Position, Skills, Summary and Notes. It includes three sample rows called Sample Candidate 1 to 3 with made-up details; delete them before you import. You can use it with any system, or to tidy your own sheet.
Moving into Tempbench
Tempbench, the CRM for UK temp agencies, imports a CSV in four stages: upload, match columns, check, import. It spots people already on file before adding the rest, and looks up postcodes so distances work straight away. The file can be up to 10MB. You can try it first with the built-in sample agency. Tempbench does not include SMS or texting, timesheets, payroll or pay and bill, invoicing, a candidate app or portal, job board posting or integrations.
Questions people ask
Is a spreadsheet good enough for a new temp agency?
For the first few weeks, often yes, while one person holds the whole picture. It gets risky once two people book from the same file, candidates number in the hundreds, or document expiry dates start to matter for compliance. That is a sensible point to move to a CRM.
What columns should a candidate spreadsheet have?
At minimum: first name, last name, mobile, email, postcode, position and skills. Add a short summary and a notes column for anything else. Keep one fact per column and one person per row. Our free CSV template uses exactly these columns, so it also imports cleanly into Tempbench.
Will the template work with other recruitment software?
Probably, because the columns are common ones, but every system maps fields differently. Most imports let you match your columns to theirs during upload. Check the vendor's own import guide, and test with a few rows before you bring in the whole file.
Can I go back to a spreadsheet later?
With Tempbench, yes. You can export everything as CSV files at any time and open them in Excel or Google Sheets. Uploaded document files are not part of the CSV export, so download those from each candidate record if you leave. Ask any other vendor the same question before you buy.
Sources
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