Deadline and renewal tracking, with reminders by email and in your calendar

Where deadlines live today

Some in a colour-coded spreadsheet, some in a paper diary, a few in one person's phone reminders. As long as that person is around, it works. Then they go on holiday, or change jobs, and an inspection gets skipped, a certificate lapses without anyone renewing it, a customer's domain stops working.

What the software does

Every deadline belongs to something: a customer, an employee, a vehicle, a contract. For each kind you decide how far ahead to send a reminder, more than once if you like, and to whom.

When something is renewed, you mark it with one click and the next date is calculated automatically. A list shows what is due in the coming weeks and what is already overdue, and for renewals you bill to customers there is a total for the year.

An example: renewals in my own CRM

In the CRM I use for my own business, the hosting, domain and service renewals of every customer sit in a list with the yearly total and in a calendar. I also follow that calendar in Google Calendar, through a private iCal address. When a service is renewed, the customer gets a confirmation email.

All of this used to live in a spreadsheet with 18 sheets. How to move from a file like that to proper software is described on the page about a spreadsheet that has grown too big.

Health and safety deadlines

Training courses, medical checks, periodic equipment inspections, certificates to renew: for every employee and every site there are many dates, and they change with each person's role. The software keeps them together and tells whoever has to organise the renewal. The rules (what expires, how often) come from your safety adviser; the software applies them and changes when they change.

When a calendar is enough

If there are only a few deadlines and one person handles them, a shared calendar with reminders is fine. Custom software pays off when there are hundreds of dates, tied to different customers or employees, and someone needs to know every morning what has to be done.

Frequently asked questions

Do reminders reach the phone too?

By email, yes. And deadlines show up in Google Calendar or the phone's calendar through a private iCal address, the way renewals do in my own CRM.

Does it work for health and safety deadlines?

Yes, for keeping the dates: training, medical checks, equipment inspections, per employee and per site. What expires and how often is decided by your safety adviser: the software follows their rules and sends the reminders.

Can customers get a reminder before a renewal?

Yes. My hosting customers get an email one month before their domain or hosting renews, and a confirmation email once the service has been renewed.

Can we import the deadlines we already have?

Yes, from Excel or CSV, with a script that can run again without creating duplicates.

How much does deadline tracking software cost?

It depends on how many kinds of deadline you track and who needs the reminders. The first analysis is free, and larger projects are split into milestones paid one at a time.

Read more

• The service: Custom business web apps
• Work of this kind: CRM gokalex
• More pages like this: Software for one specific job