Running a site on Excel and WhatsApp, or on Santix?

What do Excel, WhatsApp and paper do well?

Most construction sites in Türkiye are run today on Excel, a WhatsApp group and paper, for good reasons. These tools are free or already in the office, nobody needs training, and they fit whatever habits a firm already has.

• Cost: WhatsApp is free, and most offices already have Excel. Every site has paper and pens.
• Learning: From the foreman to the owner, everyone can send a photo on WhatsApp. No new app, password or habit.
• Flexibility: In Excel you add whatever column you need and build your own payment format. No software fits every firm's format that well.
• Open to all: Android or iPhone does not matter; the subcontractor's foreman joins the group and nobody pays for a seat.
• Speed: A photo and "sort this out by tomorrow" takes ten seconds.
• Official formats: The payment summary, quantity book and measurement sheets for the client or a public body are often required in a specific Excel template.

For one job run by one or two people these tools are usually enough. Problems start when several subcontractors, revisions and payment periods run at once.

Where does site tracking in Excel and WhatsApp break?

The limit of Excel and WhatsApp is that information is not connected: the photo is in one place, the drawing in another, the payment in a third file. On site that turns into concrete problems.

Which drawing version is current?

The architect posts a revised drawing to the group as a PDF; a week later three versions of the same sheet are circulating. A foreman looks at the old PDF on his phone and builds the wall in the wrong place. In Santix everyone sees one current sheet marked "R3 · güncel" and can overlay it on the old version. See revision tracking.

Photos get lost and locations are described in words

A snag photo sinks under hundreds of messages, and people try to work out the spot from "block B, ground floor, second bathroom on the right". In Santix the photo sits inside a pin on the drawing and is linked to its room: "#14 Banyo seramik derzi eksik" sits in that exact corner of bathroom Z-03. See drawing markup.

No answer to "was it done?"

A task assigned in WhatsApp has no owner, due date or status. Who finished what is found only by scrolling back. In Santix every pin has an assignee, due date, priority and a status such as open, in progress, blocked, awaiting inspection, done or closed.

Payment formulas are copied from file to file

Each month last month's payment file is copied, rows are updated by hand, a formula breaks and nobody notices. The cumulative total and previous payments stop agreeing. Santix computes the period cumulatively and applies retention, advance recovery, withholding tax, stamp duty, VAT withholding and penalties in one place. Method in the progress payment guide.

No reminders

The scaffold inspection report or guarantee letter expiry sits in a cell, but Excel warns nobody. Santix notifies 30, 14, 7 and 1 day before a document expires.

Everyone sees everything

In a WhatsApp group a subcontractor also sees other subcontractors' photos and arguments; the budget spreadsheet is either shared or not. In Santix a subcontractor sees only their assigned work, and by default only the owner, project manager and site manager see the budget.

Photos piling up in the basement

Photos taken with no signal pile up on the phone, get sent in a batch in the evening and nobody knows which belongs where. WhatsApp also sends once the connection returns; the difference is that in Santix the record is tied to its spot on the drawing even while offline.

Four scenarios: Excel and WhatsApp versus Santix

The four scenarios below happen every month. For each we describe how most sites do it today, then how it is done in Santix. Examples come from our sample project "Ataşehir Blok B"; figures are examples.

1. Month-end subcontractor payment

Santix does not produce the official payment summary format a public client requires; it holds the calculation and approval record, and payments can be exported to Excel.

2. Getting a revised drawing to site

3. Punch list and handover

4. Bid comparison table

To build the table in Excel yourself, criteria and scoring are in the bid comparison table guide.

Excel and WhatsApp compared with Santix

The table says honestly which side leads on each point. Excel and WhatsApp lead on cost, learning, flexibility and device choice.

When should you stay with Excel?

If you run one small job with one or two people, have little subcontractor coordination and the drawings rarely change, staying with Excel and WhatsApp is a reasonable choice. A monthly subscription may cost more than it saves.

• If most of your team uses Android, wait for now; Santix currently runs on iPhone and iPad only.
• If the work is a refurbishment or a single trade, the drawing and room layer may be more than you need.
• If what you really need is timesheets, stock, stores or accounting, Santix does not do those.
• If you must fill in a client's official payment format, that file stays in Excel; Santix keeps the check and approval of the calculation.

You do not have to give up WhatsApp either. Quick calls and day-to-day chat can stay there; snags, revisions, payments and documents that need a record move to Santix. Moving makes sense when several subcontractors, regular revisions and monthly payments run at once.

How do you move from Excel to Santix?

Moving starts by importing the files you already have; you do not re-enter data from scratch. The order below covers the first two weeks on a live site.

1. Organisation and project: Create your organisation and project in the app. The 3-day trial starts here.
2. Drawings: Upload DWG, DXF or PDF. Santix splits the file into sheets and reads sheet number, title and scale from the title block. In testing a 7-storey drawing set became 11 sheets in about 11 minutes. The team downloads the drawings to their devices.
3. Rooms: The architect or technical office approves suggested rooms; the Excel room schedule is matched in the finishes step.
4. Budget: Import your cost estimate spreadsheet. An AI suggestion maps item code, description, unit, quantity, unit price and total columns, and you confirm it.
5. Schedule: If it is in MS Project or Primavera, import the XML or XER file; the critical path is recomputed. Then save the baseline.
6. Team: Invite the site manager and field engineers first, then the architect, then subcontractors. Codes have 8 characters, are valid for 14 days and are single-use.
7. Open snags: Turn the open items in your Excel snag list into pins on one site walk; closed items do not need to move.
8. First payment: Run one payment period in both Excel and Santix and compare. If the figures agree, keep Excel as an archive.

There is no automatic import for past payment files or closed revisions; they stay in your Excel and PDF archive. Prices and seat counts are on the pricing page.