Comparison
Bell Path vs the spreadsheet
Keep the spreadsheet when staffing is stable and checking it by eye still works. Choose Bell Path when part-timers, planning-time proof, mid-term changes and daily cover have outgrown it.
Almost every primary school starts with a spreadsheet, for good reasons: it is free, familiar and endlessly flexible. This page looks at where it keeps winning, and where it starts costing leadership time instead of money.
Already run one? Send the file and it is in Bell Path within 48 hours, with Daily Cover free for two weeks.
This comparison reflects how the primary schools Bell Path works with run their timetables in Excel or Google Sheets. Every school's spreadsheet is different, so judge against your own.
When the spreadsheet is still the right answer.
Choose Bell Path if
- Part-timers, job-shares or specialist rotations have made checking every teacher by eye too big a job
- Planning time (APT, RFF, NCT, DOTT or NIT) has to be delivered and provable to the minute, every week
- One staffing change currently means a rebuild, a "please ignore the previous version" email, or a weekend
- You want cover, yard duty, wet day plans and staff views to come from the timetable instead of from three more spreadsheets
Keep the spreadsheet if
- Your school is small, staffing is stable, and there are few or no part-timers or job-shares
- One person builds the timetable once a year and mid-term changes are rare
- The spreadsheet is already checked against a careful checklist and it is not costing weekends
What the decision usually comes down to.
Up-front cost
A published annual subscription for the whole school, from $679 a year for one school, with no GST added
Free, but it costs leadership hours later
Building the first version
Guided setup in about an hour, then generation in minutes: about two for a small school, longer for a large one
Days to weeks of an assistant principal's time, often spread across a holiday
Checking it
Checked automatically before staff see it: planning time for every teacher, clashes, rooms, meetings and duty cover
Every check is by eye, and a full grid looks the same whether the promises hold or not
Absorbing a change
Change one fact, regenerate, and make the new version current in minutes
Rework by hand, and every change re-opens every question the grid had answered
Planning-time arithmetic
Planning time tracked to the minute, pro rata for part-timers, with specialist lessons generated to match
A side tally somebody keeps from memory, or nobody does
Once the timetable is in use
Daily cover, yard duty, wet day plans, event days and a staff portal all work from the same timetable
Each of those is another sheet, and each drifts out of date on its own
When the builder is away
The rules live in the system, so a colleague can run the same guided steps
The spreadsheet's logic lives in one person's head
FAQ
Questions schools ask when comparing Bell Path and a spreadsheet.
Is a spreadsheet ever the right answer?
Yes. A small school with stable, mostly full-time staff and a timetable that rarely changes can run well on a careful spreadsheet. Once part-timers, job-shares and specialist rotations push the checking past what eyes can catch, errors start reaching staff.
We already have a good spreadsheet. What would we gain?
Mostly the checking and the changes: every teacher’s planning time checked automatically before staff see the timetable, and minutes instead of weekends when staffing changes mid-term. Schools also retire the cover, duty and wet day sheets that grew up around the timetable.
What does switching cost in effort?
Very little. Send Bell Path the spreadsheet you already run and it is loaded within 48 hours, so Daily Cover and yard duty can start on it straight away. Generating a new timetable takes about an hour of guided setup, and the first draft usually brings up a few rules the spreadsheet never wrote down.
Other comparisons.
Bell Path vs FET
Choose FET when there is no budget and you have someone technical who will own it.
Bell Path vs DayGrid
Choose DayGrid when building class lists matters as much as the timetable, or you want a 30-day full trial and phone support.
Bell Path vs aSc Timetables
Choose aSc when a low one-off price, an unlimited trial or a desktop program matters more than Australian primary-school rules.
Bell Path vs Tes Timetable, powered by Edval
Choose Tes Timetable for an established suite that also covers secondary, connections to other school systems, and a Tes timetabler who can run it for you.
See the timetable before you decide.
Send us the timetable you already run and it is in Bell Path within 48 hours, or see a week Bell Path generated for a sample school first.
Bell Path publishes its prices: from $679 per year for one school, no per-user add-ons. See the full price list.