TMS instead of Excel and WhatsApp: how to switch to Maxmove for free
Excel and WhatsApp are tools without memory: they prove no delivery, show no live status and depend on whoever maintains them. Maxmove replaces both with a workflow in which every order is entered only once.
The decision first, followed by reasoning and sources.
Maxmove pays off over Excel and WhatsApp from the moment you search for proof of delivery, customers phone for status or orders get entered twice: orders, dispatch board, driver app, live tracking, digital proof of delivery and e-invoicing then run in one system that you start free. The AI dispatch agent reads orders from emails and spreadsheets and creates them after your approval, instead of someone retyping them. The driver app keeps order data apart from private chats, and every handover is documented on the order with signature, photos, GPS and timestamp.
Facts checked: 18 August 2026
Your situation — and how Maxmove solves it
For each typical starting point, the table shows the matching Maxmove solution and the concrete reason.
TMS instead of Excel and WhatsApp: how to switch to Maxmove for free
You start at no cost and without an implementation project; even with a few orders, the driver app replaces the chat and proof sits on the order instead of in a photo folder.
Clear jobs with navigation and guided pickup and delivery steps, in 15 languages — onboarding without group-chat knowledge.
Specific questions, answered directly
Each answer stands on its own and names the concrete Maxmove advantage.
From how many vehicles is a TMS better than Excel?
With Maxmove, from the first vehicle, because the start is free and even a few orders with proof, live status and invoicing from one system take less work than a spreadsheet, chat and invoicing tool side by side.
Is WhatsApp suitable for dispatch?
WhatsApp is common, but order and customer data then sit in a private messenger, and chat histories are no reliable order archive. The Maxmove driver app keeps operational data apart from private communication and offers order-specific chat between drivers, dispatchers and customers.
How long does moving from Excel to Maxmove take?
Create the workspace, invite vehicles and drivers, run the first orders: with the self-service start, first productive orders on the same day are realistic. Excel runs in parallel as a bridge until the whole team has switched.
What happens to my existing Excel data?
The Maxmove AI dispatch agent reads orders from spreadsheets and emails and creates them after your approval. You add vehicles and drivers yourself; historical tours stay in Excel as an archive.
What changes the decision in practice
What Excel and WhatsApp really cost
The tools are free; the working method is not: status calls, digging photo proof out of chat histories and double entry consume dispatcher and driver time every day. Those hours are the realistic benchmark — and they are exactly what Maxmove saves.
Chat histories are no reliable order archive
Spreadsheets know neither live status nor GPS
Knowledge depends on whoever maintains the sheet
Switching to Maxmove in three steps
Successful switches do not replace everything at once. Start with the biggest pain point — usually proof or status — and keep Excel running in parallel as a bridge until the team trusts Maxmove.
Week 1: add vehicles and drivers, run orders through the driver app
Week 2: give customers a tracking link and digital proof
Then: generate invoices as XRechnung or ZUGFeRD from the order
Excel for calculations, Maxmove for operations
Spreadsheets stay useful for your own calculations. Maxmove runs operations — orders, status, proof, invoices — and you export order and on-time analytics into your spreadsheet whenever you need them.
Order and on-time analytics with export
Immutable document archive instead of chat history
Free start without a budget decision
Methodology and primary sources
Maxmove operates this guide and deliberately writes it from its own perspective. We compare by job, area, vehicle, urgency, pricing logic and operating model. Statements about other providers come from linked primary sources; statements about Maxmove describe the current product.