Guide
How Much Time Does Crew Booking by WhatsApp and Excel Actually Cost?
Phone calls, a WhatsApp broadcast to ten people, and a spreadsheet to track who said yes. Here's what that workflow actually costs a dispatcher in hours, and a rough way to put a number on it.
Measure the coordination around a booking
Start with a recent, representative job. Count the time spent making a shortlist, sending requests, following up, updating the roster and reconciling replies across messages and spreadsheets.
Separate active work from elapsed waiting time. A reply arriving the next morning does not mean that the dispatcher spent the whole night working on the booking.
Use a simple, explicit calculation
Illustrative assumptions: three jobs per week, two hours of coordination avoided per job and 4.33 weeks per month. That amounts to about 26 hours of recovered capacity per month.
At an illustrative monthly salary of EUR 3,000 and 173 working hours, the salary-only value is EUR 3,000 / 173 x 3 x 2 x 4.33, or about EUR 451 per month. This excludes employer costs, software fees, setup time and training. These inputs are examples, not measured SAVIE customer results.
Capacity is different from cash savings
The calculation values time that could become available for other work. It does not mean the company will spend EUR 451 less each month. A cash saving depends on a change in actual costs, such as less paid overtime.
Some coordination will remain. Complex briefs, late changes and conversations about suitability still need a dispatcher. Use a conservative estimate for the work a system can remove.
Test the estimate on your own jobs
Run a small pilot on comparable jobs. Track active coordination time before and after, along with booking completion, missed replies and corrections. Include the time needed to maintain profiles and learn the workflow.
SAVIE puts requirements, crew information and booking responses in one place. The useful question for a pilot is how much that changes your team's work, with your crew and your production schedule.