Moving a coworking space off spreadsheets: a five-day checklist

What to collect

Seven lists cover everything a coworking space needs on day one. Collect each as a spreadsheet tab with one row per item, and keep the originals untouched.

1. Desks, by branch and floor. A name or number that is unique on its floor, the type (desk, cabin seat or meeting room), and its status, including the ones you have blocked.
2. Member companies. Legal name, GSTIN and PAN where they have them, state, billing address, and a contact person with a phone number.
3. Agreements. The member, start date, end date, notice period, monthly fee, security deposit, billing cycle, and the desks each one covers.
4. Deposits held. For each agreement, what was received, what was deducted and what was refunded.
5. Unpaid invoices. Invoice number, date, member and the amount still outstanding.
6. The rate card. What you charge for a desk, a cabin seat, a meeting room and a day pass, branch by branch.
7. Staff. Name, phone, role, and which branches each person should see.

Two small things sit outside the lists and are easy to forget: your invoice number series (the prefix and the next number), and each branch's GSTIN and state.

Where the data usually hides

Few spaces have seven tidy tabs. In practice the lists are scattered, and finding them is half of Day 1.

• Desks: a tab in the main workbook, a floor-plan PDF, or the manager's memory of whose desk is whose.
• Member companies and agreements: a rent-roll tab, a renewal tracker and a folder of signed PDFs. When the tab and the signed PDF disagree, the signed PDF wins.
• Deposits: often only in the bank statement and a note on the agreement. Rebuild them from both.
• Unpaid invoices: your accountant's invoice register or accounting software, which is rarely the sheet you use for rent.
• Notice and renewals: WhatsApp threads and email. Ask the manager what has been agreed informally.
• Visitors: the paper register. You will not move it, but note what reception records, so that nothing is lost on go-live day.

Clean-up rules

Most of the effort in a move is not typing; it is deciding what the data means. These rules settle most of those decisions before they become arguments.

• One row per desk, and one row per company. A member company is one row, not one row per person. Use the legal name, as it appears on its GST registration.
• Check each GSTIN. A GSTIN has 15 characters, and the first two digits are the state code. If the state on the row does not match the code, one of them is wrong.
• One date format, one number format. Write dates unambiguously, for example 31-Oct-2026. Write fees as plain numbers, before GST, with no ₹ sign, no "k" and no "per month" in the cell.
• Pair desks and agreements. Every occupied desk belongs to exactly one live agreement, and every live agreement covers at least one desk. List the exceptions; do not fix them silently.
• Never guess a missing date. A blank end date, or a notice period written as "one month", goes on a question list for whoever signed the agreement. Write notice periods in days.
• Settle the deposit story for each agreement: received, deducted, refunded, and what is still held.
• Choose a cut-off date and freeze. Work on a copy. Log everything that changes after the cut-off, and re-apply it at go-live.

Days 1 to 5

The order matters, because each step depends on the one before it: an agreement needs a member and a desk, and an invoice needs an agreement.

If questions are still waiting for answers on Day 5, the date moves; the data does not get guessed.

Who to involve

• The owner chooses the cut-off and go-live dates, and answers the contract questions.
• The space manager owns the desk list and walks the floor on Day 5.
• Your accountant or finance person confirms the invoice totals, the deposits and the number series.
• Reception tries the everyday screens before the date is final.

With more than one branch, move one at a time. Load the smallest first, run the checks, and use what you learned on the rest.

What does not move between any two systems

Say these out loud before you start, so that nobody finds out afterwards.

• Historical bookings. Last year's room bookings are rarely worth re-creating. Keep them as a file you can open.
• Invoices already raised and settled elsewhere. Keep that register, exported, with your accountant's records. Only invoices that are still unpaid need to come across, as opening balances. Ask your accountant what else your books need.
• Stored cards, mandates and autopay schedules. These do not transfer from one system to another. Members authorise again, wherever you collect. Atrium itself keeps no stored cards or autopay mandates: members pay each invoice in the member portal through your Razorpay, or by transfer.
• The old visitor register. The new one starts empty on go-live day. Keep the old book or sheet.
• Members' old logins and passwords. Passwords do not move. In Atrium, members sign in with a 6-digit code sent on WhatsApp, so there is nothing for them to remember.
• Custom columns with no equivalent. Put them in the desk's notes where they belong to a desk; otherwise keep them in a side file with your records, and look at the list before you do.

Checks before go-live

Do these on Day 5, with the old sheets open beside the new system.

1. The desk count on each floor matches a physical walk of that floor.
2. Every occupied desk has one agreement, and every agreement covers a desk.
3. The monthly fees add up to your rent-roll total, before GST.
4. The unpaid invoices add up to your ledger or bank-reconciliation total.
5. The deposits held add up to what your accounts show.
6. The next invoice number continues your series, and the first invoice PDF carries your logo, your GSTIN and the right state.
7. Each branch has the right GSTIN and state.
8. Every staff member can sign in, and a reception login sees only what reception should.
9. Five members, picked at random, are right end to end: desk, agreement, deposit and what they owe.

After go-live, keep the old spreadsheets read-only for about 90 days. A way back costs nothing, and you will want to look something up.

Two ways to do it in Atrium

Atrium (by Sehsaa) offers two routes. You can use either, or start with one and finish with the other.

Route 1: Sehsaa does it, free

For a space of up to 250 desks and 100 member companies, Sehsaa builds your workspace from whatever you have, whether that is a spreadsheet, an export from your old platform or a paper register. It takes five working days and costs nothing (clause 5.8 of the Terms of service), and you review the result before it goes live. A larger space is quoted in writing before anything starts. The whole process, and what does and does not come across, is on the switching page; the printable checklist is at the migration checklist.

Route 2: you do it, with the Seats & rooms round trip

1. Download a template, or your current inventory, from Seats & rooms.
2. Edit it in Excel.
3. Upload it, and read the diff of what will change.
4. Press Apply.

Nothing is applied when you upload, and a desk that is missing from the file is never deleted. The round trip covers desks and rooms. Members, agreements and invoices are entered screen by screen today, which is why Sehsaa offers to load them for you. The free trial lasts 30 days, with no card, and covers up to 50 desks and 10 bookable meeting rooms; for a larger space, ask for a demo on your real floor. What Atrium costs afterwards is on the pricing page, and more answers are in the FAQ.

Moving questions