Tessera and spreadsheets.
Spreadsheets are free, flexible and everyone knows them. Here is where they serve a programme well, and where they start to cost you.
When it's one team and one report
A small, short project with a single report and no personal data is often fine in a spreadsheet. You don't need a platform for that.
When figures have to be traced and defended
Several partners, people's personal data, or a donor who questions your numbers. That's where the spreadsheet starts costing you a week every month.
Side by side.
| Question | Spreadsheets | Tessera |
|---|---|---|
| Where does a donor figure come from? | A formula, copied from an export, edited by hand | The verified activities behind it, one click away |
| Partner reporting | Each partner's format, merged at month-end | Partners' activities count as they're verified |
| Personal data | Lists on laptops and in e-mail attachments | Encrypted, with roles down to the district |
| Small numbers | Easy to publish a figure that identifies someone | Withheld automatically in every figure |
| Who changed what | Hard to tell | Every change on the record |
| Cost | Free, plus the staff time every month | A yearly price per workspace; field accounts free |
| Donor templates | Matches them exactly | Exports in the shape your donor asks for |
Switching without losing a month.
Bring your forms
Import XLSForm files, the open standard most forms tools use.
Set up your logframe
Start from a sector pack and the indicator bank, then adapt.
Pilot first
A paid pilot of three to six months, credited against your first year.
See it shaped like your programme.
Thirty minutes with your sectors, your partners and your indicators. If it doesn't fit, we'll say so.
Built by humanitarians, from over ten years in field missions with UN agencies, international NGOs and donors.