Report cards in Excel or a report card app: which is better?

Updated 24 October 2026

Many schools make report cards in Excel, often with a spreadsheet passed down for years. It works, until it doesn’t. Here is an honest comparison.

Where Excel does well

• It is already on the school computer, and someone usually knows it.
• A small school with one class per level can manage with a good template.
• You can make any calculation you like.

Where Excel causes trouble

• Formulas break. One deleted row or a sorted column, and aggregates or positions are quietly wrong.
• Marks are retyped. Teachers hand in paper or separate files, and someone types every mark again.
• Every card is hand-fitted. A long name or an extra subject pushes the card onto two pages.
• Versions multiply. “Final”, “final 2”, “final corrected” on three different computers.
• It depends on one person. When the person who built the spreadsheet leaves, nobody can fix it.

What an app adds

• Marks typed once by the teacher and checked before they reach the cards.
• Results worked out the same way every time: final marks, grades, aggregates, divisions and positions.
• A design that fits every learner on one page.
• The whole class printed as one PDF.

When Excel is enough

A very small school, one person who understands the spreadsheet well, and a design that never changes. If that is your school, a good spreadsheet is fine. Our free new curriculum assessment sheet is an example of a spreadsheet that does one job well.