For most of the first grant year we had to keep track of Veteran information in an Excel file and manually updated the cell data as needed which usually was at least weekly.
We were keeping track of financial information, contact information, and employment information as well as all other Veteran data using 5 separate tabs. Once we surpassed 42 columns of information for over 230 Veterans it really became unmanageable.
The amount of time to even find a specific person and then to update all relevant information concerning that person was time consuming as well as frustrating because only one person could have the Excel sheet open and be updating it at one time. This made the responsibility of capturing information fall on one person and 95% of the day’s workload went toward updating this Excel file.
Vet Tracker was created and designed to alleviate so many of these issues:
- The redundancy
- The amount of time used to input and keep records up to date allowing for easily finding and updating specific Veterans and their information
- Capturing specific information on reports while allowing for the flexibility to generate different reports based on what information is needed to be shown
- Increased communication among employees who are working out of different locations
- Allowed for employees to all have access and ability to update case notes and other information so that it can be kept as accurate and up to date as possible