# Spreadsheet checks or a live reading (https://logable.app/compare/manual-inspection)

Manual checks and a spreadsheet against a live reading with alerts, compared row by row on 12 September 2026, including where the clipboard wins.

A dipstick and a spreadsheet answer the question once a week. A sensor answers it every few minutes, and tells somebody when the number is wrong.

## The short answer
A manual check is a real answer, and for one vessel on a route somebody already walks it is often the right one. The question is what happens between two checks.
- **Keep the clipboard for one vessel on a walked route** If a person passes the silo every shift and the level moves slowly, a reading on a whiteboard is enough.
- **Add a sensor when the gap between checks costs money** A silo that runs out over a weekend, or a tank that drains overnight, is found late by a walked route.
- **The alert is the part a spreadsheet cannot do** A limit crossed at 02:00 reaches whoever is on shift. A spreadsheet is read the next time somebody opens it.

## A clipboard and a spreadsheet, against Logable
The left column is the practice, not a product, so no row carries a source link. The right column is checked in the product.
|  | Manual checks | Logable |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Dashboards | A spreadsheet per site, or a whiteboard at the silo. The numbers are as fresh as the last walk. | Yes. A drag and drop dashboard builder. 50 dashboards on every plan. |
| Alert rules | A person notices the number is wrong, or nobody does until the next check. | Yes. Trigger rules with ready-made presets, deadband, confirmation samples and dwell. No per-plan limit on the number of rules. |
| Escalation and quiet hours | Nobody is told automatically. The reading is passed on by phone or in the shift handover. | Yes. Escalation policies with stages and quiet hours. Alerts reach email, push and the in-app inbox. |
| Reports | A monthly sheet, typed up from the daily sheets. | Yes. A report builder on Growth and above. Saved and scheduled reports on Business and above. |
| Mobile app | A photograph of the sheet, or a message in a group chat. | Partial. An iOS and Android app for dashboards, devices and alerts, with push alerts on Growth and above. The public store listings are not open yet. |
| How it is priced | The time of the person who walks the route, plus the cost of a number that was wrong. | A flat price per plan, sized by device count. Monthly or annual, where annual pays for ten months. |
| Entry price | No subscription. A dipstick, a ladder and a clipboard. | Starter is R399 a month for 8 devices, or USD 25. A 14 day trial covers 5 devices and asks for no card. |
| Data retention | As long as the file is kept. Older sheets are usually in a box. | Raw readings for 60 days. Hourly and daily summaries are kept after that. |

Checked on 12 September 2026.
If a row here is wrong, tell us and we will correct it. https://logable.app/contact?subject=other&page=%2Fcompare%2Fmanual-inspection

## Where a manual check is enough
Five situations where a sensor and a subscription buy you nothing.
- **One or two vessels on a route somebody already walks** If a person passes the silo every shift, a dipstick and a whiteboard tell you the same thing as a dashboard.
- **A slow process with a wide margin** If the level takes a week to move and a week of warning is enough, the reading does not need to arrive every five minutes.
- **No power and no network at the vessel** A sensor needs both. A person needs neither.
- **A figure needed once a week** A weekly stock count typed into a spreadsheet costs less than a subscription and a gateway.
- **A site where nobody carries a phone** The alert has to land somewhere. If it cannot, the walked route is the system.

## Where a live reading is worth the cost
Four things the clipboard cannot do, whoever is holding it.
- **The reading arrives without a person** The level updates while the route is being walked somewhere else, or not at all.
- **The alert reaches a phone at night and over a weekend** A limit crossed at 02:00 is told to whoever is on shift, not found on Monday morning.
- **The history is already there** When the argument about the shortfall starts, the chart already covers the whole month.
- **One screen covers every site** One dashboard for the fleet, instead of one spreadsheet per site and a phone call to ask.

> A weekly number tells you what already happened.
>
> A reading every few minutes tells you what is happening now, and an alert tells somebody before the silo runs out.

## What it takes to start
One sensor and one path out of the site. A level sensor or a set of load cells feeds a gateway or a controller, which publishes to Logable over MQTT or HTTPS. The dashboard and the first alert come from a template and a preset, so the first reading is on a screen the same day. The clipboard can stay: many sites keep the weekly count for a month and compare the two.

## The number, without the walk
One dashboard for every vessel on the site, updating as the readings arrive.

## The alert arrives before the next walk
Reservoir Tank reads 18 percent, below the 20 percent limit. Nobody is due on that route until the morning, and whoever is on shift already knows.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do I need to replace the manual check?
No. Most sites keep the weekly count for the first month and compare it against the live reading. The count settles whether the sensor is calibrated, and after that it usually drops to a monthly check.

### What does the site need for a reading to arrive?
A sensor, power at the sensor, and one path out of the site: a fixed line, a 4G router or a link to a building that has one. The gateway makes one outbound connection over MQTT or HTTPS, so no inbound port has to be opened.

### Can I still export the numbers to a spreadsheet?
Yes. A report exports as a file, and a chart's data can be downloaded. The difference is that the export is produced from readings that were taken automatically, rather than typed in from a sheet.

## Related
- [An alarm dialler](https://logable.app/compare/sms-alarm-units): The same table for a dialler with one set point.
- [Remote monitoring](https://logable.app/solutions/remote-monitoring): Watching equipment on a site nobody visits daily.
- [Silo monitoring](https://logable.app/solutions/silo-monitoring): See live silo weight from the load cells you already have, and book the delivery before stock runs out.

## See the reading without the walk
Open the live demo, or talk to us about the vessels you check by hand today.