Version eleven of the seating plan, emailed at five o'clock
An office move runs on a seating plan. The client's move coordinator has a spreadsheet of staff, departments and their new desk numbers. Facilities has a list of cabinets, printers and meeting room furniture. IT has its own list of screens and docking stations. Your project manager merges it all into a labelling plan and prints hundreds of labels.
Then the client changes the plan. Finance is swapping floors with HR. Six people have left and four have joined. Labels are reprinted, some are not, and on the night crews are carrying crates to desks that now belong to someone else.
Why the plan keeps breaking
The plan is edited by several people in the client's business and yours, in copies of a spreadsheet, while labels are printed from whichever copy was current that day.
- Several versions of the seating plan exist at once.
- Labels are printed before the plan is final and not all are reprinted.
- Colour codes and floor codes are agreed by email and interpreted differently.
- Crews on the night cannot check a label against the latest plan.
- IT equipment is tracked separately from furniture and crates.
What a broken plan costs
Items delivered to the wrong place have to be moved again, often the next morning with the client watching. Monday starts with staff looking for their crates, and the complaint lands on you even when the client changed the plan late.
Your project manager spends evenings merging spreadsheets instead of planning the logistics that only they can do.
How we build a single move plan
- We set up the new building as a list of floors, zones, rooms and desk positions, with the colour and code scheme you use.
- The client's coordinator, and anyone they delegate, assigns people, teams and assets to destinations through a shared online plan, not a spreadsheet.
- Every change is recorded with who made it and when, and a cut-off date locks the plan for labelling.
- Labels print from the plan with the destination code, colour and a QR code, and reprints are tracked when late changes are allowed.
- On the night, crews scan a label to see its current destination, which catches any label printed before a late change.
- After the move, a checklist per floor shows what has been placed and what is outstanding, for the snagging walk the next morning.
| Item | Labelled with |
|---|---|
| Personal crates | Person, desk number, floor colour |
| Furniture | Room or zone code |
| IT equipment | Desk number and asset reference |
| Archive and files | Room and cabinet position |
What the night of the move looks like after
Crews carry items to destinations that match the final plan, and a quick scan settles any doubt. The client's coordinator made changes directly and saw them reflected. On Monday, staff find their things, and the snagging list is short and specific.
The plan can be reused for the client's next restack or churn move, which is often where the repeat work comes from.
Is your labelling plan a spreadsheet?
- Seating plans arrive as spreadsheets and change many times.
- Labels are printed before the plan is final.
- Crews cannot check a label against the latest plan.
- IT, furniture and crates are planned separately.
- Monday morning after a move is full of misplaced items.