Arsonhouse is a talent management company focused on comedians, founded by industry veteran Joe Meloche. For more than a decade, the company has built a roster of working comedians, all at various stages of their careers. The team at Arsonhouse has supported them with hands-on management, touring logistics, and creative services.
As Arsonhouse has grown, so has the complexity of its operations. The team was managing critical data across 30+ separate Google Sheets. This created duplicate data entry and limited visibility across clients. It was difficult to maintain a single source of truth, as CFO and Head of Operations Henry Chu explains:
“For one artist, we had up to three sheets that basically did the same thing. There was a lot of double and triple entry, and that just killed me. I couldn’t search it, I couldn’t run reports across clients, and I couldn’t reliably track whether we got paid for every single show.”
In this case study, we will share how Claribase helped Arsonhouse replace 30+ spreadsheets with one Airtable system. This has resulted in less manual work, better reporting, and a system the team can actually trust.
Outgrowing Google Sheets
Before Airtable, Arsonhouse relied almost entirely on Google Sheets to manage touring schedules, settlement sheets, and financial tracking. While spreadsheets worked at a basic level, it became clear that this was not going to work as the business scaled. Arsonhouse’s success in business meant they needed more scalable systems
For a single artist, the team often had multiple spreadsheets containing overlapping information. Henry notes the challenges:
“[The team] did a lot of the data entry, and I could see they were bouncing between three different sheets. That takes time, and mistakes can happen at any step. It was just not efficient.”
From a finance perspective, the limitations were glaringly obvious. It was nearly impossible to track revenue and collections accurately because the data was scattered across multiple sheets.
Discovering Airtable and the Need to Start Fresh
Joe Meloche had heard about Airtable through his brother Paul, who had built a large Airtable base for his own business. Arsonhouse implemented Paul’s base and tried to adapt the Airtable system, but when Claribase reviewed both the existing Google Sheets and the Airtable base, the recommendation was clear: start from scratch.
“You guys looked at everything and said, ‘We’ve got to start from scratch.’ And I completely agreed. Fixing the old system would’ve taken more time than rebuilding it properly.”
Building a System Around How Arsonhouse Actually Works
Claribase spent time understanding how Arsonhouse actually worked. The team walked through how Arsonhouse handled settlements, invoicing, and tour routing. Claribase didn’t force Arsonhouse to adapt to a prebuilt template. Instead, they designed the new Airtable system around Arsonhouse’s real processes.
“I don’t know databases, but I know our workflow. Walking through it step by step and having the database designed to match how we use it was incredibly helpful.”
The first version gave the team a system they could start using immediately. From there, Claribase and the team at Arsonhouse met weekly to discuss iterations. These meetings allowed the team to refine requirements, uncover special cases, and adjust how they wanted to use the database. Claribase implemented the updates to ensure the workflows in Airtable matched Arsonhouse’s specific requirements.
“There was a lot of tweaking, a lot of changes … and that part went really well. You guys were very responsive and flexible.”
From Many Sheets to One Source of Truth
Today, Arsonhouse uses Airtable daily, and the system Claribase created has replaced more than 30 Google spreadsheets. The team now treats Airtable as its single source of truth and the only system they use.
“We’ve fully done the cutover. No one uses Google Sheets anymore. If it’s not in Airtable, then it doesn’t exist.”
For Henry, Airtable has become an essential financial tool. He now runs reports to track earned commissions, payment status, and revenue to date. He then cross-checks that data against the company’s accounting system.
“This is basically my true source for checking everything. I can run reports, compare them to our books, and actually trust the numbers.”
Improving Collaboration Inside and Outside the Company
Claribase’s implementation of Airtable also changed how Arsonhouse shares information with external partners. Previously, the team maintained separate Google or iCal calendars manually for each artist. Now, live, view-only routing calendars are shared directly from Airtable.
“We were inputting everything two or three times before – routing sheet, calendar, shared calendar. That drove me nuts. Sharing it this way has been working really well,” Henry explains.
External agents, talent teams, and partners can now access up-to-date information without additional manual work. Everyone now sees the same live information, which has reduced scheduling back-and-forth.
Key Outcomes
- Claribase helped Arsonhouse consolidate 30+ Google Sheets into a single Airtable system for touring, settlements, and financial data.
- Having a customized system has reduced manual work for the administrative team and minimized the risk of errors.
- Claribase’s implementation has enabled the CFO to run real-time reports on earned commissions, payments received, and revenue to date.
- Internal staff and outside partners can now access live, view-only routing calendars without maintaining separate Google or iCal calendars.
Why Airtable and What Comes Next
Henry sees Airtable as the natural evolution beyond spreadsheets, especially for growing organizations that need collaboration, reporting, and flexibility.
“Excel is good enough until it’s not. At some point, you just run out of what spreadsheets can do. Airtable is the next step.”
Now that Arsonhouse has reliable operational data in one place, the team has also started exploring automations and AI-supported workflows inside of Airtable. They’re also working with Claribase on new systems for event and guest management tied to future ventures.
Conclusion
If your team is managing operations across dozens of spreadsheets, the problem usually isn’t the spreadsheet itself – it’s that everyone is working from different information.
If you’re still relying on multiple spreadsheets to run your business, book an introductory call with Claribase to see how a unified Airtable system can replace manual data entry with one trusted source of truth.