I started keeping records in the prehistoric era before the advent of Internet, basically to avoid repeats with bad apples I sometimes met. In those days of printed ads, many providers changed their name, but were dumb enough to keep the same phone or pager number, so they were easily identifiable. Tracking then became a habit. My records were -and still are- very simple, nothing like Excel: just date, name, info, and a brief one-line description of our meeting, in my own shorthand. This has kept me from repeating hiring mistakes and has helped me keep an eye on expenses...?