Inland Northwest Driving proved night hours in Spokane without a second spreadsheet

Inland Northwest Driving runs teen classroom and behind-the-wheel programs in Spokane and the valley. Priya Shah's instructors work long winters. Night driving starts in the late afternoon for much of the year, and the school has to show that split clearly when a student finishes.

Classroom hours lived in one place. Drive hours lived in another. Night minutes were a third column someone updated on Fridays. By spring, the numbers did not always match what instructors remembered.

"Winter nights start early here. We could not keep night minutes in a side spreadsheet and still trust the total in June," Shah says.

What changed

Every drive is logged with start time, end time, and a day or night designation. Those minutes roll into the student record automatically. Shah can open any student and see classroom, driving, observation, and night buckets against the program rules the school set.

When the totals are met, completion paperwork is generated from that record. Instructors add route notes and skill grades in the same log, so a parent question about "what they worked on last Thursday" has an answer.

In daily use

• Required hour buckets enforced before completion
• Night driving tracked separately from day driving
• Instructor notes on every lesson
• A single student record for classroom and behind-the-wheel

Shah still reviews records before certificates go out. She just reviews one screen instead of three files. The school is less worried about a June scramble when a family asks for proof of hours.