Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesiTechGuides is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more
Use a spreadsheet time log to record when work starts and ends, breaks, the task or project, and the hours worked. Choose a daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, or project-based layout to match how you review or report time. Start with the editable Vertex42 Time Log Template for a simple log, or browse Smartsheet’s Google Sheets timesheet templates for employee and payroll-style fields. Before relying on totals, confirm how the sheet expects times and breaks to be entered and test its formulas against a few real examples.
Download a spreadsheet time-tracking template
Pick the file and layout that fit your workflow. The templates below are examples, not a guarantee that a spreadsheet meets payroll, billing, or legal requirements.
| Template source | Available formats or layouts | Useful when you need |
|---|---|---|
| Vertex42 Time Log Template | Excel and Google Sheets; time log | A straightforward log for dates, activities, start and end times, break minutes, and work duration. The page was updated August 18, 2021. |
| Smartsheet Google Sheets Timesheet Templates | Google Sheets examples, including daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly timesheets | Employee-oriented tracking with categories such as regular, overtime, holiday, sick, and other hours, plus totals, rates, or approval fields in some examples. |
| Smartsheet Timesheet Templates | Timesheet examples across reporting periods and project use | Comparing timesheet structures and fields for employee time reporting. |
| Toggl Timesheet Templates | Downloadable templates for daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, employee, and project tracking | Logging total or billable hours and comparing estimated with actual project time. |
| ClickTime Monthly Timesheet Template | Excel, Google Sheets, and PDF options | A month-at-a-glance format or a printable timesheet. |
| Smartsheet Work Log Templates | Daily and weekly work-log examples | Recording tasks and work progress when a payroll-style timesheet has more fields than you need. |
Template availability and file options can change; check the source page before downloading. If you need a simple record rather than a payroll-oriented timesheet, a work log with task, date, time, duration, and notes may be easier to maintain.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
Choose the right time period and layout
The best structure follows the cycle in which you submit, review, or analyze hours. A longer sheet is not automatically more useful: it can make individual entries harder to check.
#1 Best Overall
- ✔This daily plan pad features detailed hourly schedule timelines from 12 AM to 11 PM, perfectly segment your morning, afternoon and evening hours. Track meetings, appointments and fixed tasks hour by hour to eliminate procrastination and boost your daily time management efficiency.
- ✔ 1.Put an end to the time black hole: Every hour of activity is recorded, so you always know where your time goes and bid farewell to "being busy yet achieving nothing". 2.Cure procrastination: Visual time grids have an inherent sense of supervision; blank time slots serve as a direct reminder, with more binding power than phone alerts. 3.Gain instant a sense of accomplishment: Check off completed tasks with a simple tick. A filled time axis page by page delivers physical feedback that digital tools cannot match, making it easier to keep going the more you use it.
- ✔ 1.Students & Exam Takers: Plan class, review and practice time; allocate study hours for each subject precisely for targeted exam preparation. 2.Professionals: Schedule meetings, work projects and commute time; prioritize tasks clearly and bid farewell to chaotic overtime. 3.Freelancers & Stay-at-Home Parents: Clearly divide work/childcare/personal time to avoid blurring the boundaries between life and work. 4.Self-Discipline Enthusiasts: Check in on fitness, reading and learning; develop regular routines with hourly scales to build good habits effortlessly.
| Layout | Best suited to | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | Detailed records for one workday, shift, or task sequence | Requires a separate sheet or section for each day, unless combined into a larger workbook. |
| Weekly | Work reviewed or submitted each week | May need multiple rows per day when a person switches projects or tasks. |
| Biweekly | A two-week reporting or pay cycle | More entries on one sheet can make corrections and review slower than on a weekly sheet. |
| Monthly | Month-level review or a monthly submission | One sheet may become crowded when there are many shifts, projects, or task changes. |
| Project-based | Allocating time among projects, clients, or work codes | Requires consistent project or client identifiers to make totals meaningful. |
Employee timesheets and project logs answer different questions. An employee-centered sheet organizes time by person and may include pay-period totals, leave categories, and approvals. A project-centered sheet organizes it by task or code and may include billable status, client, estimated hours, or actual-versus-estimated comparisons.
What to put in a spreadsheet time log
Start with the minimum useful fields
For personal tracking or a basic work log, create columns for:
Rank #2
- TASK PLANNER NOTEPAD FOR WORK – Structured task planner and productivity planner designed as a task organizer and workflow planner with expanded layout
- REDUCE OVERWHELM & IMPROVE EXECUTION – Use this task planner, productivity planner, and task tracker to organize workflow and improve execution
- TASK PLANNING + ACTIVITY TRACKING IN ONE FORMAT – Use as a productivity planner, task organizer, and workflow planner to manage tasks and execution
- ANALOG TASK & ACTIVITY SYSTEM THAT WORKS – Writing tasks improves memory and reduces missed steps
- STRUCTURED CHECKLIST + LOG FORMAT – Combines task planning and activity tracking with expanded space for detailed workflow management
- Date
- Employee or name, if more than one person will use the sheet
- Task, activity, project, or project code
- Start time and end time
- Break duration, if breaks should be excluded from work time
- Calculated work duration
- Notes for context, corrections, or unusual entries
Keep the distinction between entered data and calculated data clear. For example, label the duration column “Hours worked (calculated)” so users do not enter a second total that conflicts with the start, end, and break fields.
Recommended Free Tools
Add fields only when the purpose requires them
- Payroll input: regular hours, overtime, leave categories, pay rate, pay amount, employee and manager review or approval.
- Client billing: client, project or task code, billable status, billable hours, rate, and invoice details.
- Project costing: project, work category, estimated hours, actual hours, and a variance or comparison.
Templates may include daily and weekly totals, regular and overtime categories, holiday or sick leave, rates, or signature fields. Do not assume every example includes all of them; inspect the selected sheet and adapt it to the process you actually use.
Rank #3
- Made in USA. Veteran-Owned and Proudly Produced in Ohio.
- THIS IS ESSENTIAL FOR LAWYERS AND CONSULTANTS: BookFactory Time Tracking book is a necessary addition to any attorney’s office, small business or freelance assignment. It’s a fundamental part of any business like. A simple and easy way track your billable hours
- TRACK BILLABLE HOURS BY DAY OR BY CLIENT: For business or personal use, time tracking is shown across a 2-page spread, on the left side, you have days and each hour, where you can write quick details about who you worked for. On the right side of the page you can keep more detailed track of the specific tasks you worked on and what client it was for – what breaks you took, and when, as well as the specific amount of time you spent on each task
- EXCELLENT VISUAL TO SHOW HOW YOU’RE SPENDING YOUR TIME: You may wonder where your day is going, or how you still have so much to do when you’ve already been working for hours. You may just need to be able to give your client an itemized invoice of work provided… either way, this book will be a help to you
- BUS-100-69CW-PP-(Time-Tracker)
Set up the sheet and verify its calculations
- Choose the purpose. Decide whether you are tracking personal productivity, preparing payroll input, billing a client, or measuring project effort. Remove columns that do not support that purpose.
- Match the reporting cycle. Select daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, or project-based organization based on when the time is reviewed or submitted.
- Define how time is entered. Vertex42’s instructions for its time log accept entries such as “3:45 PM” or 24-hour time. It warns that Excel assumes AM when AM/PM is omitted. Use one consistent format, and make the expected format visible to everyone entering data.
- Record breaks consistently. In the Vertex42 log, the break field is minutes to subtract from the time between start and end. Confirm whether your chosen template expects minutes, decimal hours, or another format; do not assume different templates use the same convention.
- Test the formulas with sample rows. Check a normal shift, a shift with a break, and any unusual case you expect to record. Verify both the row result and the daily or period total before entering relied-upon data.
- Check edge cases. Test overnight work, entries spanning a date boundary, overtime calculations, and the spreadsheet’s locale if they apply to your schedule. A formula that works for a daytime shift may not handle these cases correctly.
- Set a review and correction process. If several people contribute, decide who enters time, who reviews it, and how a correction is documented. Approval fields help only when the team knows who is responsible for using them.
- Save and share appropriately. Use Excel or Google Sheets according to how people need to edit and share the file. For a client invoice, Vertex42 notes that its log can be adapted and submitted in print or PDF form.
Formula behavior depends on the template, time-entry format, and schedule. There is no single formula that should be assumed to handle every combination of breaks, overnight shifts, date boundaries, overtime rules, and spreadsheet locale. Check the sheet’s example rows and test your own cases before using its totals.
When a spreadsheet is not enough
A spreadsheet is a manual time record unless its formulas, scripts, or integrations provide additional automation. It can be a good fit when entries are simple and the people involved can enter and review them consistently. If you need automatic capture, reporting, or workflow controls, compare a dedicated time-tracking tool; Toggl’s template page also discusses its software as an alternative to manual timesheets.
Rank #4
- SIMPLE, ATTRACTIVE DESIGN - The notepad flaunts a design that's both stylish and fun, making it the perfect backdrop to track your daily tasks and other deliverables.
- 8.5" X 11": LETTER SIZE - With ample space for jotting down your activities/tasks, projects and deliverables, this notepad ensures you never miss a beat. The larger size offers room to log all your work.
- DOUBLE-WIRE SPIRAL BINDING - Tear off sheets as needed or keep them intact to be able to look back on your prior tasks. Whether you're at your desk, in a meeting, or on the go, your notepad is ready for you to use as you see fit.
- 50 SHEETS - Created so you can list all your tasks onto one sheet in order to keep track of time stamps as you note how you spend your time each day.
- VERSATILE FOR TRACKING ALL YOUR TASKS - Whether you're a professional who bills for your time, a student recording time spent on studies, or a volunteer tracking your hours, this notepad can help you record your time spent on any and all activities throughout your day.
Does a spreadsheet timesheet meet U.S. recordkeeping requirements?
Do not treat a generic downloadable template as proof of compliance. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet #21 is the official starting point for federal Fair Labor Standards Act recordkeeping. Its published search-result excerpt says employers may use a time clock, a timekeeper, or have workers write their own times in records; that statement alone does not establish that a particular spreadsheet contains all required information or satisfies every rule.
For employee records, check the current federal guidance and applicable state and local requirements for your situation. A spreadsheet can help organize entries, but the employer remains responsible for using a recordkeeping process that meets applicable requirements.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- Plan Smarter, Stress Less: Our undated planner has 50 daily planning sheets per planning pad to help you keep your notes organized all in one place. Track important projects, tasks, time blocking, and goals with our planner.
- Enhance Your Productivity: The simple solution for managing your daily schedule. Helps you focus, especially those with ADHD. With our daily planner you can track your appointments and meetings throughout the week, organize your tasks in order of priority, jot down thoughts or ideas, and record when projects are due.
- Upgrade Your Office Supplies: The minimal design makes this a stylish and practical addition to your work from home essentials for both women and men. This to-do list notepad looks professional and keeps you organized.
- Give The Gift Of Organization: The sleek design makes this a beautifully practical gift for moms and dads who need a little extra help keeping track of soccer games, field trips, and doctor’s appointments. Also makes a wonderful gift for college students, coworkers, your boss, or the entrepreneur in your life to help them stay on top of busy schedules.
- Cultivate Healthy Habits: Plan and track your meals and water intake each day and use the checkbox as a visual reminder. Take a minute each day to write down something good that happened. Practicing gratitude is proven to increase happiness!
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
