Time tracking in Excel or software? Download a timesheet

It is quick to start a timesheet in Excel. Start, finish and break fit on one row, and the hours can be added up. The choice becomes more interesting when someone needs those same hours for payroll, projects and a customer’s invoice.

Download the monthly Excel timesheet (.xlsx). It fills in dates and calculates work duration after breaks.

Follow the whole route from the entry to its final user. If the spreadsheet serves that route well, continuing with it makes sense. If hours are typed again at several stages, assess software against those particular handovers. The legal references in this guide concern Finland.

When does a spreadsheet work well?

A spreadsheet can be useful when workdays have a stable structure, a named person reviews the entries and payroll receives an agreed format. It can also provide a project’s time breakdown while statutory working time records are maintained elsewhere.

A workable spreadsheet routine needs a shared template, agreed recording rules and a place to find the current file. Name the person who maintains the formulas and someone to cover for them. Their holiday is a poor time to work out why last month’s file had different columns.

Compare these stages of the work

“Yes, it can” is the start of a discussion. Ask the supplier to demonstrate your own case and record the result in the buyer’s comparison form.

Download an editable timesheet

Download the Excel timesheet (.xlsx).

Choose the year and month: dates and weekdays fill automatically. Enter start and finish times and the break to deduct in whole minutes. The template calculates work duration and the monthly total. Ten extra rows after the calendar days allow additional work periods on the same day. Include the date on those rows.

A finish time earlier than the start means the work period ends the next day. Each row covers less than 24 hours. Check actual duration on clock-change nights separately. Keep a blank copy for next month.

For example, 7 September 2026 from 08:00 to 16:00 with a 30-minute break outside working time gives 7.5 hours. Enter the actual time to deduct. The applicable rule determines whether a break is paid or counts as working time.

The template calculates elapsed time. Interpretation of overtime, flexitime, allowances and compensation is a separate task. If you use it as a basis for statutory records, also arrange the required breakdowns and retention. Protect completed files with access rights appropriate for employee data.

Measure manual work for one pay period

Record the time spent collecting files, requesting missing information, reviewing entries and preparing the transfer. Separate necessary review from work caused by copying or searching for information. This also gives you a realistic way to assess the benefit of software.

In a fictional example, collecting files takes 20 minutes, resolving gaps 35, reviewing entries 40 and preparing the transfer 25 minutes. The total is 120 minutes. Measure the same stages in the software trial. Review is still necessary; count the actual difference as the saving, rather than the entire old processing time.

Then compare the software’s annual cost, the implementation effort and the benefits that matter to you. Apart from saving time, it may help a manager spot missing entries earlier or give the person invoicing a complete set of the customer’s hours.

Try the change with a limited set of data

Choose one pay period and a few different workdays: an ordinary day, an absence, work on two projects and an entry corrected afterwards. Use fictional data or data that can appropriately be processed for the trial. Try the recording method first, then approval and receipt by payroll.

Choose one official dataset for payroll during the trial. The parallel comparison data is for checking. This lets you try the same work in two ways while payroll knows which data to process.

If the change proves useful, agree on a start date, opening balances, the old files’ archive and the people responsible. These are covered in the implementation guide.

Checklist: keep the spreadsheet or try software?

• The shared template and its maintainer are known.
• The approved version and the procedure for later corrections are clear.
• Manual work has been measured by stage for one pay period.
• Your exceptional workdays have also been tried in the software.
• Payroll has checked the sample data.
• Costs are compared for the same number of users and required functions.
• The decision to continue or switch is based on recorded observations.