Time Recording Excel Template: How to Legally Record Your Times in Excel

Companies need to consider more laws and guidelines. This takes time and patience. No wonder then, if you're wondering why you should use a new tool to capture your working hours. After all, this works just as well in Excel.

This article will help you find out whether time tracking in Excel really is the best solution for you. Instructions for creating the corresponding template as well as a finished Excel template for download can also be found here.

Why time tracking is important and how it works

Time tracking has long been useful, but only became a requirement for many after the judgment on time tracking in September 2022. This requires companies to record the times of their employees. This includes working hours, break times, and absences. In this way, employers ensure compliance with legal regulations. In addition, time tracking protects employees from overwork due to overtime.Time tracking offers numerous advantages to employers and employees:

Flexible working hours and locations:

• Employees work when they are most productive. This also increases your attractiveness as an employer.Transparency: 
• You can make sure that your employees adhere to agreements. In addition, your accounting has a basis for wage and salary accounting and your order processing for resource planning. Measurability and comparability:
• You can constantly monitor budgets and resources and calculate recurring tasks more easily.Verifiability and planning security:
• You comply with your labor law requirements and save yourself annoying misunderstandings and discussions.Is time tracking with Excel useful?

In certain situations, time tracking in Excel may be sufficient. In most cases, however, the use of a time tracking tool is the better alternative.

What are the advantages of time tracking in Excel?

Excel is not used for nothing so much. The spreadsheet program offers two (supposed) advantages.

Costs

Does time tracking in Excel cost you anything? An MS Office package is probably already installed on your PC or laptop. Time tracking in Excel therefore appears to be free at first glance. Why the purchase costs are not the salient point, you will learn in the following sections.

Flexibility

Designs, formulas, macros, forms, and pivot tables - in Excel you can implement almost anything you want. This is definitely a big plus.

What are the challenges of time tracking with Excel?

Actually, that was it already with the (theoretical) advantages. There are some significant (practical) challenges compared to this.

Limited Access

Excel has some weaknesses in terms of accessibility. For example, multiple people cannot work in the current version at the same time. Even a rotating work place can cause problems: The current Excel file could be on the PC in the office, while you want to record your times in the home office or at the exhibition stand. A time recording tool allows time- and location-independent access for each person, with the corresponding access authorization.

No Automation

Time tracking and monitoring works manually in Excel. With a time tracking tool, you can automate complete processes (e.g. record working hours and apply for leave) compared to this and keep control without manual intervention.

Data Backup

To prevent data loss, you need to consider a backup strategy for time tracking in Excel. This task is eliminated with a time recording tool, because it automatically secures your data.

Complexity

Flexibility often leads to complexity, which can become your undoing. Errors creep in, you lose valuable time by making adjustments and the simultaneous use of an Excel file by several people causes chaos.

Studies suggest that a frightening nine out of ten spreadsheets are incorrect.Resource intensive

Of course, the time required depends on how familiar your employees are with Excel spreadsheets. But even in a young team that grew up with MS Office, unintentional typing errors can destroy formulas or references or cause inexplicable inconsistencies. If people transfer the times from manual time sheets to the Excel table, data transmission errors can also occur. Correcting these errors can be very tedious and time-consuming. Therefore, you should take a second - critical - look at the cost factor at this point. In a time recording tool, time recording is done in just a few clicks.

Intransparent

Time recording with Excel is not without reason considered as intransparent and risky. There can always be mistrust and verbal conflicts between employees and employers. In the end, it is statement against statement. Excel only documents the working hours that employees input afterwards, while a time recording tool electronically records the actual working hours.

Who is time recording with Excel suitable for?

Although the disadvantages outweigh in quantity, time recording in Excel might be worthwhile for your company - for example, if you only employ very few employees and only want to record times for legal reasons. Otherwise - especially for employees who are not experienced with Excel - we recommend using a time recording tool. Some software developers even offer their

time recording tools completely free of charge!How does time recording with an Excel template work?

You have two options to implement your time tracking with Excel: Either you create your own template or you simply download our

free Excel template for time tracking.Option 1: Create an Excel template for time tracking yourself

Your time tracking should include a worksheet where you can record all working hours, break times, and absences. Depending on which Excel version you use, the individual points in the following instructions may vary slightly from your view in your Excel version.

Step 1: Create a table

Open Excel worksheet

1. Label the head: Time recording, employee, period, target working hours per day, monthly hours, vacation days, sick days, last update
2. Give the columns of row 10 headings: Date, Start, End, Break, Total working time (hh:mm), Total working time (number), Absence and Overtime and Minus hours
3. Enter date in cell A11
4. Hold cell A11 at bottom right and pull down
5. Step 2: Manually format cells 

At the beginning you can freely design the head of your time sheet. In our example, this is where the name, the period, the target working hours, the monthly hours, the vacation days, and the last update are located. You should fix these lines so that they remain visible for the editor even when scrolling down.

Mark rows > Tab "View" > Button "Fix Window" > "Fix Window"

With the keyboard combination "CTRL + 1" you open a window in which you can format the cells of your Excel template. 

Select cell A11 > Keyboard combination "CTRL +1" > Category "Custom" > "Date" > "OK"

You can also highlight the weekends in your list in color.

Mark worksheet (keyboard combination "CTRL + A") > Tab "Start" > Button "Conditional formatting" > Tab "New rule" > "Use formula to determine the cells to be formatted" > Text input field at "Format values for which this formula is true": "=WEEKDAY($A10;2)>=6" > Tab "Format" > Tab "Fill" > Choose color for Saturdays and Sundays > "OK" > "OK"

Step 3: Apply formulas

Now you can back up formulas so that Excel automatically calculates your number of hours (total working time). 

"=(C11-B11-D11)" > "ENTER"

If you hold the cell at the bottom right with your cursor and pull it down, the formula is transferred to the corresponding cells. 

So that Excel takes into account overtime and minus hours, you should change the format of your number of hours. In our example, we add column "F" for this. First multiply the working hours by 24 in F11 and then adjust the formatting.

"=F11*24" > "ENTER" 

right click in "F11" > "Format cells" > Category "Number" >"OK"
 

Now also pull the formatting for this column from cell "F11" down.

You can use drop-down fields in the Excel table. This is suitable, for example, for the selection of the reason for absence.

Select column "E11" > Tab "Data" > Data tools > Button "Data verification" > Tab "Settings" > Validation criteria "Allow" > Option "List". > Uncheck "Ignore empty cells" > Dialog field "Source" > e.g. "U/K;Mobile Office;External Trainings" > "OK"

The German Working Hours Act specifies certain limits for the maximum working hours per day. As a rule, this corresponds to eight hours (§ 3, ArbZG). In your Excel table, you can enter your target hours in the header and then compare them with the entered working hours.

Mark column H11 > Button "Format cells" > Custom 

"[hh]:mm"File > "Options" > "Advanced" > "When calculating this workbook" > "Use 1904 date values" Check box > "OK"

=E11-$D$4
 

Also transfer this formula as usual to all other cells of the column

. Lastly you can have the total number of your overtime and minus hours calculated.=SUM(H11:H41)

You can format your Excel table as you like, create macros and insert a logo. You can copy the individual worksheets month by month.

Download Excel Template for Time Tracking Free of Charge

You want to get started right away? Then don't waste time creating a template. Just download our

free Excel template for time recording! It includes everything you need to record your working hours - nothing more and nothing less.What you should consider when time recording with Excel

The time recording with Excel gives your employees more leeway than a time recording tool. Therefore, you should create a guide to ensure that all legal requirements are met and that each editor documents his or her times in the same way. 

Checklist:

Record the actual working hours (beginning, duration and end, overtime and breaks).

1. Define who controls which kind of data (e.g., the number of overtime hours).
2. Keep your labor law employer obligations and changes in law on how to handle personal data in mind.
3. Involve your works council in the creation of your guide (according to § 87 paragraph. 1 No. 6, Works Constitution Act it has a right of co-determination in the introduction of systems for time recording. It refers to the implementation in practice, not to the choice of the system).
4. Check with your tax authority to make sure it recognizes time recording in Excel as a proof document.
5. These tools you can use as an alternative for time recording

As you now know, time recording with Excel is rarely the most effective and safest choice in most cases. If you are still unsure, check out our

new OMR Reviews Softwareguide. Here you will find a large selection of time recording tools for direct comparison. Alternatively, you can jump directly to theseven best apps for time recording - that's not what we claim, that's the conclusion of the OMR Community.Conclusion: Time tracking with Excel is possible, but rarely recommended

If you don't just want to record your times at the workplace, but also time recording of remote, mobile and home office employees as well as project time recording, productivity measurement and data synchronization with your accounting software play a role for you, an Excel template won't be enough.

We know how tempting the apparent simplicity of Excel can be. But often, appearances are deceptive. Which software is really simple and intuitive, you only find out by "Learning by Doing". We recommend the self-test: Record your working hours comparatively in Excel and in a time recording tool. Feel free to share your experience with us and the entire OMR community.

Wir wissen, wie verlockend die scheinbare Einfachheit von Excel sein kann. Doch oft trügt der Schein. Welche Software wirklich einfach und intuitiv ist, findest du nur durch „Learning by Doing“ heraus. Wir empfehlen dir den Selbsttest: Erfasse deine Arbeitszeiten vergleichsweise in Excel und in einem Zeiterfassungstool. Teile gerne deine Erfahrung mit uns und der gesamten OMR Community.