How To Make A Work Schedule in Excel (with Template)
Writing out a work schedule with pen and paper might seem simple, but it doesn’t always work in the modern work environment. You want your schedule to be easy to edit and immediately sharable, and Excel is a great option for this.
Whether you’re planning out your own workday or organizing a team of employees it’s easy to do with these simple Excel work schedule templates.
Why Make a Work Schedule in Excel?
Scheduling employees might seem simple on the face of it. They turn up at 9, go home at 5, and get the weekend off. This is a major oversimplification though, and for many businesses, the reality is very different.
Lots of businesses work on shift patterns, where different employees have varying skill sets. Take a restaurant – the chances are you don’t want your waiter covering in the kitchen, so you’ve got to make sure you’ve got the right mix of people working at any given time.
So, why make a work schedule in excel?
Excel allows you to make easy-to-use work schedules that you can quickly share with your team. They’re clean, concise, and can quickly be edited to make sure everyone knows when they should be working.
While the most efficient option is to automate your work schedules through an employee scheduling app like ZoomShift. But Excel is a good alternative option to keep track of the hours your employees are working.
Choose a Format for Your Schedule
Work schedules can come in many different shapes and sizes.
The important thing is having a clear picture of what you want to achieve with your schedule. For some people, this will mean planning out their personal work schedule each day, while for other people, it might mean scheduling a team of employees’ shifts across a whole week.
Whatever schedule you’re creating, you want to focus on ease of use. You should be able to glance at a work schedule and know who needs to be where at what time. This can also allow you to quickly track hours for payroll, and make sure everything is planned for the week ahead.
As both personal work schedules and team schedules are commonly used, we’ll show you how to create each one in Excel.
Creating a Work Schedule in Excel
An Excel work schedule is there to make your life easier, so you don’t want to be spending all your time creating a template. Here are two easy templates you can quickly whip up without needing high-level Excel skills.
Alternatively, you can download our free work schedule template and get started straight away.
Personal Daily Schedule [Step by Step Guide]
1. Open Excel and start a new blank spreadsheet
2. Select cells A1 to E2 and click “Merge and Center”
3. Type “Weekly Schedule” or whatever you want to name your schedule in the A1:E2
4. Choose your font size and align center
5. Select cells F1 to H2 and from the “Borders” dropdown, choose all borders
6. Input “daily start time into F1,” “time interval into F2,” and “starting date in F3”
7. Select all cells and resize them to fit the text
8. In cell A3, enter “time”
9. In cell A4, enter your start time, e.g. 7.00
10. In cell A5, enter the next time interval you want to follow, e.g. 7.30. Use the fill handle by highlighting the two cells and then dragging them down from the bottom right-hand corner to continue the sequence
11. In cell B3, enter the first day you want to start the week with e.g. Monday
12. Drag from the bottom right-hand corner of B3 to the right to continue the sequence
13. Select row 3 and adjust the text to your preference
14. Select column A and adjust the text to your preference
15. Select all cells and align center
16. Choose to fill colors to suit your preferences
17. Select the body of your schedule and from the “Borders drop-down”, choose “all borders”
18. Save your schedule as a template
Weekly Work Schedule for a Team [Step by Step Guide]
1. Open Excel and start a new blank spreadsheet
2. Open Excel and start a new blank spreadsheet
3. Select cells A1 to E2 and click “Merge and Center”
4. Type “Weekly Schedule” or whatever you want to name your schedule in the A1:F2
5. Choose your font size and align center
6. Select cells F1 to H2 and from the “Borders” dropdown, choose all borders
7. Enter the dates on the y-axis, and your employees’ names on the x-axis leaving a space between each employees’ name to enter their position
8. Add each employee’s hours and the position they’re working
9. Use fill colors to customize each row to your preferences
The Importance of Scheduling
Whether you’re a large business or an individual, scheduling is vitally important. You want to get the most out of your resources and that means maximizing your use of time.
It’s not always about the amount of time spent working – it’s about the quality of time spent working, and through a good scheduling process, you can make your business much more efficient. Whether that’s by planning out your own day or making good rotas for your employees, work schedules can make a big difference.
Is It Time to Upgrade Your Software?
Scheduling might seem like a small detail, but it can be very important for your business. Scheduling your staff at the right time not only makes your business run more smoothly but also helps keep morale up.
You don’t want to be overworking your staff, and you don’t want to be needlessly paying overtime hours, so it pays to get the scheduling right.
This way to ensure this happens is by using scheduling software like ZoomShift. For as little as $2 per employee per month, you can take all the stress out of scheduling and make sure you’re getting it right week after week.
Get started with ZoomShift 14-day free trial and see how it can transform your scheduling.
