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How to Create a Customizable Leave Tracker in Excel

How to Create a Customizable Leave Tracker in Excel

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Manage your paid time off all in one place with Vacation Tracker.

Last updated on June 6, 2025

Frequently asked questions

Start by laying out employee names in rows and the dates of the year in columns. Then, create a key for leave types and use symbols or color-coding to mark leave days. You’ll also want to use conditional formatting to highlight weekends or holidays and make your calendar easy to scan. Not ready to build one from scratch? Download our free Excel leave tracker template, it’s pre-formatted with everything you need. 

Maintaining your tracker means keeping it updated every time someone takes leave. When set up correctly, built-in formulas will help tally totals automatically when you enter time off. Just make sure to hide unnecessary rows, protect the sheet from accidental edits, and consider sharing the file via cloud storage or SharePoint to track changes. 

Yes! You can include separate columns or counters for vacation, unpaid leave, sick days, and more. Just create a clear key and use formulas to tally each leave type. Plus, our customizable template is already set up to handle this. 

It can be very customizable, but only if you’re comfortable working in Excel. You’ll need to know how to use formulas, filters, conditional formatting, and data validation to really make it work for your specific policies.

For small teams, it can work, especially if you’re comfortable with formulas and spreadsheets. But as your team grows, managing leave manually becomes more error-prone and time-consuming. That’s when switching to a dedicated tool like Vacation Tracker makes things a whole lot easier.