Last updated on June 12, 2025
How to Set Up PTO Reminders in Excel
When it comes to PTO tracking, spreadsheets are the default solution for so many workplaces: simple, familiar, and already in your toolkit. But what happens when you need more than a static file? That’s where it gets complicated.
An essential part of PTO tracking is visibility: knowing who is off and when. Notifications are an important component of this. While not exactly intended for this function, we’ve used a little creativity to come up with 3 ways to set up PTO alerts in Excel that help your team stay on top of important dates.
Why Use Excel for PTO Reminders?
When we ask our clients what they were using before Vacation Tracker, we often hear the same answer on repeat: “spreadsheets” (often said in a frustrated tone).
There’s an obvious reason why: Offices run on Excel. It’s a tool they already know and already pay for. No learning curve and no additional costs. Bosses love it.
It is also highly customizable, easy to share, and collaborate on but it has its limitations when it comes to PTO tracking, and especially when it comes to reminders in Excel. Designed to organize data, Excel might work for record keeping but, while not impossible, creating effective Excel alerts requires some manual work to set up.
Want to know how?
In this article, we’ll teach you how to keep up with edits in your file and upcoming dates, as well as recommend alternative solutions to replace the love-hate thing you’ve got going on with your Excel spreadsheet.
3 Ways to Set Up Excel Alerts
View File History
While this likely isn’t the solution of your dreams, file history is an easy way to stay up to date with changes in your document. For example, if you share one leave file amongst all departments, users can quickly review the file’s history to see what changes have been made. It’s not notifications, but it is a loophole to track updates.
How to Set It Up:
- Go to your OneDrive and find the file you want to review.
- Open the document and Navigate to Review>Version History.
- Now you can view when and by who modified the file and and when.
- When you select a version, make sure “Show edits” is toggled on.
- Now you can press the arrows to navigate through all the changes that were made.
Set up alerts on SharePoint
If your team shares an Excel PTO tracker via SharePoint, you can set up notifications to alert you of any document changes. This is especially useful for shared files where PTO updates happen regularly. While this isn’t a good way to get PTO reminders, it is a good way to know that PTO has been added, edited, or removed.
How to Set It Up:
- Navigate to your PTO tracker in SharePoint.
- Click the … (ellipses) menu next to your leave tracking spreadsheet and select “Alert Me.”
- Select “Send me an alert when anything changes” and choose your preferences. You can get notified instantly or get daily or weekly summaries. Don’t forget to press ok to save!
Highlight Important Dates in Excel
Conditional formatting is a versatile tool that can be used to highlight upcoming leaves. While it doesn’t exactly send reminders, it can make important and upcoming PTO dates pop, turning your tracker into a visual dashboard.
How to Set It Up:
- Highlight the column containing PTO dates.
- Navigate to Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cell Rules.
- Choose “A Dates Occurring...”
- Now you can set up your desired condition and pick a standout format (e.g., bold text with a red background). I chose to highlight dates occurring this week, but you can also set up multiple rules with different colors each. For example, leaves occurring tomorrow could be yellow, within the week, they could be red, and within the month, green.
Alternative Ways to Get PTO Reminders
We’ve just explored some creative ways to make Excel alerts stand out in a sea of data. But let’s face it—Excel has its limits.
Sure, you can set up a macro in the Visual Basic (VBA) editor to email you alerts, but that requires advanced coding skills and, honestly, a lot of patience. And even then, those reminders only work if you’ve got the Excel file open.
Not exactly what you’d call effortless, right? If all this sounds like more trouble than it’s worth, that’s because it probably is.
That’s where Vacation Tracker steps in. Our robust leave management system has customizable notifications. With this feature, you can:
- Receive daily or weekly leave notifications tailored to your needs.
- Stay updated on company-wide or department-specific leave schedules.
- Save hours of manual work by automating the process.
Want to know how? We’ll show you!
Automating PTO Reminders with Vacation Tracker
Here’s how you can set up automatic notifications in Vacation Tracker in under 5 minutes:
1. Go to the Notifications Tab
On the left side of the Vacation Tracker dashboard, click the Notifications tab (or look for the little bell icon—it’s hard to miss).
Here, you will see a list of all active and inactive notifications, alongside other useful information like the notification name, owner, frequency, and scheduled time. This information can also be filtered on the basis of Locations, Departments, Labels, or any combination of the three.
2. Set Up a New Notification
Click the New Notification button to create one from scratch. From here, you can customize every detail, from frequency to recipients and languages (Vacation Tracker is available in 8 languages!). These notifications can be sent directly via Slack, Microsoft Teams, or straight to your inbox.
Once you’re happy with the setup, hit Save Notification, and you’re done!
See how quick that was? It takes just a minute to set up and saves you hours of headaches and hassles.
Bye, bye Excel formulas, and say hello to the good life!
The best part? You can try it for free!
What are you waiting for?
Know exactly who's off and when—no spreadsheets, no surprises.
out of time off 
tracking.
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