PTO & Leave Tracking Templates for Excel and Google Sheets
Tracking time off in a spreadsheet is genuinely the right call for a lot of small teams: the data is simple, everyone can read a table, and there is nothing to onboard. The place where homemade sheets break down is the math, because accrual rates, caps and carryover interact in ways that are easy to get subtly wrong, and an employee who discovers a wrong balance stops trusting the whole file.
Every template here is generated and tested programmatically, with formulas verified against known scenarios before release, in matching Excel and Google Sheets builds. Start with the free tracker that matches how your company counts leave, read the guides if you are writing a PTO policy from scratch, and when several managers and approval flows enter the picture, LeaveSheet (tabletemplates.com/pto-tracking-software/) runs the same certified accrual engine as a web app for $1.50 per employee per month.
Premium templates
Free templates
Free PTO Tracker (Excel & Google Sheets)
FreeFree Employee Vacation Tracker (Excel)
FreeFree Employee Leave Tracker (Excel)
FreeFree PTO Accrual Calculator (Excel)
FreeFree Vacation and Sick Time Tracking Spreadsheet
FreeFree Time Off Request Form (Excel)
FreeFree FMLA Tracking Spreadsheet
FreeFree Comp Time Tracking Spreadsheet (Excel)
FreeFree Employee Attendance Tracker (Excel)
Guides
How PTO Accrual Works: Monthly Accrual, Proration, Caps, and Tenure Tiers Explained
GuideHow to Calculate PTO Payout: Formula, Worked Example, and State Payout Rules
GuideUse-It-or-Lose-It PTO: How Forfeiture Policies Work and Where They're Restricted
GuidePTO Policy Template: What to Include, Recommended Defaults, and Sample Clauses
GuidePTO vs Vacation vs Sick Leave: One Combined Bank or Separate Policies?
GuideNegative PTO Balance: Letting Employees Borrow Against Future Accrual
GuidePTO Carryover Rules: How Carryover Caps Work, With Worked Examples
GuideFMLA Leave Tracking: The 12-Week Entitlement and How Employers Must Measure It
GuideUnlimited PTO Pros and Cons: Why It Often Means Employees Take Less Time Off
GuideBest Leave Management Software for Small Teams (2026)
Which leave tracker should you download?
If your company pools everything into one PTO bank, the PTO tracker and the accrual calculator are the right starting point: one computes balances from an allowance, the other from a monthly accrual rate with a cap and carryover. If you keep vacation, sick and personal time in separate banks, use the vacation and sick time tracker, which holds three balances per employee side by side.
The leave tracker is the generalist: one log for every absence type with automatic totals per category, which is usually what payroll asks for at the end of the month. The FMLA and comp time trackers are specialist tools - hours-based logs for situations where the unit of tracking is hours, not days.
When a spreadsheet stops being enough
A single file works while one person owns it. The usual breaking points are approvals (employees emailing requests that someone forgets to log), visibility (nobody can see who is out next week without opening the file) and concurrent edits. That is the gap LeaveSheet fills: employees request time off themselves, managers approve, balances recalculate in real time, and the data still exports back to a clean Excel file whenever you need it.
There is no lock-in either way: the free templates are yours forever, and LeaveSheet has a 14-day free trial with no credit card, so you can test both approaches on your real roster.
Frequently asked questions
Are these leave tracking templates really free?
Yes. Every free template downloads directly in both Excel and Google Sheets builds, with working formulas and no macros. The $19 PTO Tracker adds certified accrual math with seniority tiers, and LeaveSheet is the web app version for teams.
Do the templates work in Google Sheets as well as Excel?
Yes. Each template ships as two separate builds - one for Excel, one for Google Sheets - so formulas are written natively for each platform instead of relying on import conversion.
How is PTO accrual calculated?
Most US companies accrue PTO monthly: days per month times months worked, capped at an annual maximum, plus any carryover from last year. Our accrual calculator template does this math automatically, and the how-pto-accrual-works guide walks through worked examples.
What is the difference between the free templates and LeaveSheet?
The templates are files you own and edit yourself - best for one owner and a small roster. LeaveSheet is a web app: employees submit requests, managers approve them, balances update in real time and a team calendar shows who is out. It costs $1.50 per active employee per month with a $9 monthly minimum.