Work Schedule Template
Build your team's week right on this page. Add a row for each shift, set the employee, day, start, and end times, and type the hours. The total updates as you go. Download the CSV or print it. No sign-up and nothing to install.
Enter each shift by employee and day, then type the hours in decimal, so 8 hours 30 minutes is 8.5. The Hours column adds up to the total scheduled hours for the week.
What a work schedule needs to show
A schedule answers one question for each person: when am I working. Everything else is detail. So the useful ones put names down the left, days across the top, and the shift times in the cells, because that is the shape people can read at a glance.
Two things get left off and cause most of the confusion. Total hours per person, so you can see who is at 45 hours before payroll does. And who is off, marked clearly rather than left blank, because an empty cell reads as either a day off or a mistake and nobody can tell which.
Common shift patterns
Most teams run one of a handful of patterns. Knowing the name is useful because it tells you the cycle length, which is what a template has to be built around.
The compressed ones (9/80 and 4-10) trade longer days for a day off. Watch overtime if you are in a state with a daily rule: a 10-hour day is already past California's 8-hour threshold, so a 4-10 week can owe overtime even at 40 hours total.
These are cycle patterns rather than times of day. If what you actually need is what first, second and third shift mean, and the usual hours for each, see 1st, 2nd and 3rd shift hours explained.
| Pattern | How it runs | Hours a week |
|---|---|---|
| 5-2 (standard) | Five 8-hour days, two off | 40 |
| 4-10 | Four 10-hour days, three off | 40 |
| 9/80 | Eight 9-hour days, one 8-hour day, one off, per fortnight | 40 average |
| 2-2-3 (Panama) | 12-hour shifts on a 14-day rotating cycle | 42 average |
| DuPont | 12-hour shifts, four teams, four-week cycle, a week off | 42 average |
| Split shift | Two separate blocks in one day with a long unpaid gap | Varies |
Excel, Google Sheets, or something that updates itself
A spreadsheet is the right tool for a schedule that rarely changes. Copy last week, adjust two cells, print it. In Excel or Google Sheets the only bit worth automating is the weekly total per person, which is one SUM per row.
It stops working when the schedule changes often, because the version on the wall and the version people remember drift apart. That is a distribution problem rather than a spreadsheet problem, and no formula fixes it.
Being straight about the limit here: TimeTracker does not build rotas. There is no shift scheduler, so you cannot draw next week in it. What it does is record the hours actually worked and compare them against the hours you expected, which is the other half of the job. See timesheets, and use the work hours calculator to total a shift.
Frequently asked questions
Common queries and answers about the work schedule template.
- Can I fill this schedule in on the page?
- Yes. Type straight into the grid, add a row for every shift, and the hours total updates as you go. Download the CSV or print it when the week is set.
- How do I schedule more than one person?
- Add a row for each shift and put the person's name in the Employee column. You can list the whole team in one grid, sorted by day or by name, whatever is easier to read.
- Why are the hours shown as decimals?
- Payroll runs on decimal hours, not hours and minutes. So an 8 hour 30 minute shift is 8.5, and you can multiply it by a pay rate without any extra math. The total at the bottom is the scheduled hours for the week.
- Is my schedule saved?
- No. The grid lives in your browser and clears when you close the tab, so download the CSV before you leave. A free TimeTracker account keeps every week's schedule for you.
- Does the total tell me who actually worked?
- No. This is a plan, so it shows the hours you scheduled, not the hours worked. TimeTracker records the real clock-in and clock-out times and puts them next to the plan.
Tired of doing this by hand?
TimeTracker captures every hour automatically and turns it into timesheets, invoices, and live profitability.