Calculating Hours in Excel

Tracking your hours gives you insight into the time you spend on work and ensures that your salary is paid fairly. Excel is often used to track these hours. But is time tracking in Excel really the best option?

We’ve created a special Excel template that freelancers can use to quickly get started. Download the template below. Are you working in a team? Keep reading for more options.

Advantages of Time Tracking with Excel

Excel is often chosen for its convenience. If you already have a Microsoft Office package and are familiar with Excel, it seems like an obvious choice. You don’t need to invest in new software or learn a new system. Here are the main benefits:

• Easy to get started.
• Usually free if you already have an Office package.
• Free templates available for download.
• Requires minimal knowledge.

Disadvantages of Time Tracking in Excel

Choosing Excel might seem like a natural choice because many people are familiar with it, but there are downsides as well.

• Collaborating in Excel to maintain a time log for an entire team can be challenging.
• Excel is costly if you don’t already have a Microsoft Office license.
• Excel is not very flexible; if you travel frequently for work, it can be hard to access and log your hours accurately.
• Excel can become disorganized, as you might need multiple tabs or separate files for tasks, projects, or employees.
• In Excel, it’s difficult to gain quick insights, such as profitability per employee or project or the time required for specific tasks.
• It’s not a sustainable long-term strategy if your business is growing.

Alternatives to Excel

Keeping is a modern alternative for time tracking. You can clock in on your phone when you start a task and clock out once you finish. With Keeping's time tracking software, you can directly assign hours to a project or task. This makes tracking through an app more accurate and flexible than entering hours in Excel afterward.

Consider whether tracking hours in Excel is the best choice for you. What exactly do you expect from a time-tracking system? The Keeping app is free to try for individual use, and freelancers or solo business owners can use it for free indefinitely!