If you are a consultant, freelancer, virtual assistant, or run a business that bills by the hour, you need to track your time accurately.

There are many compelling reasons to track your time.

Clients appreciate it when you submit reports with your invoice. Managers favor employees who submit their timesheets promptly. Tracking your time helps you set fairer rates and improves your productivity.

One of the easiest tools you can use to track your time is an Excel worksheet. You can customize these sheets with different functions and commands, making them a top choice for time tracking.

This article explains the pros and cons of tracking time with spreadsheets, how you can use them to track your time, and an alternative to consider if they don’t work for you.

Table of contents:

Pros of tracking time with Excel worksheets

1. It is free.

You can access an online free version of Excel if you have a Microsoft account. If you subscribe to Microsoft Office, you also get Excel as part of the package.

2. It is customizable

You can tailor your timesheet to be precisely how you want, using formulas, commands, and formatting tools.

You can organize the data using color codes, charts, and tables to enhance its presentation.

3. It is easy to use

You don’t need to spend a ton of time figuring out how to use the sheet. If you have basic knowledge of Excel, you're good to go.

4. It stores your data securely

The web version of Excel saves your data as you input it. You could also set your Excel to autosave and OneDrive. This makes it easy to access or update your timesheets from anywhere and on any device.

5. It fulfills simple time tracking requirements

If you work with a handful of clients and need basic time tracking features, Excel will meet those needs well enough. You can log time, get the duration a task lasted, create a pie or bar chart to see which project or client took the most time, and calculate your bill at the end of the month.

6. It is shareable

You can export your timesheet data as a PDF or CSV file. You can even share the timesheet in real-time with clients and managers.

Cons of tracking time with Excel worksheets

1. It demands attention

To effectively use Excel sheets, you must constantly update them throughout the day.

You can’t switch tasks without tracking them in Excel. If you don’t, you risk losing money for untracked time.

2. It lacks automation and AI support

Excel is entirely manual, leaving room for error, guesswork, and forgetfulness. It is also easy to ignore.

3. It isn’t ideal for multitaskers

If you switch between clients and projects throughout the day, Excel might not be the best time tracking tool for you. You may find yourself working on Project A, even though you set the timer for Project B.

This creates inaccurate timesheets and induces feelings of guilt when sending out your invoice because you're unsure you've attributed the time to the right client.

4. Reporting across multiple employees, clients or projects can be hard

Spreadsheets are powerful tools, but they are not as powerful as a purpose-built tool. It can be hard to make a spreadsheet generate a report across multiple worksheets (e.g. where each worksheet is a day) and multiple files (where each file is an employee’s timesheet). Plan to do a lot of manual adding.

5. It doesn’t provide insight into application or website usage.

You have to update completed tasks yourself. Excel doesn’t record what you do; instead, you tell it what you’ve done.

6. It isn’t ideal for users with time blindness.

Users with time blindness may forget to fill in their timesheets. If you believe that the deliverables matter more than time tracking itself, or struggle to remember completed tasks at the end of the day, Excel is not the tool for you.

7. It doesn't solve the billing problem.

You risk underbilling “ignorable” activities because you didn’t update the worksheet as soon as you did. This results in revenue loss.

How to track time in Excel; step-by-step guide

Here is a step-by-step guide to create turn your spreadsheet into a time tracking tool:

Step 1: Open a new Excel worksheet.

Step 2: In cell A1, write the day’s date, and in the row underneath that, enter in the first cell CLIENT/PROJECT NAME, in the second cell, START TIME, in the third cell, END TIME, and in the fourth cell, DURATION.

Step 3: Enter the names of your clients or projects in the cells labeled 'Client/Project Name'.

Step 4: When you are about to start a task for a client, click on the cell in the START column beside the client's name, then hold down the Control/Command key and the Shift key simultaneously on your keyboard. You will automatically enter the start time.

Step 5: After completing the task, go to the end time cell for the client and hold down the Control/Command key + Shift + semi-colon keys again. Repeat this process for each client or project you work on until the end of the workday.

Step 6: To calculate the duration of time you spent on that task, go to the corresponding DURATION cell for a client and enter the formula: =end time - start time. If the start time is in cell B4 and the end time is in cell C4, the formula will be =C4 - B4. Then press the Enter or Return key.

Step 7: Convert the duration into hours and minutes by right-clicking on the cell and selecting FORMAT CELL from the dropdown menu. Click on CUSTOM then choose the h:mm format.

Step 8: Repeat steps 4 to 7 for each client.

Calculating the total time spent for each client at the end of the day

Step 9: In the same Excel worksheet, create a second section to calculate the total time for each client.

Step 10: Enter the client's name. E.g., Clockk. Then, in the cell to the right side, enter the formula: =SUMIF(range from CLIENT/PROJECT NAME: END TIME, SPECIFIC CLIENT, DURATION COLUMN) and press Enter/Return.

An example is: =SUMIF($A$2:$D$7,$A$13,$D$2:$D$7).

Replicate this formula for each unique client.

Step 11: Change the format of the returned total to h:mm (see Step 7).

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Presenting a monthly report to a client using Excel worksheets

Step 1: In an Excel worksheet, enter DAY, HOURS, DECIMAL HOURS, and SUMMARY OF COMPLETED TASKS into separate cells at the top.

Step 2: Under "DAYS", enter the dates for the month — for example, July 1, July 2, July 3 through July 31.

Step 3: Block out weekends and the days you did not work for that client by filling in the cells with black.

Step 4: Retrieve the hours you spent on a client’s project from your daily timesheet. Against each day of the month, enter the total hours worked and the completed tasks.

Step 5: In the corresponding DECIMAL HOURS cell beside an HOURS cell, enter the formula: =HOUR(TOTAL HOUR CELL+MINUTE(TOTAL HOURS CELL)/60, press Enter or Return.

For example, if the cell containing the total hours worked is B5, the formula will be A=HOUR(B5)+MINUTE(B5)/60.

Step 6: Sum up the decimal hours at the bottom of the column.

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How Clockk solves the problems with tracking time with Excel

1. Clockk is automated and AI-powered:

You don’t need to enter your daily activities manually. Clockk autofills your timesheets and assigns completed activities to the right clients or projects.

Clockk uses an intuitive AI to study how you assign tasks, and then automatically fills out your timesheet at the end of the day using what it has learnt.

2. Clockk is easy to use and navigate.

You become more productive with Clockk. Clockk’s interface is user-friendly. You fill in your timesheets with just a few mouse clicks and in under 5 minutes. This prevents you from worrying about a start/stop timer.

3. Clockk is ideal for multitaskers.

Clockk starts recording your activities and tracking your time as soon as you turn on your computer, running in the background to track the apps you use, websites you visit, and documents you work on.

4. Clockk keeps track of each app used, each document opened, and every completed task.

You bill accurately using Clockk. Clockk is always active when you're working, capturing every activity and completed task, and accurately measures the time you spend doing them.

So with Clockk, you can send your invoice with confidence and let go of the fear of overbilling or underbilling a client.

5. Clockk is excellent for users with ADHD and time blindness.

Professionals with ADHD and time blindness don’t have to worry about recording completed tasks. Clockk's automated time tracking system captures activities without manual input.

When to use Excel as a time tracking tool and when to use Clockk

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Conclusion

Tracking your time in Excel is a practical starting point —especially if you're a freelancer, consultant, or small team managing things on your own. It’s flexible, free, and easy to customize to your workflow.

But as you take on more projects and increase your clientele, your workday becomes more complex. The need to constantly update your spreadsheets may slow you down, and forgetting to log tasks is a possibility. All this means that you lose money.

Clockk AI-powered time tracker stops this from happening.

You can work and have Clockk track this work in the background without manually inputting start and stop times.

Clockk is the best time tracking software for you if you’re a multitasker, creative or just tired of manually filling out timesheets.

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