Attendance Sheet Templates for HR — Free Excel & Google Sheets (Download & Customize)

For HR teams, tracking who’s in, who’s out, and who’s owed what shouldn’t take your whole morning. You need a clean, reliable system you can roll out in minutes, share with managers, and use for payroll, audits, and compliance. This page gives you a compact, HR-ready template pack for Excel and Google Sheets: a monthly attendance template, a daily check‑in sheet, and a shift tracker with PTO, overtime, and notes columns. Each file comes prefilled with common codes (P, A, SL, WFH), simple formulas for totals and attendance %, and clear headers your team will recognize.

Download the version you need, duplicate for each team or month, and customize in a few clicks—add departments, union rules, or hybrid/remote tags. Whether you prefer an employee attendance spreadsheet in Excel or a shareable Google Sheet, you’ll get consistent records you can protect, version, and export to payroll. Start with the core attendance sheet below, then grab the variants for daily and shift-heavy teams to streamline tracking, reduce errors, and stay audit‑ready.

Download: Ready-to-use Attendance Sheet Templates

Get started fast with plug-and-play spreadsheets designed for HR workflows in Excel and Google Sheets. Each file is cleanly structured, pre-formatted for quick totals, and easy to share or print, so you can standardize how your team records time across locations and shifts. Whether you need a monthly roll-up, a daily register for check-ins, or shift-level detail with PTO, you’ll find a version that fits your policy without building from scratch.

These templates are flexible for salaried or hourly teams, union or non-union, and remote, hybrid, or on-site setups. Use them as a baseline to add your company header, attendance codes, and policies, then lock formulas and share with managers. If you’re moving from paper forms, this is the simplest way to digitize your attendance sheet without changing your HRIS.

Employee monthly attendance template (Excel & Google Sheets)

A monthly attendance template gives HR and managers one per-employee view for the entire month, with daily codes and automatic totals. It’s ideal for light-touch tracking and quick rollups by department, letting you spot patterns like recurring Friday absences or late-month PTO spikes. You can also add conditional formatting for unapproved absences to surface exceptions at a glance.

To make handoffs to payroll easier, include columns for paid/unpaid leave and overtime, and add a code legend at the top. Managers can enter single-letter codes (P, A, SL, WFH) while formulas tally totals and attendance percentages, reducing errors versus free-typed notes. If you manage global teams, switch the weekend pattern or holidays per location, then protect formulas and share.

Recommended columns:

• Employee name/ID, Department, Manager
• Dates 1–31 with code entry
• Totals: Present, Absent, Late, PTO, Overtime
• Attendance % and Notes

“We’ve compiled the most useful free attendance spreadsheet templates in Excel and Google Sheets formats. Included in this article, you’ll find the following: * Create an attendance spreadsheet in Excel, * Employee attendance spreadsheet template, * Monthly attendance spreadsheet template, * Daily attendance spreadsheet template, * Weekly attendance spreadsheet template, * Attendance tracking spreadsheet template,” — Smartsheet

Daily check-in sheet (printable & digital)

Use a daily check-in sheet when you need precise presence data by day—great for front desks, retail floors, security posts, training days, or temp staffing. A single page (or sheet) per day keeps signatures, time stamps, and supervisor initials together for audit trails. Digital versions in Google Sheets work well for shared kiosks; printables are handy for sites with limited devices.

Add fields for arrival and departure, lunch breaks, and reason codes (late, early leave, no-show) to clean up weekly summaries. If you’re hybrid, add an on-site/remote toggle so facilities can plan seating and security can confirm badge activity. At day’s end, the sheet summarizes headcount and hours, making it faster to reconcile timecards and flag missing entries.

Starter fields to include:

• Employee name/ID, Department
• Check-in, Check-out, Break minutes
• On-site/Remote, Reason code, Supervisor initials
• Daily totals and Exceptions

“Google Sheets attendance template provides a free, simple, and efficient way to track attendance. Whether you’re managing students, employees, or event participants, this template includes customizable features, real-time collaboration, and automated calculations to streamline your attendance management process.” — OneTap

Shift attendance template (hourly & PTO columns)

For shift-heavy teams, you need time-based fields that translate attendance into payroll-ready hours. A shift attendance template captures start/end times, unpaid breaks, and calculates regular, overtime, and PTO hours per shift. Add a shift code (e.g., A, B, C), location, and role so you can analyze coverage and differentials later.

Use simple formulas to standardize hours: Total Hours = (End − Start) − (Break minutes ÷ 60). Then let the sheet route excess hours to OT based on your policy, and log paid leave taken mid-shift. Including a PTO column at the shift level helps avoid confusion when employees take partial-day leave around scheduled hours.

Core columns:

• Date, Employee, Shift code/location/role
• Start, End, Break (min), Calculated hours
• Regular, Overtime, PTO hours
• Supervisor sign-off and Notes

“We’ve compiled the most useful free attendance spreadsheet templates in Excel and Google Sheets formats. Included in this article, you’ll find the following: * Create an attendance spreadsheet in Excel, * Employee attendance spreadsheet template, * Monthly attendance spreadsheet template, * Daily attendance spreadsheet template, * Weekly attendance spreadsheet template, * Attendance tracking spreadsheet template,” — Smartsheet

These ready-to-use files cover monthly summaries, daily registers, and shift-level tracking so HR can move from paper to a streamlined employee attendance spreadsheet quickly. Next, we’ll show you how to add headers, legends, PTO columns, and protections to make each template yours in minutes—see How to Use & Quickly Customize Your Attendance Sheet. If you’re comparing formats, start with our attendance tracker excel baseline to keep data consistent across teams.

How to Use & Quickly Customize Your Attendance Sheet

HR teams get the most value from an attendance sheet when it’s branded, standardized, and easy to maintain across pay periods. Start by adding a clean company header, a clear legend, and consistent attendance codes so every department reads the sheet the same way. Then tailor columns to operational reality—shifts, overtime, remote/hybrid days, and PTO—so totals are accurate and payroll-ready. Finally, protect formulas, define sharing rules, and set version controls to prevent accidental edits and keep auditable history.

The steps below work in both Excel and Google Sheets, and you can adapt them for monthly or daily trackers. Where possible, use data validation and conditional formatting to reduce manual errors. These quick customizations will help you move from a generic template to a dependable HR record in minutes.

Add company header, legend and attendance codes

Branding your template signals ownership and reduces confusion. In Row 1, merge cells across the active width and add your company name, department, and period (e.g., “April 2025 | Manufacturing | Non-Exempt”). Add a small subheader row for payroll cycle, pay group, and approver. Freeze the header rows so they remain visible when scrolling.

Create a legend section in the top-right corner. List your standard codes (e.g., P = Present, A = Absent, SL = Sick Leave, PL = Personal Leave, WFH = Remote, TR = Training, HOL = Holiday, OT = Overtime hours). Use data validation to restrict daily entry cells to your code list; this reduces typos and ensures reports are accurate.

Standardize calculations. Example formulas:

• Presence count (row-based): =COUNTIF(C5:AG5,"P")
• Attendance % by employee (month): =COUNTIF(C5:AG5,"P")/NETWORKDAYS($C$4,$AG$4,Holidays)
• Paid hours from codes (with a lookup table): =SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF(C5:AG5,CodeTable[Code])*CodeTable[PaidHours])

If you track by fiscal rather than calendar year, align the month start in your setup sheet. As one community solution notes:

“Means you want to have a different month in the first row in the "Calendar View" sheet? Download this file and change the month within the Setup sheet: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9wnsu9ninvtfopw/TF02780235_intl.xltx?dl=1” Microsoft Q&A

Finish by coloring the legend and using conditional formatting in the grid (e.g., red for A, blue for SL, green for WFH) so exceptions stand out during reviews.

Customize columns for shifts, remote/hybrid and PTO

Your columns should reflect how people actually work. Add targeted fields so you can reconcile hours, premiums, and location policies without manual notes. Here’s a quick starter map:

For remote/hybrid visibility, a single “Work Location” column plus conditional formatting gives instant filters for policy audits. If your teams rotate through multiple shifts, keep a small Shift Table (Shift, Start, End, Break, Premium) and use XLOOKUP to prefill times/premiums when a shift is selected.

PTO setup tips:

• Maintain a PTO Ledger per employee: Opening Balance, Monthly Accrual, Used, Balance.
• Monthly accrual: =ROUND(AnnualAccrual/12,2)
• Balance in the tracker: =Opening + SUM(AccrualsRange) - SUM(UsedRange)

For unionized or shift-heavy environments, add columns for “Diff/Premium Type” and “Premium Hours” to separate base vs. premium pay elements before exporting to payroll.

Protect, share and set version control for HR

Lock the structure before sharing. In Excel, select formula columns and header rows, then Review > Protect Sheet (set a password and allow only Select Unlocked Cells/Sort/AutoFilter). In Google Sheets, go to Data > Protected sheets and ranges, lock formulas and admin tabs, and leave daily entry cells unlocked. Use data validation and dropdowns to prevent drift from approved codes.

Control access by role:

• HR Admins: Edit
• Supervisors: Edit only rows for their teams (range protection or filtered views)
• Payroll/Legal: View
• Employees: View or Comment (for self-checks)

Enable version history and name checkpoints at key moments (month-open, mid-month QA, month-close). In Google Sheets: File > Version history > Name current version. In Microsoft 365: File > Info > Version History (stored in OneDrive/SharePoint). Adopt a naming convention like ATT_2025-04_MFG_v1.0 and increment on approvals. Keep a “Change Log” tab with date, editor, and summary for audit trails.

Finally, set a single “Master” with protected structure and distribute per-department copies via linked files or controlled folders. Use import ranges or Power Query/Queries to roll up department files into a consolidated HR view without exposing master formulas to every editor.

A well-structured, branded template with locked formulas and clear roles ensures clean data and smooth handoffs. Next, we’ll turn these foundations into HR insights with best practices, integrations, and quick KPIs. Explore our employee attendance spreadsheet to see how these customizations come together in practice.

HR Best Practices, Reporting & Integrations

Your templates are most valuable when they reinforce HR governance and make reporting automatic. Set up consistent codes, retention policies, and clean data flows so your team can move from manual reconciliation to trusted dashboards. A well-governed attendance sheet helps you respond quickly to audits, feed payroll accurately, and spot trends in absenteeism and punctuality before they impact productivity. Below, you’ll find practical guidance to tighten compliance, connect your spreadsheets to payroll/time tools, and spin up fast reports your leaders will actually use.

Retention, compliance and legal recordkeeping

Treat attendance data as part of your employment record system. Start by defining a written retention schedule that aligns with applicable laws and internal policy, then apply it consistently across Excel and Google Sheets. Use a centralized, access-controlled folder structure (e.g., by year and location) with clear file naming, and lock formula cells to preserve calculations and audit trails.

Establish a code legend (PTO, sick, FMLA, unpaid, remote) and keep it stable over time. When codes change, document the effective date in a version log so future audits can interpret historical reports accurately. For shared files, restrict edit access to HR/payroll administrators and provide view-only access to managers. This reduces accidental edits while keeping transparency.

Build a quarterly compliance review: confirm the retention schedule is followed, spot-check totals against payroll, and archive finalized months as PDFs for immutable records. When in doubt, consult counsel and your HR association guidance to align with federal, state, and union requirements.

“Learn what is required to comply with the numerous regulations that govern employer record-keeping and retention.” SHRM

Finally, document your workflow: where data originates, who approves changes, and when files are “closed.” Clear ownership turns spreadsheets into reliable records—rather than ad hoc trackers that invite risk.

Integrate attendance with payroll and time-tracking

Integration prevents double entry and pay errors. Begin by standardizing employee IDs, department codes, and attendance codes to match your payroll system. Map your spreadsheet columns to payroll fields (regular hours, OT, PTO types) and validate with a small pilot group before full rollout. Keep a change log so downstream systems know when codes or columns shift.

Choose the right transfer method based on your stack and IT resources:

Run parallel processing for one pay cycle: export from the spreadsheet, import to payroll, and reconcile variances (totals by employee, PTO balances, OT hours). Set cutoffs—e.g., managers finalize attendance by noon Monday; HR exports at 2 PM; payroll posts by 5 PM. This cadence reduces late edits and off-cycle corrections.

When attendance and payroll “speak” the same language, data quality jumps and processing time drops. As one source notes:

“When these two systems work in tandem, businesses can achieve seamless data flow, improved accuracy, and enhanced operational efficiency.” TimeTrex

Quick reports: absenteeism, punctuality and totals

Turn your template into a reporting layer with a few formulas and a pivot table. Track absenteeism monthly and quarterly to spot patterns by team or shift. A common formula is Absence Rate % = (Total Absence Days ÷ [Employees × Workdays]) × 100. For punctuality, count on-time check-ins ÷ total scheduled shifts; separate excused vs. unexcused to focus interventions.

Build a “Reports” sheet pulling from the month’s data:

• Absenteeism: totals by employee and department, rate %, top reasons (codes).
• Punctuality: on-time %, late occurrences, average minutes late.
• Totals: regular hours, OT, PTO by type, and variance vs. scheduled.

Use conditional formatting to flag thresholds (e.g., absenteeism > 4%, late > 3 times). For leaders, add sparklines to visualize trendlines, and export a one-page PDF summary each month. Context matters—compare teams of similar size and shifts to avoid misleading percentages.

Ground your targets in market context and your historical baseline:

“In 2024, the absence rate was at 3.2%.” TeamSense
If your rate is higher, drill into root causes (seasonality, scheduling, workload) before setting corrective actions like flexible start windows or attendance coaching.

A well-governed approach turns templates into a dependable HR system: compliant records, accurate payroll, and quick insights. Ready to put the best practices into action? Start with the Employee monthly attendance template (Excel & Google Sheets) in the download section to standardize codes and kick off clean reporting.