Free template · Google Sheets + Excel
Team vacation calendar templatethat does the counting for you.
One row per person, the whole year on one tab. Type V and the day turns blue. Weekends and US holidays shade themselves, PTO balances count workdays only, and the bottom row turns red when too many people are out.
Free. No email, no sign-up. Or make it yours first, right here:
Pick a code, then click or drag across days. Or click a day and type V, H, P, S, C, R or O. Your names stay in your browser: the file is built right here. Example file · Blank file
Every formula already written. You just type V.
Most free PTO tracker templates for Excel are a grid of empty cells and a color key. This one counts. Nothing to unlock, no macros, and it works the same in Google Sheets.
Type a letter and the day colors itself
Seven codes cover vacation, half days, personal days, sick days, conferences, remote days and other leave. Lowercase works too, and anything else turns the cell red, so a typo doesn't hide.
PTO left, counted in workdays
A week off from Monday to Sunday uses 5 days, and a holiday inside it uses none. Half days count half. Book more than you have and Left turns red.
Too many out? The day turns red
Set the number once (3+ by default). Any workday with that many people out turns red, so the Thanksgiving pile-up shows up in October, not on the Wednesday.
US holidays that move themselves
Change the year in one cell and every date, weekday and holiday recalculates, observed days included. Switch off the holidays your company works and add your own, like a shutdown week.
Not sure yet? Add a question mark
V? shows in a lighter color until it's confirmed, and still counts toward the balance, so a maybe doesn't quietly overspend anyone's PTO.
The Summary tab answers the usual questions
Who's out today, the busiest day of the year, days out per person per month, and how much of their PTO everyone has used. Nothing to set up: it reads the calendar.
One month, ready to print
The Month tab shows any month you pick from a dropdown, fits one landscape page and lists that month's holidays underneath.
Ready in two minutes. In Excel or Google Sheets.
Excel
- 1Download the file. If you edited the sheet above, your names and days are already in it.
- 2Open it and click Enable Editing.
- 3Type your team's names in column A, or paste them. Change the year in cell B2 any time.
- 4Type a code into any day: V, H, P, S, C, R or O.
Google Sheets
- 1Click Copy to Google Sheets, then Make a copy.
- 2It opens in your own Drive. Nobody else sees it until you share it.
- 3Type your team's names in column A, or paste them.
- 4Type a code into any day: V, H, P, S, C, R or O.
Five tabs in the file
Calendar
The whole year, one row per person. Where you type.
Month
One month at a time, ready to print.
Summary
Who's out today, the busiest days, PTO used.
Holidays
US holidays for 2027, plus your company's own.
How to use
What each code means, and six steps to set it up.
The sheet works for a while. Here's when it stops.
A spreadsheet is the right start for a small team. These are the signs you've outgrown it, usually somewhere past eight people or the first teammate in another country, whose holidays a US tab doesn't have.
Only you update it
Time off arrives in Slack, email and the hallway, and you're the one who types it in. Miss one and the sheet is wrong without looking wrong.
It can't see your release dates
A red day only helps if someone opens the sheet before the sprint is planned. Nobody gets warned that the release lands on a day three people are out.
Copies start multiplying
“PTO 2027 FINAL v2” shows up in someone's Drive, and nobody knows which one is right.
A shared spreadsheet called “Team OOO 2026 (FINAL) v3” with mixed date formats, color codes, question marks, a #REF! error and five tabs of copies. Next to it, the same week in Forgot: Ryan Brooks is away at a conference Tuesday to Friday, and Forgot warns that he is away on Release day.
When you're ready
Forgot is this calendar, without the spreadsheet.
- Copy the Name and Team columns from this sheet, paste them in, and your team is there
- Drag across the days instead of typing codes
- Public holidays for each teammate's own country, 200+ of them
- A warning when someone's away on a release date
- Share a read-only link. Your team never has to sign up.
No card for the trial. Then $9 once, no subscription.
Questions
Is this vacation calendar template really free?
Yes. Download it as many times as you like, for as many teams as you like, without an email address or an account. It's a plain .xlsx file with no macros, so you can change anything in it.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
Yes, every formula, color and dropdown works there. Click Copy to Google Sheets, then Make a copy, and the template opens in your own Drive. To bring the version you edited on this page, download it, upload it to Google Drive and choose File, Save as Google Sheets. In Excel it needs Excel 2019 or newer, or Microsoft 365 on Windows, Mac or the web.
How does it count PTO?
It counts workdays only. V (vacation) and P (personal) use a day each and H (half day) uses half. Weekends and the holidays your company gives off are skipped, so a full week off uses 5 days. Sick days are counted separately, and conferences, remote days and other leave don't touch PTO. Each person starts with 15 days; change the number in their PTO column.
How do I make a PTO tracker in Excel myself?
Put one person per row and one day per column, type a code into each day off, then count each person's row with COUNTIFS, for example COUNTIFS(I9:NP9,"V") for vacation days. To count workdays only, add a helper row that marks weekends and holidays and include it as a second condition. Conditional formatting rules color the codes. This template already has all of that, including the holiday rules, so it's quicker to download it and change what you need.
Which 2027 holidays are included?
New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Day 2028 are marked as days off. Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are listed too, switched off because most private employers stay open; switch them on with one dropdown. Holidays that fall on a weekend move to the observed weekday, the way federal holidays do.
How do I use it for next year?
Make a copy of the file and type the new year into cell B2 on the Calendar tab. Dates, weekdays, holidays and the Month tab all recalculate. Clear last year's codes and keep the names.
How many people does it fit?
The file has rows for at least 30 people, and the counts cover every row. To add more, insert rows between existing names rather than below the last one, and the formulas stretch to include them.
Do my team's names get uploaded anywhere?
No. When you edit the sheet on this page, the file is built in your browser and your edits are kept in this browser only. Nothing you type is sent to Forgot.
When should a team stop using a spreadsheet for time off?
When keeping it right takes more of your week than it saves, usually once you're past eight or ten people, have teammates in other countries, or need to know who's out before a release date. In the example team's 2027, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving already has 5 of 8 people out. Forgot shows the same calendar without the upkeep, free for 14 days.