Excel still remains the go-to tool for countless small and mid-sized teams managing employee leave. Whether it is budget constraints, simplicity preferences, or just the comfort of familiar spreadsheets, Excel leave trackers continue to serve businesses around the world. But not all Excel leave trackers are created equal.
Getting your leave planning right is not just about marking days off on a calendar. It is about streamlining a process, maintaining accuracy, and producing useful management information. A well-designed leave tracker becomes a critical tool for HR teams and managers alike, helping them make informed decisions and maintain team harmony.
Do Excel Leave Trackers Still Matter in 2026?
While cloud-based leave management systems offer powerful features, many teams find themselves returning to Excel for its flexibility, offline access, and zero subscription costs. For businesses with up to 15 employees, an Excel tracker can provide the perfect balance between functionality and simplicity. You do not need complex workflows or extensive training — just a well-organised spreadsheet that everyone can understand.
The right leave tracker does not just track time off — it creates transparency, builds trust, and ensures your team runs smoothly even when people are away.
The Contenders: Five Excel Leave Trackers Reviewed
In this comparison, we examine five popular Excel-based leave tracking solutions: dhxsoft Staff Leave Planner, Absentia, Trump Excel, Leave-Monitor, and ScheduleLeave. Each offers downloadable templates or Excel-based systems designed to help teams manage time off effectively. We evaluate them across real-world criteria that matter most to small and mid-sized businesses.
Our analysis looks at ease of setup, customisation options, formula complexity, visual clarity, scalability, and ongoing support.
Summary of Our Findings
| Criteria | dhxsoft | Absentia | Trump Excel | Leave-Monitor | ScheduleLeave |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of Setup | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ |
| dhxsoft stands out for flexible downloads, automated setup, and strong year-to-year continuity. Absentia is second but more limited once downloaded. | |||||
| Overall Functionality | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ |
| dhxsoft has the most comprehensive feature set. Other providers meet basic needs but will require extensive customisation. | |||||
| Formula Complexity | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ |
| dhxsoft is the only planner with self-healing formulas, multi-code days, and combined hours and days support. Absentia ranks second but at higher maintenance cost. | |||||
| Reporting & Analytics | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ |
| dhxsoft provides meaningful reporting out of the box. Leave-Monitor is second with cleaner summaries but limited analytical depth. | |||||
| Support & Documentation | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐ |
| dhxsoft is the clear winner with included support and strong documentation. Others rely heavily on self-support. | |||||
| Cost of Ownership | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ |
| dhxsoft has the lowest long-term time cost despite upfront pricing. Absentia and Leave-Monitor appear cheaper but incur ongoing maintenance effort. | |||||
| Visual Clarity & UI | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐⭐⭐ | ⭐ | ⭐⭐ | ⭐ |
| dhxsoft offers the best balance of usability and protection. Absentia is visually clean but functionally limited. | |||||
Our Overall Recommendation
Best Overall Excel Leave Planner: dhxsoft Staff Leave Planner. Consistently top-rated across setup, formulas, reporting, support, and long-term cost. It is the only planner that scales cleanly as leave policies become more complex.
There is a cost to the dhxsoft planners when purchasing for the year ahead. Generally, if there are six months or fewer remaining in a leave year, these planners are available free of charge. For more information visit dhxsoft.com.
Second best (for very simple use cases): Absentia. Strong visual design and easy initial setup, but quickly becomes limiting and maintenance-heavy as team size or policy complexity grows.
In Depth: Ease of Setup
The best leave trackers should get you up and running in minutes, not hours. A truly easy-to-use planner means downloading a file and immediately being able to access it without complicated installation processes or technical prerequisites. But ease of setup does not stop at the download — it extends to how quickly you can populate your data and tailor the system to your needs.
| Planner | Rating |
|---|---|
| dhxsoft Staff Leave Planner | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| dhxsoft offers one of the most flexible setup experiences available. The website lets you download planners tailored to different calendar years (e.g. Jan–Dec, Apr–Mar) and employee sizes up to 500. While Excel macro security settings need to be enabled during first use, clear documentation makes this manageable even for non-technical users. Once opened, setup is streamlined thanks to automated forms, built-in bank holidays for multiple countries, and simple configuration screens for leave categories. Year-to-year transitions are particularly strong — data and configuration are automatically imported from previous planners, removing the need for re-setup each year. | |
| Absentia | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Absentia has a good web interface to initially generate your planner. However, once downloaded the functionality is limited. You will need to add your own bank holidays. Updating the colours of the leave codes is not clearly documented, nor is the process for adding new codes and updating formulas. | |
| Trump Excel | ⭐⭐ |
| Downloading the template is simple and it can be customised with a different starting month. Like dhxsoft, you will need to enable macros, which may be fiddly without clear instructions. The number of employees and codes on the planner are limited. Does include support for bank holidays. | |
| Leave-Monitor | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Simple to download and set up. Like Absentia, functionality is limited once downloaded. No built-in support for bank holiday dates. Setup is for a Jan–Dec year only. Adding more codes or employees and updating formulas all need to be performed manually and carefully. | |
| ScheduleLeave | ⭐⭐ |
| Straightforward download. Difficult to customise the limited number of codes — formulas need to be added and carefully tested. Supports bank holidays. | |
In Depth: Overall Functionality
Overall functionality looks at how well each Excel leave planner works as a complete system. In this section, we assess whether the planner can comfortably handle real-world scenarios — multiple leave types, different working patterns, growing team sizes, and evolving policies — without becoming fragile or difficult to maintain. A strong planner should feel cohesive, resilient, and scalable.
| Planner | Rating |
|---|---|
| dhxsoft Staff Leave Planner | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| dhxsoft offers the most comprehensive feature set across all planners tested. It allows you to easily extend categories, supports sub-codes, days and hours tracking, multiple codes in cells, at-a-glance reporting, in-depth reporting, support for time in lieu, security views (non-admins can have a read-only copy generated), and national holidays across multiple countries. | |
| Absentia | ⭐⭐ |
| Works well for simple scenarios and looks polished, but functionality quickly plateaus. Manual formula maintenance, limited reporting depth, and lack of hybrid hours/days support make it less suitable as teams or policies grow. | |
| Trump Excel | ⭐ |
| Functionality is very limited and difficult to extend. Complex formulas, unclear customisation paths, no error recovery, and minimal reporting mean it struggles to support anything beyond very basic use cases. | |
| Leave-Monitor | ⭐⭐ |
| Provides a clean and usable baseline for simple tracking, but lacks flexibility. Manual updates are required for scaling, formulas are fragile, and reporting is basic, making it unsuitable for growing or complex organisations. | |
| ScheduleLeave | ⭐ |
| Extremely limited overall functionality. Few leave codes, no hourly tracking, fragile formulas, and heavy manual setup make it difficult to adapt or rely on in real-world scenarios. | |
In Depth: Formula Complexity
Excel leave planners live or die by their formulas. In this section, we assess whether they feel robust without being fragile — including how easy it is to add or change leave codes, whether formatting and formulas are protected or require manual handling, and how well the planner recovers from common mistakes. We also look at whether multiple leave codes can be recorded on the same day and whether both full-day and hourly leave tracking are supported.
| Planner | Rating |
|---|---|
| dhxsoft Staff Leave Planner | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| The dhxsoft planner performs strongly here. It supports categories and sub-codes within them, and adding leave codes is simple with formulas and formatting updating automatically. It is the only planner tested that allows for multiple codes on the same day — e.g. half-day leave in the morning, half-day unpaid leave in the afternoon. It supports both hours and days, and formulas are self-healing, so accidental cell dragging will not break calculations. It was also the only planner that allowed lieu codes to increase allowances. | |
| Absentia | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| You will need to manually edit formulas across all 12 calendar sheets, which takes time. No support for multiple leave types in a single day. They offer an hours version of the template, but it does not support days and hours simultaneously. No automatic formula repair. The cost of modifying the template is its biggest weakness. | |
| Trump Excel | ⭐ |
| It is unclear how to extend leave codes. Formulas appear complex and would all need manually updating. No formula repair to protect from errors. Only supports a single leave entry per cell. No support for hourly tracking. | |
| Leave-Monitor | ⭐⭐ |
| To extend formulas you need to update them across multiple sheets. Only supports single leave entries and does not support hourly tracking. Formulas are not self-healing. | |
| ScheduleLeave | ⭐ |
| Has the most limited set of built-in leave codes (five), so customisation is immediately necessary. It was not easy to add new codes or locate where to update formulas and formatting. Like others: only supports single code entry, no formula repair, no hourly tracking. | |
In Depth: Reporting and Analytics
Reporting and analytics determine how useful a leave planner is beyond day-to-day tracking. In this section, we assess whether the planner provides clear, meaningful reports out of the box — such as leave balances, absence summaries, and team views — without requiring users to build pivot tables or complex formulas themselves.
| Planner | Rating |
|---|---|
| dhxsoft Staff Leave Planner | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| The dhxsoft planner has built-in reports that can present a variety of different views. Summary balances are shown in a couple of places (the calendar and the employee sheet). The in-depth reports are macro-based; there is an option to run them in batches and save to your computer, though these can take a couple of minutes to run for larger organisations (30+ employees). | |
| Absentia | ⭐⭐ |
| This planner has a "totals" sheet and a basic "absences this month" column on the calendar. However, it is not suitable for scale — the totals sheet does not break down data clearly by category, and you will need to build your own management information on top. | |
| Trump Excel | ⭐ |
| There is just a "Leave Breakup" column on the spreadsheet, which lacks detail and is not clear to understand. You will need to build your own reporting on top, which is difficult given the complexity of the underlying formulas. | |
| Leave-Monitor | ⭐⭐ |
| Cleanly presented breakdowns on both the calendar and the Yearly Total sheet. You will still need to build more in-depth reporting on top, but the foundation is cleaner than most. | |
| ScheduleLeave | ⭐ |
| The "Employee Overview" sheet presents information in an acceptable way. As the planner does not support sub-codes, there is no further breakdown available — functional but limited as a result of the overall feature set. | |
In Depth: Support & Documentation
Good support and clear documentation are essential, especially for Excel leave planners that rely on advanced features like formulas or macros. In this section, we assess whether users are given clear, step-by-step guidance to get started, resolve common issues, and confidently use the planner's full functionality.
| Planner | Rating |
|---|---|
| dhxsoft Staff Leave Planner | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| dhxsoft support is included with the planner, even the free versions. There is also extensive documentation on their website covering all aspects of using the planner. | |
| Absentia | ⭐⭐ |
| No formal support is offered — only general guidance notes are provided. The comments thread on the download page does indicate some guidance and updates are shared, but this is ad hoc. | |
| Trump Excel | ⭐ |
| No formal support is offered. General guidance notes are provided, but many user comments on the download page appear unanswered, suggesting the developer is no longer actively supporting this planner. | |
| Leave-Monitor | ⭐ |
| Brief notes are provided on the website. Otherwise you will need to support this yourself. | |
| ScheduleLeave | ⭐ |
| No support or documentation offered. | |
In Depth: Cost of Ownership
Cost of ownership is not just about whether an Excel leave planner is free to download. In this section, we focus on the time cost of ownership: how much ongoing effort is required to maintain the planner, fix errors, update formulas, or support users when things go wrong. A planner may have no upfront price, but if it regularly requires manual intervention, the true cost quickly shows up in lost productivity.
| Planner | Rating |
|---|---|
| dhxsoft Staff Leave Planner | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| The planner and included support from dhxsoft mean you will not be spending time troubleshooting, updating formulas, or extending functionality yourself. While there is an upfront cost, this quickly pays for itself in improved productivity and user experience. | |
| Absentia | ⭐⭐ |
| While the template is visually appealing, most time will be spent extending and fixing formulas and expanding the reporting capabilities. With no dedicated support, businesses could find themselves stuck when problems arise. Teams will soon outgrow the functionality provided. | |
| Trump Excel | ⭐ |
| The lack of support and the complexity of this planner make it a time-sink to reach a level of workability for your business. The need to know VBA to support macros should be a strong consideration before adopting. | |
| Leave-Monitor | ⭐⭐ |
| The same limitations apply as Absentia. Be cautious of the hidden costs of maintenance and unsupported custom updates. Companies will soon outgrow the functionality provided. | |
| ScheduleLeave | ⭐ |
| There is too much upfront work required to make this a viable option for most teams. | |
In Depth: Visual Clarity and UI Experience
Visual clarity plays a major role in how usable an Excel leave planner is day to day. In this section, we look at whether the layout is clean and intuitive — with clear visual cues that make it easy to understand who is off and when at a glance. We assess the use of colour, spacing, and consistent formatting, as well as whether the interface provides guided forms and views that reduce cognitive load.
| Planner | Rating |
|---|---|
| dhxsoft Staff Leave Planner | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| The planner provides buttons and dropdowns to navigate the spreadsheet, and use of forms allows for confident changes to settings. The formatting is clean and self-healing. Highlights include right-clicking cells to choose leave codes. The calendar is laid out across two worksheets, with six months on each. | |
| Absentia | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Great, simple colour palette and clean layout that fits well on screen. The calendar is spread across 12 monthly sheets. | |
| Trump Excel | ⭐ |
| Macro-based navigation of the calendar feels clunky. Colour palette feels dated. A no-frills approach with no investment in usability. | |
| Leave-Monitor | ⭐⭐ |
| Good UI layout with a sensible approach to supporting different teams. However, changing that layout becomes fiddly if you have more than three teams. The calendar is laid out across 12 sheets. | |
| ScheduleLeave | ⭐ |
| Cell sizing is far too large to be functional without manual adjustment. Very bare-bones. The calendar is on one page but very wide, requiring a lot of horizontal scrolling. | |
When to Go Beyond Excel
Even the best Excel leave tracker has natural limits. Once your team grows beyond around 20–30 employees, or when you need employee self-service, automated approval workflows, or integration with payroll, a dedicated leave management tool will save significant time over any spreadsheet.
Simple Leave is designed for exactly that moment — when spreadsheets have done their job, but your team needs something more reliable and less maintenance-heavy. It takes minutes to set up, handles part-time working patterns automatically, and gives your whole team visibility of leave without anyone editing a formula.