How to Make a Template in Excel: A Simple Guide

How to make a template in Excel? That’s the question professionals across industries are asking. Whether you’re managing projects, tracking cash flow, or planning employee training, Excel is where it all begins. Over 750 million people use Microsoft Excel, making it one of the most relied-on tools in the workplace.

Let’s face it. Everyone’s drowning in data, and every team is juggling tasks. Deadlines don’t move, while expectations don’t shrink. But your tools can help you breathe. That’s where Excel templates come in. They streamline how you work and give structure to chaos.

How about making a template in Excel that works for your daily grind? One that helps you stop reinventing the wheel every Monday morning? Think about an invoice tracker template in Excel. It’s a simple tool, but a huge stress reliever. It helps you get paid faster without needing to chase numbers in your inbox.

And here’s the catch: You don’t need to be an Excel guru. You need a method, a setup that’s quick to use and easy to share. Once you know how to make a template in Excel, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner. Why? The best systems don’t add noise. They create space for clarity.

Let’s get practical…

What is a Template in Excel?

Definition: A template in Excel is a pre-built file you can reuse. It’s a starting point that saves time, since you don’t have to build from scratch every time. Whether it’s a training plan template in Excel or a project tracker template in Excel, templates keep you organized.

They come with built-in formatting, formulas, and structure. Simply fill in the blanks. And that’s it. Templates make data analysis in Excel faster and cleaner. They help you focus on the work, not the setup.

Why Use a Template in Excel?

You know that feeling of staring at a blank spreadsheet with zero motivation. We’ve all been there. And that’s where Excel templates come in. You don’t need to start over every time. Whether you’re tracking time, planning resources, or managing finances, a solid template makes the difference.

Here’s why using one matters:

• Time saver: No need to build from scratch. A time-tracking template for Excel helps you jump right into the task without wasting time on formatting.
• Standardized formats: Everyone works with the same layout and flow. For instance, a SWOT analysis template in Excel ensures that your team follows a consistent structure, making collaboration smooth.
• Built-in formulas: Most templates already include formulas for totals, averages, or performance metrics. That means fewer chances of making mistakes in your calculations.
• Efficiency: Templates help cut down repetitive work and speed up processes. To put this into context, consider a monthly cash flow template in Excel. This also shows your financial snapshot in seconds.
• Scalability: Start with a simple layout and expand as your needs grow. Templates are flexible, allowing you to add more data without needing to rebuild the entire system.

Excel Templates Examples

Have you ever wished Excel could think ahead for you? Good templates come close. They do the heavy lifting—tracking, calculating, organizing—so you don’t have to. Whether you’re managing a team, running a business, or planning the week, there’s a template that fits.

Here are some real-life examples that save time and sanity:

• Project Tracker Template in Excel: Stay on top of deadlines, owners, and deliverables. This template provides a clear view of your entire project.
• Monthly Cash Flow Template in Excel: Understand where your money goes—fast. It tracks income, expenses, and trends without requiring manual review of spreadsheets.
• Time-Tracking Excel Template: Record hours worked, breaks, and overtime with ease. This template is a game-changer for freelancers, consultants, and remote teams.
• Training Plan Template in Excel: Map out sessions, topics, and goals. A training plan template helps you track progress, stay consistent, and onboard new hires smoothly.
• Capacity Planning Template in Excel: Know who’s overbooked and who has room to take on more. This one is a lifesaver for managers juggling multiple teams or projects.
• SWOT analysis template in Excel: List your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in a simple grid. It’s a smart way to start any business plan or strategy session.

How to Create a Template in Excel?

Have you ever spent an hour setting up the same spreadsheet again? You line up the columns, add formulas, and format the colors. Then, you realize you’ve done this exact thing before. Don’t get worked up yet. I will show you how to never go back to the same process over and over again.

Here’s how to make it happen:

Step 1: Open a new workbook: Launch Excel. Open a blank workbook or choose one you want to reuse as a template. This is your starting point.

Step 2: Customize your Excel template. Add all the necessary elements, including headers, tables, formulas, and formatting. Use conditional formatting to highlight delays, and add formulas to show completion percentages.

Step 3: Lock and protect your template. Select the essential cells, and lock them to prevent changes. Go to the Review tab and hit “Protect Sheet.” Add a password if needed. Your formulas will stay safe.

Step 4: Save as a template: Go to File > Save As. Choose “Excel Template (.xltx)” as the file type. That’s it. Now, every time you open it, you get a fresh, untouched copy.

Using macros? Save it as a macro-enabled template (.xltm). That way, your automations come built-in. This is ideal for tasks like capacity planning or routine tracking.

Step 5: Use and view your Excel template: Go to File > New > Personal tab. Your template will be there, ready to use. No clutter. No mess. Just a clean, reusable structure.

Top 10 Visuals Using Template in Excel Using ChartExpo Add-on

Spreadsheets full of numbers can become tedious quickly. That’s why visuals matter, and with ChartExpo in Excel, you can turn raw data into clean, thoughtful insights. Here are 10 charts that make your templates clearer, faster, and easier to use:

• Progress Circle Chart: Simple but powerful. This chart shows how close you are to hitting key targets. This can be useful for tracking financial KPIs in a project tracker template in Excel.

• Multi-Axis Line Chart: Need to compare trends like revenue, costs, and profit on different scales? This chart is your friend. It is perfect for monthly or quarterly review dashboards.

• Heatmap: Let color do the talking. With a Heatmap, you can spot patterns in performance or engagement instantly. It is excellent for employee tracking or a training plan template in Excel setups.

• Gauge Chart: This is the speedometer for your business goals. With a glance, you get to understand how you’re performing compared to your benchmarks.

• Multi-Axis Spider Chart: Compare departments or regions. This chart helps you visualize both strengths and gaps in one visual.

• Horizontal Waterfall Chart: Track where money goes. A Horizontal Waterfall Chart is ideal for a monthly cash flow template in Excel. Why? It helps to explain every step from income to net profit.

• Progress Chart: Visually compare target vs. actual performance. A Progress chart is great for project milestones or sales KPIs.

• Comparison Bar Chart: Who’s performing best? Which product sells more? Compare categories side-by-side with clean visuals.

• Scatter Plot Chart: See correlations and track trends. This chart is great for spotting outliers during data analysis in Excel.

• Likert Scale Chart: Got feedback? This is your go-to for summarizing responses from training surveys or employee engagement forms.

How to Analyze an Excel Template Sample?

Picture this: You’ve built the perfect Excel template, added formulas, and tracked every number. But when it time to see the data? Excel stumbles. The charts are clunky, and insights get buried.

Data analysis needs more than rows and columns—it needs visuals that speak. That’s where ChartExpo steps in. It brings life to your numbers, filling the gap Excel leaves behind.

How to Install ChartExpo in Excel?

1. Open your Excel application.
2. Open the worksheet and click the “Insert” menu.
3. You’ll see the “My Apps” option.
4. In the Office Add-ins window, click “Store” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
5. Click the “Add” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTAs to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations with a few clicks in your favorite tool.

Example

Let’s analyze this sample data in Excel using ChartExpo.

Department	Quarter	Training Hours
Marketing	Q1	120
Marketing	Q2	95
Marketing	Q3	110
Marketing	Q4	130
Sales	Q1	140
Sales	Q2	125
IT	Q3	150
Sales	Q4	135
IT	Q1	100
HR	Q2	85
HR	Q3	90
HR	Q4	105
Marketing	Q1	160
IT	Q2	145
IT	Q3	170
IT	Q4	155

• To get started with ChartExpo, install ChartExpo in Excel.
• Now, click on My Apps from the INSERT menu.

• Choose ChartExpo from My Apps, then click Insert.

• Once it loads, scroll through the charts list to locate and choose the “Comparison Bar Chart”.

• Click the “Create Chart From Selection” button after selecting the data from the sheet, as shown.

• ChartExpo will generate the visualization below for you.
• If you want to add anything to the chart, click the Edit Chart button.

• Click the pencil icon next to the Chart Header to change the title.
• It will open the properties dialog. Under the Text section, you can add a heading in Line 1 and enable Show.
• Give the appropriate title of your chart and click the Apply button.

• You can show a percentage sign from Column Header Properties as follows:

• Change bar color and width as follows:

• You can change the Font size for better readability as follows:

• You can add “hrs” as a postfix as follows:

• After making all changes, click on the “Save Changes” button:

• Your final chart will look like the one below.

Insights

IT Department:

• Leads in total training hours (720 hrs, 36%).
• Peaked in Q3 with 44% of its annual training.

HR Department:

• Conducted 38% of its training (105 hrs) in Q4.
• Has the lowest total training volume (280 hrs).

Sales Department:

• Training is evenly distributed across all quarters (20% per quarter).
• Total training hours are 400 hrs.

Marketing Department:

• Heavy focus in Q1 (46% of annual training).
• Declined steadily from Q2 to Q4.

Quarterly Highlights:

• Q1: Peak training period for Marketing, Sales, and IT.
• Q4: Peak for HR training.

Benefits of Using an Excel Template

We all have that one Excel file we reuse way too often. Copy, paste, tweak, save; repeat. It works until it doesn’t. And that’s why templates exist. They simplify your workflow, reduce errors, and conserve mental energy. Whether you’re planning, tracking, or analyzing, an Excel template makes things smoother from the start:

Here’s why using one is a smart move:

• Saves time: No more rebuilding the same layout over and over. Templates let you jump straight into the real work.
• Reduces errors: Formulas, formatting, and structure are already in place, ensuring accuracy and consistency. Less manual input means fewer mistakes.
• Keeps things consistent: Whether it’s a task tracker template in Excel or a financial report, everyone follows the same format. This guarantees consistency.
• Boosts productivity: You spend less time organizing and more time accomplishing tasks. It clears the space for actual thinking.
• Improves collaboration: Shared templates create a common language across teams. No more confusion over layout or data flow.

Use Cases of Templates in Excel

Let’s be honest—nobody gets excited about starting from scratch in Excel. It’s slow, repetitive, and drains the energy out of your day. Templates flip that. They give you a head start, so you can focus on what matters. Here’s where Excel templates truly shine:

• Task and project management: Keep things moving. A task tracker template in Excel helps you stay on top of deadlines, team roles, and progress. All in one place.
• Financial forecasting: Predict your income and expenses without doing mental gymnastics. Templates let you build models once and reuse them every month.
• Training of the workforce: With a training plan template in Excel, you can plan, schedule, and track sessions easily. It makes onboarding and skills development smoother and less chaotic.
• Excel data analysis: Structure your datasets for quick filtering, sorting, and visualizing. Templates streamline data analysis in Excel, especially when reports are due the day before.
• Budgeting and invoicing: Use a monthly cash flow template in Excel to stay on top of your money. Know what’s coming in, what’s going out, and who still owes you.
• Strategic planning (SWOT Models): A SWOT analysis template in Excel helps you clearly outline strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It’s simple but powerful.

Tips for Designing a Reusable XLS Template

Have you ever opened an Excel file and immediately felt lost? That’s what a bad template does. But a good one? It feels effortless, clear, and easy to use. Here’s how to design a reusable template that people will want to use:

• Keep it simple: Don’t overcomplicate. Use clear labels, basic formatting, and a clean layout.
• Use data validation: Drop-downs and lists prevent messy inputs. They keep your data neat and reliable.
• Highlight input areas: Use color or shading to indicate where users should enter their input. Then, leave the rest locked.
• Add instructions: A quick note or comment can go a long way. Help users understand what goes where.
• Protect formulas: Lock essential cells. That way, your carefully built formulas won’t get erased by accident.

FAQs

How do I create my own Excel template?

• Open a new or existing workbook.
• Customize layout, formulas, and formatting.
• Lock important cells if needed.
• Go to File > Save As.
• Choose “Excel Template (*.xltx)”.
• Save it.

What is the difference between a workbook and a template in Excel?

A workbook is a regular Excel file you work in. A template is a preset file used to create new workbooks. Templates save structure, while workbooks save content.

Wrap Up

How to make a template in Excel? It’s easier than you think. And it saves hours every week. No more starting from zero, nor fixing the same layout again and again. Templates bring order to your work: You set the structure once, then reuse it as often as you need. It’s clean, fast, and consistent.

Use a time-tracking template for Excel to log hours. It’s great for freelancers, teams, or even personal productivity. You get clarity without the manual effort.

Need to manage resources? An Excel template for capacity planning helps you balance workloads. It shows who’s overloaded and who’s free. That way, nothing falls through the cracks.

Tracking tasks? Deadlines? A project tracker template in Excel keeps everything aligned. You can see what’s due, what’s done, and what’s delayed—at a glance.

The bottom line? Templates make Excel smarter. You waste less time, make fewer mistakes, and your work finally works for you. Use these templates with ChartExpo, and your data will dance insights.