Shift It vs Spreadsheet - Can You Track Shifts in Excel or Google Sheets?

A lot of shift workers still track their hours in a spreadsheet. Google Sheets, Excel, whatever’s handy. It works until it doesn’t. Let’s be honest about why spreadsheets are genuinely useful for some things, and where they fall apart.

Why spreadsheets work (for a while)

A spreadsheet is free, flexible, and you already know how to use it. You can set up columns for date, shift type, hours worked, rate, and calculated pay. If your job is simple (same hourly rate, no penalty rates, no complexity), a formula can multiply hours by rate and you’re done.

Spreadsheets are also portable. You can share them with a partner or accountant without asking them to download an app. If you’re the type of person who likes to tinker and customise, a spreadsheet gives you that freedom.

For some workers - those on a truly flat hourly rate with no loadings, no weekends, no public holidays - a spreadsheet might be enough. That’s not most shift workers, but it’s not zero.

Where spreadsheets break down

Penalty rates. If you work weekends or nights, your award likely specifies a loading. 20% extra for nights. Double time for Sundays. Managing this in a spreadsheet means manually flagging each shift type and adjusting the formula. Both error-prone and tedious.

Midnight crossovers. A shift that runs 10pm to 6am crosses into a different day. Parts of it are night rate, parts might be early morning rate. A spreadsheet has no concept of this. You’d have to manually split the shift across two rows, calculate the rate for each segment, and add them up. Most people don’t bother. They just guess.

Public holidays. Your award specifies what public holidays you’re entitled to and at what rate. A spreadsheet can’t know your calendar or your award. You have to manually identify public holiday shifts and recalculate them. Miss one, and your total is wrong.

Award updates. Your award changes. Minimum wages rise. The spreadsheet is now outdated. Do you update every historic shift? Do you just use the new rate going forward? A spreadsheet doesn’t tell you which approach is correct.

Payslip comparison. Your payslip arrived. Does it match your spreadsheet? To find out, you’d manually compare your calculated total to what you were actually paid. If there’s a difference, a spreadsheet has no way to flag it.

What a shift app does differently

Shift It handles all of this automatically because it understands awards. When you set up your job, you select your award. The app knows the penalty rates, the public holiday rules, the loadings for your industry.

When you log a shift, Shift It categorises it and applies the correct rate automatically. A 10pm to 6am shift? The app splits it and applies the correct rate to each segment. No manual work.

Your award is maintained in the app. When rates change, Shift It updates them. You don’t have to remember to adjust anything.

Pay Check (the Pro feature) calculates what you should have earned. Then you enter your payslip and it shows the difference. If your employer underpaid you by $150, you’ll see that immediately.

The Roster Wizard sets up rotating patterns once. Spreadsheet import means if your workplace publishes rosters, you import them directly. No manual entry.

When spreadsheets still make sense

If you’re genuinely on a flat hourly rate, no variation, no complexity, and you only need a basic hours log for your own reference, a spreadsheet is fine. There’s no reason to add app complexity to your life if you don’t need it.

But most shift workers are under an award. Most have some variation in their pay. For those people, a spreadsheet is creating work instead of saving it.

The real takeaway

Spreadsheets work until the problem is too complex for a spreadsheet to handle well. Shift work pay is usually complex. Awards have rules. Penalty rates apply. Midnight crossovers happen. Underpayment is common.

A spreadsheet is a tool for simple problems. Shift work is usually not a simple problem. If you’re spending time every pay cycle maintaining a spreadsheet and recalculating pay, there’s a better way.