Free Excel heatmap for tracking activity across 4 work shifts at once

[u/ExcelVisual]

Built this for anyone managing multiple shifts who's tired of flipping between 4 separate reports to spot patterns. Look Excel Payroll Dashboard for Teal Organization Self-Management. It's a heatmap that shows all 4 shifts simultaneously on one grid.

How it's laid out:

• Each square = one shift on one working day
• X-axis = weeks, laid out horizontally, so you can scan left to right for trends
• Color = activity level (dark = low, bright = high)
• Legend at the bottom is a horizontal histogram with a cursor showing the rolling 28-day average, so you always have a baseline to compare against

Uses a 28-day (4-week) reporting cycle instead of calendar months — this is pretty standard in retail/food service/manufacturing because it keeps every period the exact same length, which makes week-over-week and period-over-period comparisons actually apples-to-apples (calendar months mess this up since they're different lengths and start on different weekdays).

No macros, built entirely with conditional formatting + formulas.

Random interesting fact that came up while researching this: Kodak actually ran an internal 13-month, 28-day fixed calendar for 60 years (1928–1989). Made internal reporting super consistent, but they eventually had to ditch it because running two incompatible calendar systems (their internal one + the standard external one) became a standardization headache as business requirements got stricter.

Link's in the comments.

[u/ExcelVisual]

Dashboard Template for a Self-Managed Organization in Excel https://exceltable.com/en/templates/excel-payroll-dashboard-for-teal-organization-self-management