Free WIP Tracker Excel Template
Track every job sitting between raw material and finished goods. See aging WIP, identify stuck jobs, and stop counting half-finished orders on a clipboard.
What you get
A working WIP tracker that shows every open job by work center and stage, with automatic aging analysis. Use it today; upgrade to live WIP visibility with RMX when your spreadsheet stops keeping up.
Free 30-day trial · No credit card required · Used by manufacturers since 1991
Why manufacturers still use Excel for this
Work-in-process is the hidden inventory most manufacturers cannot see. Raw material on the dock and finished goods in the warehouse get counted weekly. The work sitting at operation 4 of 7, two days behind schedule, with no obvious reason it stalled — that one is invisible until a customer calls.
Excel WIP trackers work because they force a shop to write down what is actually open at each work center. The discipline matters more than the formula. This template gives you a structured grid for capturing every job, every stage, and every elapsed-day count, with conditional formatting that flags jobs aging beyond your target.
It will carry you for a while. Past 50–80 open jobs, the daily update becomes the planner's second job. That is when manufacturers move to Resource Manager for Excel (RMX) — the same WIP visibility, populated automatically from work order completions.
What's inside the template
Open work order list
Job number, customer, item, quantity, due date, current operation, and current work center.
Operation-level progress
Each row shows the active operation in the routing — not just "job is open" but exactly where it is stuck.
WIP aging buckets
0–3 days, 4–7 days, 8–14 days, 15+ days — color-coded so stalled jobs jump off the page.
Work-center load summary
Roll-up showing how much WIP is parked at each work center waiting to be worked.
Stalled-job flag column
Manual override to mark a job as blocked, with a notes field for the reason.
Daily snapshot tab
Save a frozen copy of WIP at end-of-day for week-over-week trend analysis.
How to use this template
A practical walkthrough — five steps from blank spreadsheet to a working schedule.
- 1
Export your open work orders
Pull a list of all open work orders from your ERP or job-tracking system. Paste into the "Open WIP" tab.
- 2
Tag current operation per job
For each job, indicate which operation in its routing is active. This is the one column you need to keep current daily.
- 3
Run the aging refresh
A simple formula compares the operation start date to today and assigns the aging bucket. Conditional formatting handles the rest.
- 4
Review with production daily
Use the work-center load tab in your morning standup. Jobs in the 15+ bucket get owner assignment and a reason code.
When you outgrow this template
Excel is the right answer for early-stage scheduling — until it isn't. Here are the warning signs that you need a real production scheduling tool.
If three or more of these apply, you have outgrown Excel scheduling. The good news: you do not have to leave Excel behind. Resource Manager for Excel (RMX) is a real finite-capacity scheduling engine that runs as an Excel add-in — so your team keeps the interface they know while gaining the scheduling power of a dedicated APS tool.
Learn about RMXFrequently asked questions
What is WIP tracking and why does it matter?+
WIP — work-in-process — is everything that has started production but is not yet finished. Untracked WIP is the largest source of late shipments in most shops. When you cannot see how long a job has been parked at operation 4 of 7, you cannot react until the customer calls.
How is this different from a generic job tracker?+
A job tracker shows that a job is open. A WIP tracker shows where in the routing the job currently sits, how long it has been there, and whether it is aging beyond target. The operation-level detail is what makes it useful for daily shop floor decisions.
Can I track WIP across multiple work centers?+
Yes — the work-center load tab rolls up open WIP per work center automatically. This lets supervisors see "we have 14 jobs parked at the mill, only 6 of which are this week's priority" without re-sorting the data.
How do I know when I have outgrown this spreadsheet?+
Three signals: (1) the daily refresh takes more than 15 minutes; (2) shop floor reality and the spreadsheet disagree by mid-afternoon; (3) you need WIP to drive scheduling decisions, not just report on them. At that point RMX or RMDB gives you live WIP without the manual update burden.
Get the free template — plus the tool that grew up around it
The template is the starting point. Resource Manager for Excel (RMX) is what manufacturers move to when their Excel scheduler starts breaking. 35+ years in production, free 30-day trial.