Free Work Order Excel Template
A practical Excel work order template built for real manufacturing — with routing operations, material and labor tracking, and completion status in a single workbook.
What you get
A working Excel work order template you can download and use today, paired with a 30-day trial of Resource Manager for Excel (RMX) — the same tool manufacturers move to when their work order spreadsheet starts breaking.
Free 30-day trial · No credit card required · Used by manufacturers since 1991
Why manufacturers still use Excel for this
A work order is the single most important document on a manufacturing floor. It is the instruction set that tells the shop "build this, using these materials, on these machines, by this date, for this customer." Every other production metric — on-time delivery, labor efficiency, material yield, scrap rate — is ultimately rolled up from work order data. When the work order system is rough, everything downstream is rough.
Small and mid-size manufacturers almost always start with Excel work orders. It is universal, familiar, and flexible enough to handle the chaos of custom jobs. For a shop running 20–50 active work orders at a time, an Excel template is genuinely the right answer. The trap shows up later: once you are managing 100+ open jobs across multiple routings, Excel becomes a full-time maintenance job instead of a tool.
This page gives you a free work order Excel template you can start using today. It covers what matters: job metadata, routing operations, material requirements, labor tracking, completion status, and a printable format the shop floor can actually use. It also explains the warning signs that mean you have outgrown it — and what to do next.
What's inside the template
Work order header with job metadata
Job number, customer, part number, quantity, due date, priority, and notes — the fields every work order needs.
Routing operations list
Per work center: setup time, run time, operator required, and planned start/complete dates. Supports multi-stage jobs.
Material requirements (BOM)
Per component: part number, quantity, unit, and on-hand status. Flags missing materials before the job hits the floor.
Labor tracking
Per operation: hours logged, operator, date, and notes. Compare actual to planned to surface variances.
Completion and status tracker
Status field (open / released / in progress / complete) with automatic color-coding. One glance tells you what is running.
Printable shop-floor format
Page-ready layout so the work order can be printed for floor routing without reformatting.
How to use this template
A practical walkthrough — five steps from blank spreadsheet to a working schedule.
- 1
Open the template and review the sample work order
Spend 5 minutes scrolling through the sample data to see how the header, routing, materials, and labor sections connect.
- 2
Copy the template for each new job
Duplicate the worksheet for each new work order. Name the tab with your job number so it is easy to find in a multi-job workbook.
- 3
Fill in header metadata
Customer, part number, quantity, due date, priority. This is the "what" and "when" every downstream decision depends on.
- 4
Add routing operations
List every work center the job touches with setup and run time. The template auto-calculates total hours and estimated completion.
- 5
Release to the floor
Print the work order or share the tab with the shop-floor lead. Update status and labor hours as operations complete.
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
Is this work order template free?+
Yes. The template comes with the free 30-day trial of Resource Manager for Excel (RMX) from User Solutions. No credit card required. Many small shops use the trial as a permanent free work order template.
What Excel versions does the template support?+
Excel 2016 and later on Windows (including Microsoft 365). Some formulas use features that are not supported in Excel for Mac or Excel Online.
Can I use this for both make-to-order and make-to-stock manufacturing?+
Yes. The template works for any manufacturing environment — custom job shops, batch producers, repetitive assembly. The routing and material sections adapt to your specific process.
How does this template handle multi-stage routings?+
The routing section supports an arbitrary number of operations, each with its own work center, setup time, run time, and planned dates. For very complex routings (10+ operations), a dedicated scheduling tool like RMX becomes more efficient than manually maintaining the routing in every work order.
Can the template print to a shop-floor traveler format?+
Yes. The layout is designed to print cleanly on letter-size paper with the header, routing, and materials sections visible on a single page. Print directly from Excel with no reformatting.
What is the difference between a work order template and a full MES?+
A work order template tracks individual jobs. A full Manufacturing Execution System (MES) tracks all open jobs in real time, integrates with machines on the floor, and provides live dashboards. Excel work orders are fine until you need real-time visibility across 100+ jobs.
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.