Tutoring log template: a free Excel sheet for lessons, attendance and payments

Download the Excel template (.xlsx)

Opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.

What's in the template

• Students: student and parent details, lesson fee, lessons in the package and start date.
• Lessons: date, time and length of every lesson, plus its status: done, cancelled (not counted), cancelled (counted) or no-show.
• Summary: lessons used, lessons left and balance due for each student. This sheet calculates itself; you only fill in the first two.

Five tips for keeping a tutoring log that works

1. Log every lesson, cancellations included. If cancellations aren't written down, "did that one count?" gets settled from memory at the end of the month.
2. Agree on a cancellation rule at the start. Something like "cancellations less than 24 hours ahead count as a lesson", said out loud in the first session. That's why the template has two kinds of cancellation.
3. Sell packages, not single lessons. Packages of 4 or 8 smooth out your cash flow and reduce cancellations.
4. Record payments the day you receive them. Payments entered in a batch on Sunday get mixed up.
5. Look at the summary once a month. When a student's package is about to run out, that's the day to remind them.

When a spreadsheet stops being enough

For a tutor working alone, a well-kept spreadsheet lasts a long time. It starts slowing you down when:

• you pass 20–25 students and lessons begin to overlap,
• a second tutor joins and you need to track who taught what and who gets paid how much,
• you want students or parents to see their remaining lessons without asking you,
• you're tired of sending every reminder by hand.

Sabtask is built for that point: it deducts a lesson from the package after each session, applies your cancellation rule, shows students their remaining lessons on their own screen and calculates tutor pay from the lessons taught. See how it works.

Frequently asked questions

• Is the tutoring log template free? Yes, completely, and you don't need to sign up. Sabtask itself is paid software; you can see the plans on the pricing page.
• Can I use it in Google Sheets? Yes. Upload the file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets; the formulas work.
• Do I need a separate attendance tracker? No. The Lessons sheet is your attendance record, and the Summary sheet turns it into lessons used and lessons left.
• Can several tutors share one log? They can, but it gets harder: you'll need extra columns to split lessons by tutor and work out who gets paid what. That's usually the point where software saves time.