Free Sick Leave Tracker Template (Excel, Accrual by Hours)
Statutory sick leave accrues per hour worked, not per month. A tracker with the state ratio and caps in one place. Free Excel download.
Sick leave is the balance most spreadsheets get wrong, and it fails in a specific way.
The mistake is treating it like vacation: a fixed annual number, granted monthly. Statutory sick leave is almost never granted that way. It is earned per hour worked — which means it moves with timesheets, not with the calendar, and someone working overtime earns more than the flat monthly figure gives them.
Sick Leave Accrual Tracker
Accrual per hour worked, with the ratio and caps kept in one place so the same file works in any state.
- Ratio and caps as settings, not hard-coded into formulas
- Earned hours calculated from hours worked
- Running balance that stops at the cap
- Common state ratios listed on the settings tab
Prefer Google Sheets? Download the file, then in Sheets choose File → Import → Upload. Formulas and dropdowns carry over.
When the spreadsheet stops keeping up — usually somewhere past ten people — you can upload this exact file to SimplyPTO and it becomes a working team, with departments, allowances, and carryover already set. See how importing works.
Why the ratio lives in a settings cell
Every formula in this template references one cell for the accrual ratio, because the ratio depends on where the employee works:
| Ratio | States |
|---|---|
| 1 hour per 30 worked | California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Arizona, Minnesota |
| 1 hour per 40 worked | Washington, Illinois |
| No mandate | Texas, Florida |
Hard-code 30 into thirty formulas and the file is wrong the moment you hire in Seattle. Keep it in one cell and it takes ten seconds to adapt.
The earning formula is deliberately dull:
=IF(C2="",0,C2/Settings!$C$4)
Hours worked, divided by the ratio. The balance then applies the cap on the running total, not on the month:
=MIN(previous+earned-used,Settings!$C$5)
That distinction is the bug people write by hand. A cap applied to the monthly amount limits how fast the balance grows but never stops it, so the balance quietly sails past the ceiling and the number you show an employee is one they are not entitled to.
The four rules that differ by state
Use the sick leave requirements by state tool to check yours, but these are the four dimensions that vary and each one needs a decision in the template:
Accrual ratio — 1 per 30 or 1 per 40, as above.
Annual cap — 40 hours in most states, 48 in Colorado and Minnesota, and tiered by headcount in Arizona, where crossing 15 employees moves it from 24 to 40.
Waiting period — 90 days in most places, 120 in New Jersey, 91 in Oregon, and none at all in Colorado or Minnesota. Employees accrue from day one either way; the wait applies to using it.
Carryover — usually 40 hours, but Minnesota allows a balance to build to 80, which means balances compound across years rather than resetting. A tracker rebuilt each January cannot represent that.
The waiting period looks like a bug
Separate bucket or combined PTO
A single PTO bank can satisfy a sick leave law, provided it meets every requirement. Two consequences follow, and both are easy to miss:
The whole bank inherits the protections. That includes the limits on requesting documentation. If your PTO policy currently says "a doctor's note is required for any absence", that clause does not survive in a bank that doubles as statutory sick leave — most states permit verification only after around three consecutive days.
The whole bank may become payable. Statutory sick leave generally does not need paying out at separation. Vacation frequently does. Merge them and you have converted a no-liability entitlement into a payable one.
| Separate sick + vacation | Combined bank | |
|---|---|---|
| Payout at exit | Vacation only | Whole balance, where vacation payout applies |
| Documentation | Allowed for vacation | Restricted across the board |
| Carryover | Sick rules only | Whole balance |
| Admin | Two balances | One balance |
The PTO cost calculator will show what the combined-bank decision costs in real money, which is usually the argument that settles it.
What not to record
Sick leave is where attendance records most often stray into territory that creates risk rather than removing it.
You need to know that someone used sick leave. You do not need to know their diagnosis, their symptoms, or the name of their condition. Recording medical detail creates confidentiality obligations and gives you nothing you can act on.
The template has a hours-used column and no reason column, deliberately. The employee attendance tracker makes the same choice and explains the reasoning at length, including the trap in attendance-point systems: points assigned for protected absences — statutory sick leave among them — are a common source of retaliation claims.
When the spreadsheet stops coping
This template is honest about its limits. It works for a small team in one state with stable hours. It struggles the moment any of these are true:
- Staff in more than one state. Different ratios, caps and waiting periods in the same file means either multiple settings blocks or multiple files.
- Hours vary a lot. Accrual is driven by actual hours, so the tracker is only as current as the last time someone typed timesheet totals into it.
- Balances need to carry across years. Minnesota's 80-hour ceiling cannot be represented by a sheet that starts fresh each January.
- Employees ask what their balance is. They will, and a file only you can open makes you the lookup service.
That first one arrives sooner than most small employers expect, usually with the first remote hire. Small business leave compliance covers structuring a policy for it without a legal team.
Related
- Sick leave requirements by state for the rules where you are
- Sick leave accrual calculator to convert hours worked into earned time
- PTO tracking spreadsheet for vacation alongside it
If you are already maintaining separate files for sick leave and vacation, uploading what you have puts both balances in one place — and the hours-based accrual keeps itself current instead of waiting for someone to update it.
Frequently asked questions
How is statutory sick leave accrued?
Per hour worked, not per month. The common ratios are one hour earned per 30 hours worked in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Arizona and Minnesota, and one per 40 in Washington and Illinois. A flat monthly grant under-provides for anyone working overtime.
Do I have to track sick leave separately from PTO?
Not necessarily. A combined PTO bank can satisfy a sick leave law if it meets every requirement, including the accrual rate, permitted reasons, carryover and the limits on requesting documentation. The catch is that the whole bank then inherits those protections.
Does unused sick leave have to be paid out?
Generally no. Statutory sick leave usually does not require payout at separation, which is the main practical argument for keeping it in its own bucket rather than merging it with vacation that does.
Can I ask for a doctor's note?
Only after a threshold, and the threshold is short. Most sick leave laws permit verification only after roughly three consecutive days of absence. A blanket note-for-any-absence rule is not enforceable in those states.