# Applicant tracking spreadsheet: a free template for small teams

> A spreadsheet is a perfectly good applicant tracker for a small team hiring a few people a year, if it's set up properly. A free template with stages, follow-up dates and record-keeping built in, and how to tell when you've outgrown it.

Michael at SortTheStack, October 13, 2026. Original: https://sortthestack.com/blog/applicant-tracking-spreadsheet

If you hire a few people a year, a spreadsheet can track your applicants
perfectly well. **What makes it work is not the software but four decisions
made up front: one row per application, a fixed list of stages, a date on
every next step, and a rule for how long you keep the data.** Get those right
and a spreadsheet will do the job until volume or team size outgrows it.

**Download the template:**
[applicant tracker (Excel)](https://sortthestack.com/downloads/applicant-tracker.xlsx). Free, no sign-up.
It has the stages as dropdowns, flags anyone left waiting, and calculates
follow-up and deletion dates for you.

## What the tracker is for, and what it isn't

An applicant tracker answers three questions at a glance: where is each
applicant, what happens next, and has anyone been left waiting? It doesn't
decide who is worth interviewing. That's screening, and it needs a different
sheet: our free
[applicant screening sheet](https://sortthestack.com/compare/sortthestack-vs-spreadsheets) records the
evidence for each requirement. Keep them separate. A tracker that tries to hold
the evidence too becomes too wide to read.

## The columns

| Column                 | What goes in it                                                            |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Job                    | The role. One sheet can hold several jobs; filter by this column.          |
| Applicant              | Their name.                                                                |
| Stage                  | One of a fixed list (below). Never free text.                              |
| Needs attention        | Calculated: anything overdue or missing for this applicant (below).        |
| Days since applying    | Calculated, while the application is still open.                           |
| Next step and due date | What happens next, and by when.                                            |
| Owner                  | Who is responsible for the next step.                                      |
| Screening outcome      | From your screening sheet: Recommended, Possible, or Requirements not met. |
| Date applied           | The date the application arrived.                                          |
| Source                 | Where they came from: careers page, a job board, referral, email.          |
| Email, phone           | Contact details. Nothing else personal.                                    |
| Last interview date    | If interviewed.                                                            |
| Decision notice due    | Calculated: 45 days after the last interview (see below).                  |
| Outcome sent on        | The date you told them the result.                                         |
| Keep until             | Calculated: when the row can be deleted under your retention rule.         |
| Notes                  | Short and factual. Write nothing you wouldn't want the applicant to read.  |

## Fix the stages before you start

Free-text stages ("spoke to her", "maybe", "chase") make a tracker unreadable
within a week. The template uses these, in order:

1. **New:** arrived, not yet screened.
2. **Screened:** read against the requirements; outcome recorded.
3. **Phone screen**
4. **Work sample**
5. **Interview**
6. **Offer**
7. **Hired**
8. **Not progressing:** decided against at any stage. Record the stage and the
   date you told them.
9. **Withdrew**

Sort or filter by stage and you have your pipeline. Drop the stages you don't
use, but keep the list fixed.

## Put a date on every next step

A common way for a spreadsheet tracker to fail is quietly: an applicant who
deserved a call sits at "Screened" for three weeks because nobody owned the
next step. The template's **Needs attention** column flags it: a next step
that's overdue or has no date, an application open longer than a limit you
set, an interviewed applicant still waiting for an answer, or a rejection
decided but not yet sent. Filter on it once a week and clear the list.

## Follow-up deadlines that are now law in some places

In Ontario, since 1 January 2026, employers with 25 or more employees must tell
anyone they interviewed for a publicly advertised job whether a hiring decision
has been made, within 45 days of their last interview
([Ontario Ministry of Labour](https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/requirements-related-publicly-advertised-job)).
The template calculates that date from the last interview date. Even where it
isn't required, it's a good standard: answer everyone you interviewed within
45 days. Our article on [what job postings must disclose](https://sortthestack.com/blog/job-posting-disclosure-rules)
covers this and the other new posting rules.

## How long to keep the data

Applicant data is personal information, and keeping it forever is a risk, not
a safety net. But you do have to keep it for a while.

- **United States:** employers covered by federal equal-employment law must
  keep application and hiring records for at least one year, and longer if a
  discrimination charge is filed
  ([EEOC](https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/recordkeeping-requirements)).
- **California:** regulations that took effect in 2025 require employers to
  keep employment records, including data from automated-decision systems, for
  at least four years
  ([California Civil Rights Council](https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/2025/06/30/civil-rights-council-secures-approval-for-regulations-to-protect-against-employment-discrimination-related-to-artificial-intelligence/)).
- **Ontario:** employers covered by the job-posting rules must keep a copy of
  each posting and of the notices to interviewed applicants for three years.

These are examples, not a complete list, and other rules may apply to you. Set
your retention period with that in mind and enter it on the template's Start
here sheet. The **Keep until** column then calculates the date for each closed
application, and Needs attention flags the rows that have passed it. Once a
month, delete those rows, along with their resumes.

## Five rules that keep a spreadsheet tracker safe

1. **One file, in one shared place,** with access limited to the people
   hiring. Not copies on laptops or in email attachments.
2. **One row per application.** Someone who applies for two jobs gets two
   rows.
3. **Resumes stored in one folder,** named consistently (job, surname, date),
   not attached to emails.
4. **No sensitive information in notes:** nothing about health, family,
   age, religion or anything else you shouldn't be deciding on.
5. **A weekly fifteen minutes** to sort by Days waiting and clear the backlog.

## When a spreadsheet stops being enough

A spreadsheet tracker usually holds up until one of these happens:

- More than a couple of people need to update it at the same time.
- You're receiving more applications than you can screen carefully in the time
  you have.
- You need to email applicants in bulk, or keep an audit trail of who changed
  what.

Our guide to [whether you need an applicant tracking system](https://sortthestack.com/blog/do-you-need-an-applicant-tracking-system)
helps you decide what to move to, and our
[comparison of SortTheStack with spreadsheets and email](https://sortthestack.com/compare/sortthestack-vs-spreadsheets)
sets out where each one fits.

## Using the template

The [workbook](https://sortthestack.com/downloads/applicant-tracker.xlsx) has three sheets:

- **Start here:** how to use it, and three settings: how long you keep closed
  applications, how many days you allow to tell interviewed applicants the
  outcome, and when an open application counts as waiting too long.
- **Applicants:** the tracker, with formulas ready in 300 rows. Grey columns
  calculate themselves; Stage and Screening outcome are dropdowns. Four example
  rows show the fictional Larkspur Partners hire used in our guides; delete them
  before you start.
- **Pipeline:** how many applications are at each stage and how many need
  attention, for every job or the one you name.

## Where SortTheStack fits

SortTheStack is not an applicant tracking system, and it doesn't need one. If
you're keeping the spreadsheet, you can still use SortTheStack for the step a
spreadsheet doesn't help with: reading every application against your
requirements, with the evidence. It also has simple stages, sends each
applicant a receipt, and exports to CSV, so its results can go straight into
your tracker. [See how the screening works](https://sortthestack.com/product).

## Sources

All accessed 12 October 2026.

- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
  [Recordkeeping requirements](https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/recordkeeping-requirements).
- California Civil Rights Council,
  [Regulations to protect against employment discrimination related to artificial intelligence](https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/2025/06/30/civil-rights-council-secures-approval-for-regulations-to-protect-against-employment-discrimination-related-to-artificial-intelligence/),
  30 June 2025.
- Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development,
  [Requirements related to publicly advertised job postings](https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/requirements-related-publicly-advertised-job).