How to Create a Template in Excel

Creating the same Excel report over and over is a familiar ritual for many of us, but it doesn't have to be. Instead of starting from scratch every week, you can build a reusable template that saves time, reduces errors, and keeps your reporting consistent. This guide will walk you through creating, saving, and using Excel templates to streamline your workflow.

Why Use an Excel Template in the First Place?

Working from a template might seem like a small change, but it has a big impact on your productivity. When you set up a report once - with all its formatting, formulas, and branding - you create a reliable foundation for all future versions. It's the difference between building a house from scratch every month versus simply moving in.

Here are the key benefits:

• Saves Time: The most obvious benefit. Imagine your weekly marketing report. Instead of formatting headers, SUM formulas, and chart colors every Monday, you just open the template and plug in your new numbers. Those 15-30 minutes of formatting saved each week add up.
• Ensures Consistency: When multiple people use the same template, everyone's reports look and feel the same. This is essential for branding and makes a huge difference in client-facing documents or internal budget reports. No more chasing down mismatched fonts or off-brand colors.
• Reduces Human Error: Formulas are tricky, and it's easy to make a mistake in an =SUM or VLOOKUP formula. By building your formulas directly into the template, you reduce the risk of somebody accidentally typing a plus sign instead of a minus or pointing to the wrong cell range. You "set it and forget it."

Common examples where templates shine include monthly financial reports, weekly social media analytics trackers, project timelines, sales pipeline summaries, and client invoices.

What Makes a Good Excel Template?

A great template is more than just an empty spreadsheet. It's a carefully designed framework that guides the user toward creating a clean, professional, and accurate final report. Before you save your file, think about including these components.

Careful Formatting and Branding

Visual presentation matters. A well-formatted document is easier to read and looks more professional. Pre-set your template with:

• Branded Colors: Use your company's hex codes for headers, charts, and key areas of focus.
• Consistent Fonts: Set a default font and size for headers and body text.
• Number Formatting: Do you need currency symbols ($), percentages (%), or comma separators? Apply these formats to the columns ahead of time.
• Headers and Footers: Add a logo, report title, or page numbers that will appear on every page when printed.

Pre-Built Formulas and Functions

Formulas are the engine of your report. By embedding them in your template, you automate the calculations and ensure they are done correctly every time. This includes simple functions like:

=SUM(B2:B30)

Or more complex calculations used in marketing reports, such as calculating cost per acquisition (CPA) or click-through rate (CTR):

=C2/D2  // Formula for CPA (Cost / Acquisitions)

Well-Defined Structure

Your template’s structure should make data entry intuitive. Define columns and rows with clear headers like "Date," "Campaign Name," "Ad Spend," "Impressions," "Clicks," and "Conversions." Consider freezing the top row (View > Freeze Panes > Freeze Top Row) so your headers are always visible as you scroll down through the data.

Pre-Made Charts and Visuals

If your report always includes the same charts (e.g., a pie chart showing traffic sources or a line chart showing weekly revenue), build them into the template. Set them up to reference the data entry columns. As soon as you add new data, the charts will automatically update, saving you the hassle of recreating them each time.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating an Excel Template

Ready to build one? Let's use a simple weekly marketing campaign report as an example. This report will track spend, clicks, and conversions.

Step 1: Start with a New, Blank Workbook

Open Excel and create a new, blank workbook. This is your clean slate. It's often easier to start fresh than to retrofit an old report into a template since old files can carry hidden formatting issues.

Step 2: Define and Style Your Structure

Create the headers for the data you want to track. In our example, we’ll use:

Date | Campaign Name | Spend | Clicks | Conversions | CPA

Now, apply your formatting. Make the header row bold, give it a background color, and resize the columns to fit the content. Freeze the top row so the headers stay put as you scroll.

Step 3: Add Your Formulas

The "CPA" (Cost Per Acquisition) column needs a formula. It's calculated as Spend / Conversions.

In the first data cell under the CPA header (let's say it's cell F2), enter the formula. If "Spend" is in column C and "Conversions" is in column E, the formula would be:

=IFERROR(C2/E2, 0)

Pro-Tip: Using the IFERROR function is a great practice. It prevents your sheet from showing #DIV/0! errors when the "Conversions" cell is blank or zero, making your report much cleaner. It will simply return a 0 instead.

Drag this formula down the column to apply it to future rows. Don't worry if it shows zeroes for now, it's waiting for data.

Next, add summary calculations. You might want totals at the bottom for Spend, Clicks, and Conversions. Under your data area, create a "Totals" row and use the SUM formula for the relevant columns:

=SUM(C2:C100)

Step 4: Create a Data Visualization

Let's add a simple chart. Select your "Campaign Name," "Spend," and "CPA" columns. Go to Insert > Charts and choose a bar chart. This will create a chart comparing spending and CPA for each campaign.

Since there's no data yet, the chart will be blank. That's exactly what you want. Customize its colors, title (e.g., "Campaign Spend vs. CPA"), and axis labels now so you don't have to later.

Step 5: Ditch Dummy Text

The Most Important Step: Before saving, delete any example or placeholder data you entered to test your formulas and charts. Your template should be a blank but functional shell, ready for new information.

Step 6: Save as an Excel Template (.xltx)

This is the final step that turns your file into a true template.

1. Click File > Save As.
2. In the "Save as type" dropdown menu, select Excel Template (*.xltx).
3. Notice that Excel automatically changes the save location to a "Custom Office Templates" folder. It's a good idea to keep it there so you can easily find it later.
4. Give your template a clear name, like "Weekly Marketing Report Template," and click Save.

Your file is now saved as an .xltx file. This file type behaves differently from a standard .xlsx workbook. When you open an .xltx file, Excel automatically creates an untitled copy of it, protecting your original template from being accidentally overwritten.

How to Use Your New Template

Now that you've done the hard work, using the template is incredibly easy.

1. Open Excel and click File > New.
2. Next to the "Blank workbook" option, you should see two tabs: "Office" and "Personal" (or "Custom"). Click on Personal.
3. You'll see your newly saved "Weekly Marketing Report Template." Click it to open a new, unsaved report based on your template.

Simply fill in your data, and watch as your formulas calculate and your charts populate automatically. When you're done, save the file as a regular Excel Workbook (.xlsx), giving it a specific name like "Marketing Report - Week 34." Your original template remains untouched and ready for next week.

Advanced Tips to Improve Your Templates

Want to make your templates even more powerful? Try these features.

Data Validation for Clean Data Entry

Use data validation to create dropdown menus and restrict what users can enter. For example, if you categorize your campaigns as "Brand Awareness," "Lead Generation," or "E-commerce Sales," you can create a dropdown list to ensure everyone uses the same terms.

1. Select the column where you want the dropdown to appear.
2. Go to the Data tab and click Data Validation.
3. In the "Allow" dropdown, choose List.
4. In the "Source" box, type your list items, separated by commas (e.g., Brand Awareness,Lead Generation,E-commerce Sales).
5. Click OK. Now users will have a simple dropdown in that column to pick from.

Conditional Formatting to Highlight Insights

Make important data stand out automatically. Conditional formatting changes a cell's appearance based on user data. For instance, you can highlight any campaign CPA that goes above a certain threshold (like $50).

1. Select your CPA column.
2. Go to the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Greater Than...
3. Enter "50" in the box and choose a formatting style, like "Light Red Fill with Dark Red Text." Click OK.

Now, any campaign that has a CPA of more than $50 will be instantly flagged with a red background, bringing your attention to potential performance issues.

Protect Cells to Prevent Accidents

To stop users from accidentally deleting a formula or changing a header, you can lock critical parts of a template. This ensures the stability and integrity of the format as it is shared and used by many users. You maintain control and prevent potential errors from others.

1. By default, all cells are locked. First, unlock the cells where you want users to input data. Select them, right-click, choose Format Cells, go to the Protection tab, and uncheck Locked.
2. Next, protect the sheet. Go to the Review tab and click Protect Sheet. You can add a password if you wish. Click OK. Now your formulas are protected and only editable areas are open for input.

Final Thoughts

Excel templates are a simple yet powerful way to standardize your reporting, save valuable time, and reduce errors. By investing a little extra effort upfront to build a well-structured template, you streamline reporting by removing endless repetition from your workflow.

While templates bring consistency, they also help remove manual effort from this work process. Weekly updates to reports are often bogged down by time-consuming tasks: downloading data files, working with spreadsheets, and inputting data manually. This is why we created Graphed. You and your team can automate processes without the need to work directly in Excel, simply with some clicks, saving precious time for tasks that really matter.