Free client list template for Excel and Google Sheets

Every business has a client list. For most small ones it lives in three places at once: the phone's contacts, the inbox, and a spreadsheet that was started with good intentions and last opened in March. This page gives you a client list template that is built to be kept up, explains why each column is there, and is honest about when a spreadsheet stops being the right tool.

The template is free and needs no email address: download the client list template (.xlsx). It opens in Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers, and uses no macros.

What a client list is for

A list of names and numbers is a phone book. A client list earns its place by answering three questions you cannot answer from your inbox:

1. Who should I contact today? The quote that needs chasing, the customer whose annual service is due, the enquiry from last week that went quiet.
2. What did we last say? When a customer rings, you want the history in front of you before you say hello.
3. What is the business worth right now? Open quotes, jobs booked, and the customers who have gone quiet and are probably worth a call.

Every column below is there to answer one of those three. Anything that does not is clutter, and clutter is why lists get abandoned.

The twelve columns

One row per client. These are the columns in the template, in order, and why each one exists.

The two bold columns are what turn a list into a system. Nobody on the list is ever without a next action and a date, even if the action is "check in" and the date is next January. The template colours the row red when the date has passed and amber when it is today, and a Today sheet pulls the overdue and due rows together so you can work down them with your coffee.

Columns to leave out

• Address, unless you visit. If you do, add it; if you post invoices, you have it in your accounts software already.
• Date of birth, partner's name, children. Nice to know, never used, and personal data you then have to look after. Put the odd detail in Notes if it matters to the relationship.
• Every job they have ever had. That belongs in a log, not in a column. The template has a Log sheet for exactly this: one dated line per call, email, visit or job, with the customer picked from a list.
• Anything you will not fill in. A column that is blank in half the rows is a column nobody trusts.

Setting it up in ten minutes

1. Download the file and open the Start here sheet. It is five steps long.
2. On the Lists sheet, change the status and source words to the ones you actually use. Keep one status called Closed; the formulas look for it.
3. Paste your existing contacts into the Contacts sheet, one per row. It does not matter if half the columns are empty; the list gets better as you use it.
4. Give every row a next action and a next date. This is the only slow step, and it is the one that makes the list useful tomorrow morning.
5. Open the Today sheet. It tells you who is overdue, who is due, who has no date, and who has gone quiet.

From then on the routine is: open Today, work down the list, log what was said, move the date on.

Keeping it clean

A client list rots in predictable ways, and each has a one-line fix.

• Duplicates. Search before you add. The template's Contacts sheet has a filter on every column; type the surname first.
• Dead rows. When a customer is finished with, set their status to Closed rather than deleting them. You keep the history and they drop out of the pipeline totals.
• Stale dates. If the Today sheet shows thirty overdue rows, the list is telling you the dates are fiction. Pick a quiet half hour, move every date to something true, and start again. No guilt; everyone does this once.
• Personal data. Under UK GDPR you can keep a customer's contact details for the purposes of doing business with them, and you should not keep more than you need or longer than you need it. If someone asks you to delete their details, do it. If you ever want to use the list for marketing, that is a different question with different rules, and worth reading up on first. This is general information, not legal advice.

A client list for your kind of business

The same twelve columns work for almost everyone; what changes is the words in the drop-downs and what next action usually says.

• Trades (plumbers, electricians, decorators): statuses Enquiry, Quoted, Booked, Done, Closed. The next action is nearly always "chase quote" or "book the follow-on job". Tag by job type so you can find every boiler customer when the service reminders are due.
• Photographers: statuses Enquiry, Booked, Shot, Delivered, Closed. The next date after delivery is set a year ahead: the anniversary, the next baby, the Christmas card. Our photographer's guide goes deeper.
• Consultants and freelancers: statuses Lead, Proposal, Active, Paused, Closed. Value is the project fee; Today becomes your pipeline review.
• Cleaners, gardeners, dog walkers and anything on a schedule: the next date is the next visit, and the list doubles as your diary. Tag by area so a route plans itself.

When the list outgrows the spreadsheet

A spreadsheet is the right client list for your first thirty or so customers. It starts to creak when:

• you forget to open it, so the Today sheet stops being today;
• you want it in your pocket at a customer's kitchen table, not on the laptop at home;
• the notes outgrow a cell and you start keeping them in your head again;
• a second person needs to see and update it, and you are emailing copies around.

When that happens, save the Contacts sheet as a CSV and import it into Sheetsmith CRM. Names, companies, emails, phone numbers, tags and notes come across, and you see a preview first. The CRM does exactly what the spreadsheet does, with the Today list on your phone, reminders in your calendar and nothing to learn. It is free for 30 days with no limits, then free for your first 25 contacts.

If you are weighing the two, our honest comparison of a CRM spreadsheet against a CRM app says where each one wins. For the formulas behind the template and how to extend it yourself, see how to track clients in Excel.

Common questions

Is the template really free? Yes. No sign-up, no email, no trial. Download it and it is yours.

Does it work in Google Sheets? Yes: File, Import, Upload, pick the file. Drop-downs, colours and the Today sheet all work.

How many clients can it hold? Five hundred rows are set up. Most people feel it creak somewhere between thirty and a hundred, which is what the section above is about.

Can I change the statuses and sources? Yes, on the Lists sheet. Keep one status called Closed.

Is a client list the same as a CRM? A client list is the data; a CRM is the data plus the habit of working from it every day. The spreadsheet gives you both if you open it. The app makes sure you do.