Excel shift schedule alternative

Your spreadsheet got you here. It won't get you to 24/7.

Spreadsheets are free, familiar, and flexible, until several people edit the same file, time off lives in another tracker, and nobody can see who's working right now. Octofi replaces the file with one live schedule.

Book a demo All comparisons

Choose Excel if

You schedule one small team that rarely changes
One person owns the file and knows every formula
Coverage gaps are rare and easy to spot
You have no time-off policies to track

Choose Octofi if

Several people edit the schedule, or several teams share it
You track accruals, holidays, and call-outs by hand
You find coverage gaps after they happen
You spend hours each week rebuilding next week’s schedule

Feature	Octofi	Excel
One live version of the schedule		Copies emailed and shared
Rotating patterns	Built in, copy forward in a click	Formulas you build and maintain
Coverage gaps	Coverage percentage, as you plan	Found by eye
Time-off requests and approvals	Requests, approvals, and balances	Email, chat, and a separate tracker
Accruals and holidays	Calculated automatically	Formulas you maintain
Live view of who is working now	Activity Status dashboard	–
Mobile access	iOS and Android apps	A spreadsheet on a phone
Change history	Audit log of every change	Depends on file version history
Labor analytics	Hours by activity, team, and shift, with reports, CSV, and an open API for BI	Pivot tables you build
Time to go live	Live in two weeks, with your schedules, time-off policies, and integrations set up by our team	Built and maintained by hand
Cost	Per seat, with setup and onboarding by our team included	Included with Microsoft 365 or free alternatives

Based on publicly available information as of September 2026. Features and plans change, so check with each vendor.

Leaving the spreadsheet

Moving over is the easy part.

We move your schedules in

Our team handles the move during onboarding, including your shift patterns and time-off data.

Keep exporting when you need to

Every table in Octofi exports to CSV, so finance and leadership still get the files they're used to.

Try your pattern first

Build a 24/7 rotation in our free shift pattern generator and download it as a CSV.

Shift pattern generator

FAQ

Switching from Excel.

Can you import our existing spreadsheet?

Yes. Our team handles the move for you during onboarding, including shifts, time-off data, and users.

Can we still get our data in Excel?

Yes. Every table exports to CSV, and built-in reports cover scheduling, activity, and leave.

Is it worth paying for when Excel is free?

The spreadsheet is free. The hours spent rebuilding schedules, tracking time off by hand, and fixing coverage gaps are not. Our ROI calculator estimates that cost for your team.

How long does switching take?

Most teams are live in two weeks. Most of that time is gathering your current shifts, time-off data, and user list.

Everything else included

The full Octofi platform.

Beyond the differences above, here's everything your team gets with Octofi.

Scheduling

Rotating patterns and templates
Tasks inside shifts
Drag-and-drop and bulk duplicate
Time zone per shift
Coverage percentage
Labor compliance

Time off

Requests and approvals
Automatic accruals
Tenure bonuses and overdraft rules
Regional holiday calendars
Call-out tracking
Busiest-week stats

Live status

Activity Status dashboard
30-second refresh
Multiple statuses at once
Activity history
Teams and Slack presence
Automatic status updates

Teams and access

Multi-team
Built-in and custom roles
SSO with Google and Entra ID
Mobile SSO
Audit log of every change
SAML on Enterprise

Data and reporting

Labor analytics
Built-in reports
CSV export from every table
Datasets
API access
Custom reports on request

Integrations

Web, iOS, and Android apps
HR sync with 70+ systems
Microsoft 365 profile sync
Payroll hour sync on Enterprise
Your BI tool through the API
Onboarding by our team

Some features depend on your plan.Compare plans →

Retire the spreadsheet.

Send us your current schedule, and we'll show it to you running live in Octofi.

Book a demo Estimate your savings

Live in two weeks. Configured by our team.