Zeitplan.io vs the Excel planning sheet
Almost every Zeitplan.io customer started with a spreadsheet: names down the side, weeks across the top, colored cells for projects. It works until it doesn’t. This page is about the point where it stops working.
The spreadsheet plan is flexible, free, and everyone already knows how to use it. It lives in SharePoint or OneDrive, gets shared in a Teams channel, and is usually maintained by one person who knows the color code. It has no permissions beyond "can edit", no notifications, and no idea what a public holiday is.
At a glance
| Excel | Zeitplan.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can edit | Everyone with the link, or nobody | Admins, self-editors (own row only) and viewers; guests can be excluded |
| When the plan changes | Nobody is told | The person gets a Teams activity notification |
| Holidays | Typed in by hand | Public holidays per region, per person |
| Preliminary bookings | A lighter color, if you remember | Blockers, shown striped |
| Repeating duties | Copy and paste | Recurring assignments |
| Statistics | COUNTIF formulas | Days per project and per person, per year, built in |
| In Outlook | No | Calendar feed per person |
| Getting the data out | It’s already a spreadsheet | Excel export per week, month or year, and a REST API |
| Price | Included in Microsoft 365 | Free for up to 5 users, then $2–3 per user per month |
Keep the spreadsheet if
- one person plans a handful of people and nothing changes week to week
- you need a custom layout that no tool offers
- your plan is really a budget or a forecast, with formulas at its heart
Switch to Zeitplan.io if
- more than one person edits the plan, or people keep asking "is this the latest version?"
- you want people to see their own assignments in Teams and Outlook without opening a file
- you spend time every week rebuilding a view that a tool could show you
You keep Excel for what it’s good at
Zeitplan.io exports any week, month or year to Excel, and the read-only REST API feeds reporting tools such as Power BI. The plan lives in Teams; the analysis can still live in Excel.
FAQ
Can I import my existing spreadsheet?
There is no import yet. Most teams add their team members from the directory, create their projects, and re-enter the next few weeks by dragging across the days, which usually takes less than an hour. Past plans can stay in the spreadsheet.
Can everyone still see the plan?
Yes. You can give everyone in your organization read access, add specific people as viewers, or keep the plan to the members of a Teams channel.
What if I need the data in Excel again?
Use the export in the schedule’s toolbar. It downloads an Excel file with one row per assignment for the selected week, month or year.
Try the day-based view with your own team
Zeitplan.io is free for up to 5 users, installs from the Teams app store in a minute and uses the Microsoft 365 accounts you already have.
Other comparisons: Microsoft Planner · Microsoft Shifts · Float · Teamdeck · Resource Guru