Excursion control spreadsheet: free template

Straight to the point

What an excursion control spreadsheet needs to have

An excursion spreadsheet that truly works has at least five sheets: passengers (name, contact, document), payments (who paid what, when, how much is left), seats (the bus map, one name per seat), costs (what the operation spends on bus, hotel, guide and insurance) and closing (how much came in, how much went out, what margin was left on that trip).

That works well while one person handles one excursion at a time. The template you download on this page comes with those five sheets already set up, with a formula for each passenger's outstanding balance and a count of occupied seats.

The problem is rarely the spreadsheet itself; many good agencies run this way for years. It is the moment when more than one person edits it at the same time, or when three or four excursions run together in the same week. That moment is what the second part of this page is about.

For comparison

What replaces the pending-items sheet

In a spreadsheet, knowing who still owes or who lacks a valid document means opening the file and checking line by line. In OnWay that check comes ready on the trip screen.

Trip dashboard

Open balances and pending documents, already separated

Each trip's screen shows occupancy, amount received and what is left to charge without adding anything up by hand. Pending items (who owes and who lacks a valid document) show up highlighted, with a shortcut to resolve them on the spot.

Occupancy and amount received kept up to date, with no formulas to maintain
Payment and document pending items together in one place
Shortcuts to add a passenger, record a payment and log a cost

Trip detail

Visual prototype of the trip dashboard, fictional data; not a screenshot of the real application.

Conceptual prototype of the trip dashboard; data and states are fictional, with no connection to a real booking.

I want to see this at my agency

Step by step

How to build your excursion spreadsheet

If you are starting from scratch (or adjusting the one you already have), this is the order that works.

1Passengers sheetFull name, phone, CPF and date of birth. One line per person, without mixing different trips in the same sheet.

2Seats sheetA grid with each seat number and the name of the person sitting there. Lock the cell as soon as the sale is confirmed.

3Payments sheetTotal amount, installments, dates and an outstanding-balance column calculated by formula, tied to the passenger's name.

4Costs sheetBus, hotel, guide, insurance, tolls. Every expense with a date and category, so you know where the trip's money is going.

5Closing sheetAdds up what came in from payments, subtracts costs and shows the real margin of that excursion, trip by trip.

The honest part

Where the spreadsheet stops being enough

It is not a lack of organization: the format simply reaches its limit. It is the same six points, in practically every agency that grows.

Two people, one spreadsheet

Finance and sales open the same file at the same time. One saves over the other, without warning.

The same seat, two sales

Without a real-time lock, two people confirm the same seat at different times of day. It only comes to light at boarding.

Who paid what

Cash, PIX and bank transfer in different sheets or apps. Closing out the trip becomes a treasure hunt.

Contract and receipt in hand

Edit the template for each passenger, print, sign on paper and then look for that PDF in a folder from months ago.

The collection nobody remembers

The spreadsheet does not flag who is late. Someone has to open the file and remember to charge, every week, trip after trip.

The customer who disappears between trips

With every new excursion, the passenger's data gets typed in again. The history of how many times they have already traveled with you gets lost along the way.

The next step

When it makes sense to move past the spreadsheet

OnWay was born to do what the spreadsheet starts failing at: seat, payment, contract and customer history on a single platform, without waiting for a file to open.

See all features

Trip and bus management, finances, documents, CRM and the passenger portal: everything OnWay brings together in one place.

Get to know OnWay →

Understand the system's logic

How acquisition, demand, decision, trip and loyalty form a cycle, and how referrals close that loop.

See how it works →

See each screen step by step

From trip creation to the boarding list, passenger registration and contract generation, with the operations explained.

Read the documentation →

FAQ

Questions about the excursion control spreadsheet

What sheets does an excursion control spreadsheet need to have?

At least five: passengers (name, contact, document), payments (who paid what and how much is left), seats (one passenger per seat, no duplicates), costs (bus, hotel, guide, insurance, whatever the operation spends) and closing (what came in, what went out, the trip's margin).

How do I track a passenger's payments in the spreadsheet?

One line per passenger, with the total amount, what has already been paid, the date of each installment and an outstanding-balance column calculated by formula. The weak point is collections: the spreadsheet does not flag who is late on its own: someone has to open the sheet and remember.

How do I build a seat map in Excel or Google Sheets?

A grid with each seat number in a cell and the assigned passenger's name in it, locking the row of whoever has already confirmed. It works for a single excursion. With two people selling the same trip at the same time, the risk of selling the seat twice goes up.

When does the excursion spreadsheet stop being enough?

When more than one person edits it at the same time, when several trips run together, when collections depend on someone remembering, and when the customer's history gets lost from one spreadsheet to another with each new excursion.

Is the spreadsheet template really free?

Yes. The download asks for no sign-up or email; it is a CSV file to open directly in Excel or Google Sheets and use as you wish.

Do I have to switch from the spreadsheet to a system as soon as the agency grows?

There is no exact size. The signal is when the time spent fixing the spreadsheet (a wrong seat, a forgotten charge, a contract hunted down in a folder) starts to cost more than solving it another way.

Excursion control spreadsheet