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Shift work

Orary vs a Spreadsheet for Tracking Shifts

June 15, 2026 5 min read

A spreadsheet is the default way people start tracking shifts — it’s free and you already know it. But the very things that make casual work tricky (penalty rates, breaks, midnight shifts, doing it on your phone) are exactly where spreadsheets fall over.

Side by side

SpreadsheetOrary
Penalty ratesManual formulasAutomatic
Shifts past midnightEasy to get wrongHandled
On your phonePainfulBuilt for it
Weekly/monthly totalsYou build themAutomatic
Payslip cross-checkNoYes
88-day visa trackingNoYes
CostFreeFree

Where spreadsheets cost you

One wrong formula miscalculates silently down the whole column, so an underpaid shift can hide in a sheet that "balances". And because editing a spreadsheet between shifts on your phone is a hassle, people stop updating it — and lose the record entirely.

Where Orary wins

Orary knows your rates, applies penalties, totals everything, works on your phone in seconds, and cross-checks against your payslips — for free. You keep the simplicity of "log a shift" without the formula maintenance.

Get spreadsheet-free shift tracking that does the maths for you.

Try Orary free