A free orchard record-keeping spreadsheet
One spreadsheet where everything talks to the same block list — tasks, harvests and costs all add up without you having to reassemble them. Download it, use it as long as it works for you. No form, no account, no timer.
No email, no account, no trial. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.
Prefer Google Sheets? Open it hereWhy this exists
I ran my own orchard on a spreadsheet, for the same reasons most growers do. It was already on the laptop, nobody had to be talked into it, and it did the job on day one.
What went wrong wasn’t the number of rows. I had three separate sheets — one for jobs, one for picks, one for what I was spending — and none of them knew the others existed. A block was “B4” on one and “Back Block” on the next, so any question worth asking (what did that block cost me, what did it actually give me back) meant sitting down and adding it up by hand. Which mostly meant not asking.
So this workbook is the version I wish I’d started with. The blocks are typed once and every sheet reads from that one list, so the season adds itself up instead of being reassembled every time you want a number. It’s free because it should be, and there’s nothing behind it — no form, no account, no trial clock.
What’s in the workbook
Seven working sheets for orchard record keeping, plus a README, a worked example and a units table. Nothing is locked — add columns, delete the sheets you don’t want, make it yours.
Locations
Your blocks, plots and rows, typed once. Every sheet you log into takes its dropdown from this list — which is the thing that stops a block being “B4” on one sheet and “Back Block” on the next.
Tree Inventory
A permanent record of what's in the ground: crop, variety, rootstock, block, row, planting date and current health. One row per tree, or one row per block if you grow in uniform groups. This is also the sheet you'd upload if you ever move to Kropigo.
Tasks
Every job with a due date and a priority — the sheet colours overdue rows red and this week's work amber. Finished jobs stay visible but fade back, so you can see what's been done as well as what hasn't.
Harvests
Every pick, by block and variety. Log it in whatever you actually count — pounds, bins, crates, buckets — and the sheet converts it to kilos, so a mixed season still adds up to one honest number.
Expenses
What you spent, on what, and against which block. Totals by category keep themselves — you log it once and the summary's already done.
Reports
A season dashboard built from everything you've already logged — total picked, total spent, cost per kilo, cost per tree, block by block. Type in your sale price and it shades any block that's costing more to pick than it's earning.
Seasons
One row per block per season, kept by hand so it survives clearing the logs at the end of a year. This is the sheet that makes the file worth more in its third season than in its first.
There’s a README sheet that explains the whole thing from scratch, and an Example tab with one block filled in so you can see how it fits together before you touch anything. The dropdowns are suggestions, not rules — if your variety, unit or block name isn’t on the list, type your own and the sheet won’t argue.
What a spreadsheet can’t do
Worth saying plainly. None of this is a fault of the file — it’s the format, and no spreadsheet fixes it, including a paid one. For plenty of orchards, none of it ever becomes a problem.
You can’t work it one-handed in a block
Up a ladder, in gloves, with a bin in your other hand — a spreadsheet on a phone is not a thing that works. You write it on your hand and type it up later. The rows you never get round to are the ones that mattered.
You can’t staple a receipt or a photo to a row
You can type “see receipt” or “bad russeting on row 4”, but the receipt is still in the truck and the photo is still on your phone. When you need the evidence, the note isn’t it.
It gets awkward once more than one person is logging
One person keeping the file is fine. Three people, with a copy emailed round at the end of the week, is how you end up with two versions and an argument. Sheets in the cloud help with that — but nothing stops someone overwriting a column.
It waits for you; it never chases you
A red cell only turns red once you open the file. A spreadsheet won’t remind you a spray interval is up, or tell you a record is missing. Conditional formatting is about as far as it goes — and this workbook takes it that far.
Where Kropigo came from
Those four things are the reason Kropigo exists. It’s orchard-management software built to do the parts a spreadsheet genuinely can’t: logging at the tree from your phone, with the photo attached to the record rather than sitting in your camera roll, and everyone’s entries landing in the same place without anyone emailing a file around.
It’s a web app, so it does need a signal. If the signal drops while you’re logging, the entry you started still lands and syncs when you’re back in range — but it’s not built for a day out of coverage, and we’d rather say so here than have you find out in a back block.
If the workbook covers what you need, use the workbook. It’s not a trial of anything and we’re not waiting for you to outgrow it. Kropigo is simply what I built when I did.
And if you ever do move across, your trees come with you
The workbook has an “Import to Kropigo” tab that fills itself in from your Tree Inventory sheet by formula, so a tree you typed once stays typed once. The README explains how to upload it. If you never sign up, ignore that tab — nothing else in the file depends on it.
That covers the tree inventory only. Tasks, harvests and expenses have no bulk import — those you’d start fresh. Saying otherwise would be easy and untrue.
Two more free orchard tools
Both answer questions a record-keeping spreadsheet isn’t the right shape for. Same deal — free, no signup.
Take the workbook
Use it for a season, pass it on to a neighbour, and never speak to us again if that suits you. That’s the whole offer.
Want a note when we improve it?
Entirely optional — you already have the workbook and nothing about it expires. We’ll email when there’s a real change worth telling you about, and we’d like to hear what breaks for you.