Babysitter Booking and Payment Log

Who this is for

One line per booking. You write the start and finish times and the rate you agreed; the sheet works out the hours and what they come to, carries anything unpaid into its own column, and totals the lot at the foot of the page.

Parents using the same sitter regularly and settling up monthly, households sharing a sitter with neighbours, and sitters themselves who would rather hand over a page than recall a fortnight of evenings.

What this helps you track

• Every booking with its date, the sitter and the hours worked
• Hours calculated from the times, including an evening that runs past midnight
• The rate you agreed, applied down the sheet or overridden on a line
• What each booking came to and which ones are still outstanding
• The total hours, total paid and the amount still owed

How to use it

1. Fill in the household, the period and the hourly rate you have agreed at the top of the sheet.
2. Write times as decimal hours on a 24-hour clock: 19.5 is half past seven in the evening, 23.75 is quarter to midnight.
3. Enter the start and finish for each booking; the hours column subtracts them and adds the twenty-four back on where the evening crossed midnight.
4. Leave the rate column blank to use the agreed rate from the top, or type a different one on a line that was charged differently.
5. Tick paid when the money has actually changed hands; the outstanding column empties itself when you do.
6. Read the totals at the foot, and keep the sitter's own information sheet separately — this log is about hours and money.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

What should I pay a babysitter?

We do not say, and no rate appears anywhere on this sheet. Every amount is worked out from the figure you typed in, which is the one you and your sitter agreed between you.

Why decimal hours instead of 7:30pm?

Because the subtraction has to work in the browser, in the spreadsheet and on paper without anyone converting anything. Writing 19.5 keeps all three versions agreeing, and it takes about two bookings to get used to.

What happens when a sitter stays past midnight?

The hours column handles it: a booking from 19.5 to 0.75 comes out as five and a quarter hours rather than a negative number.

Does this replace the sheet I leave for the sitter?

No. That one has contacts, routines and where things are on it, and it stays on the kitchen table. This is the record you keep afterwards, and it lives in a drawer.

Can two households share one log?

Put both in the notes column and settle from the totals, or print a sheet each. What you should not do is keep one household's bookings in somebody else's head.