A route planning spreadsheet template that imports cleanly
Nine columns, one customer per row. Fill it in with Excel or Google Sheets, then import it to put every stop on a map and plan routes from it.
- Free for up to 50 addresses
- No credit card
- No app to install
The short answer
Updated
This free route planning template has nine columns: Name, Street, City, State, Zip, Service day, Time at stop (min), Notes and Last visit. It opens in Excel or Google Sheets, and Lite Route Planner imports it as is: the four address columns are recognized automatically, and the other five can come in as custom fields you filter and color the map by. You can download the template as a CSV; Lite Route Planner itself is free for up to 50 addresses, with unlimited routes.
How to use the template
- 1
Download it
Click to download the template, then open it in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. It's a plain CSV, so nothing is locked or hidden.
- 2
Replace the sample rows
Delete the five made-up customers and paste in your own, one customer per row. Keep the header row exactly as it is.
- 3
Fill in what you know
Only Street, City, State and Zip are needed to place a stop. Leave Service day, Notes or Last visit blank wherever you don't have them.
- 4
Save it
Keep it as .csv, or save as .xlsx if you've added formatting. Both import the same way. In a workbook with several tabs, put the list on the first tab, because that's the one that's read.
- 5
Import it
In Lite, choose Add stops and drop in the file. The four address columns are recognized as the address. Tick the other columns you want to keep, and each becomes a custom field.
- 6
Check the flagged rows
Any address that couldn't be placed is marked Not found. Fix the text, place it on the map, or leave it out, then import.
The template, as it downloads
These five sample rows come in the file. They're made up: a small service business with customers in four towns.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | |
| 1 | Name | Street | City | State | Zip | Service day | Time at stop (min) | Notes | Last visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Hartley Residence | 1482 Maple Ridge Dr | Westerville | OH | 43081 | Mon | 30 | Gate code 4417 | 2026-10-12 |
| 3 | Brookside Family Dental | 305 Ashgrove Ln | Westerville | OH | 43082 | Mon | 45 | Park in back lot | 2026-10-12 |
| 4 | Janet Okafor | 67 Linden Ct | Worthington | OH | 43085 | Tue | 25 | Dog in backyard | 2026-10-13 |
| 5 | Miller Creek HOA | 9010 Stonebrook Way | Dublin | OH | 43017 | Wed | 60 | Check in at clubhouse | 2026-10-14 |
| 6 | Patel Residence | 4120 Sawmill View Rd | Hilliard | OH | 43026 | Thu | 30 | Use side gate |
Dates are written year-month-day so the import can't mix up the month and the day. Last visit is blank for a customer you haven't served yet.
What each column is for
Four columns place the stop. The other five help you plan.
Name
Who the stop is: a family, a business or a property. It comes in as a text field, so the name is there whenever you open the stop.
Street
House number and street, such as 1482 Maple Ridge Dr. Put an apartment or suite number at the end of the same cell.
City
The town the mail goes to. Without it, a common street name can match the wrong town.
State
Two-letter code or the full name. Outside the US, use the province, county or region.
Zip
Format the column as text in Excel so ZIP codes that start with 0, common in New England, keep their leading zero.
Service day
The day this customer is usually served: Mon, Tue and so on. Filter or color the map by it, then lasso that day's stops into a route.
Time at stop (min)
How long you're usually there. It imports as a number field for reference; the day's total uses the time at stop set in Lite, a default for every stop or a different time on any stop.
Notes
Gate codes, dogs, where to park. It comes in as a text field. If a driver needs it at the door, also put it in the stop's note, which shows in the driver app.
Last visit
The date you were last there, if you track it. It imports as a date field you can filter by range. Visits you mark in Lite build each stop's history from then on.
Tips for clean addresses
Keep one customer per row and one address per customer. A landlord with three rentals gets three rows, each with its own street address.
Every row with something in an address column becomes a stop, so a note typed into the Street column turns into a stop that can't be found. Delete subtotal rows, blank rows and comments under the list before you import.
Use the physical address, not a PO box. You can't drive to a PO box, and it often places at the post office.
New subdivisions and rural roads are sometimes missing from address data. Place those pins by hand once during import; the saved stop keeps that spot for every route after.
Don't worry about duplicates. Importing an address you already have doesn't create a second stop. The columns you pick fill in its fields instead, which is also a quick way to add a new column, like Service day, to customers you've already imported.
What the columns let you do
Every column you keep is something to sort the map by.
Import a spreadsheet
Excel, CSV or cells pasted from Google Sheets. Lite finds the address columns, flags anything it's unsure of, and keeps your other columns as custom fields.
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Repair
- Install
- Inspection
- This week
- 1–2 weeks
- Never
See who's due for a visit
Color the map by last visit, from this week to over two months ago, and filter to the customers you haven't seen lately. Or color by route, driver or any field you track.
Monday Route
1h 56m · 26m driving · 1h 30m at stops · 9.0 mi
- 4m · 1.4 mi1Riverside Library740 Park Boulevard
- 6m · 2.1 mi2Bluebird Café305 Cedar Avenue
- 4m · 1.3 mi3Northside Gym61 Market Street
Drive time for every leg
See the day's total, time driving, time at stops and miles before anyone leaves.
A history for every stop
Drivers mark stops Visited or Attempted and leave a note. Every visit is saved to the stop's history, so you always know when you were last there.