Spreadsheets are awesome tools, and keeping track of your vehicle maintenance is well worth the discipline required to do so. In my opinion, though, the best way to track it really depends on the individual. Your inclusion of either Date Due or Mileage Due is an excellent planning tool to reduce the likelihood of missing a landmark on the scheduled maintenance intervals.

I use spreadsheets every day for anything from simple stuff like Travel Reimbursements or project Manhour tracking to more complicated equipment and industrial process design templates. I even use them for major project management and design for home-related work (cabinet door sizing, line item cost itemization, furniture layout "paper doll" efforts, etc.). That said, I'm pretty much "done" with fiddling around with spreadsheets by the time I get home at the end of the day, so I just use a simple notebook which has every detail of what I've done to the truck since I bought it over 11 years and 175K miles ago. In all honesty, though, I do not keep receipts, regardless of the well-intentioned reasoning behind that perspective, and it has never proven to be a downfall when selling my vehicles. I've also been lackadaisical about tracking oil top-offs, and have relied on my memory and situational awareness of what's going on when I face times of "excessive" top-off needs (leaks, etc.). The fact that maintenance work has been done is generally very obvious when someone looks at the condition of my vehicle or takes a ride in it.

 

Making a spreadsheet has always been on my to-do list. Being able to do conditional formatting so things turn colors (e.g. yellow within a week and red after due date) is a great visual cue. Unfortunately I never seem to have the time to make one. Instead I have used a small notebook (what we called a 'wheelbook' in the Navy) to record information. Any time I do something I write down the date, mileage, actions performed, and parts replaced/installed (with part numbers). I have a small note pad clipped on my center console that has the next mileage for routine items (oil change, tire rotation, etc.) so I don't forget them. Not very high tech but it has served me well for 25 years (10 years with this truck).

 

I've been using spreadsheets for 30 years and am using Excel currently. I have to because I forget when I performed maintenance, but mine are not nearly so sophisticated. However, they are so easy to modify on the fly, I will most certainly be taking (plagiarizing) some of your ideas and incorporating them on my worksheets.

 

feel free! That was my idea behind this thread. Lots of people have lots of good ideas for this stuff. I wanted to share and see if there was anything else I could use for mine

 

Thank you, I will. It should be noted that there are lots of good free application out there even though I use Microsoft Excel. Libre Office, Open Office and King Soft come to mind and there may be others.

 

I liked some of them, but I wanted dedicated columns for periodic items, and a separate part for other things to keep it all organized. I haven't figured out how I want to color code it yet

 

As I said, your spreadsheet is much more sophisticated than mine. Thanks for the ideas.

 

Attached is an Excel template for a very detailed vehicle service record spreadsheet that I've used for a number of years.


Once the initial entries are made as indicated on the instruction tab, the formulas contained in the spreadsheet will automatically calculate the values found in each separate tab.


This spreadsheet is not original to me, and I no longer can recall where I obtained it, but I've found it very useful for a number of vehicles that I've owned over the years. Certainly belated thanks on my part to the file originator


Hopefully, those of you who are looking for a way to maintain a service record for your vehicles will find it helpful.

 

That is one heck of a spreadsheet!

 

That is really nice!

 

Thanks for sharing. Reps sent!

 

Oops, I almost forgot. Sent reps to you ILBCNUL8R. Quite a piece of work you shared.

 

I finally got mine where I think i want it to be. Here is the file if anyone needs/wants it or parts of it.

 

Loved the detail on your spreadsheet but I was wondering why you used yellow to indicate the user should overwrite you formulas rather than protecting (locking) the worksheet formulas?

 

Afmedic: I liked your spreadsheet too, and sent reps for your contribution to this forum.