Remote Working Relief Excel - Free Template

1. Open the Claim Log sheet and enter each remote working claim on its own row. Keep the date in DD/MM/YYYY format and use the same name for each employee so the Summary sheet stays clean.
2. Fill in the PPS number, county, remote days worked, total workdays in the month and eligible household costs. If you are missing a PPS number, mark the row as incomplete so it stands out straight away.
3. Choose the claim method and check the daily allowance rate shown in the file. In the sample data, the rate is €3.20, so you can see how the calculated claim is supposed to read.
4. Use the notes column for short context such as full remote month, part-time hybrid, or PPS pending from HR. That helps if you need to explain why a claim was submitted or delayed.
5. Review the Summary sheet to see the totals and the spread of claim statuses. Use it to tell at a glance what is approved, what is pending, and what still needs checking.
6. Read the Instructions sheet before you hand the file to payroll or keep it for your own records. If your process grows beyond a few employees, move the data into payroll software rather than letting the spreadsheet become the system of record.

This spreadsheet is built for the people who actually handle remote working relief claims in Ireland: an employee checking their own records, a payroll administrator, or an office manager pulling a file together for April payroll. The Claim Log sheet is where the row-by-row detail sits, so you can see who worked remotely, in what county, and whether the claim is complete.

Image 1 shows the Claim Log with columns for Date, Employee Name, PPS number, County, Remote Days Worked, Total Workdays in Month, Eligible Household Costs (€), Claim Method, Daily Allowance Rate (€), Calculated Claim (€), Notes, Status and Data Check. That is enough for a small firm with 4 staff in hybrid patterns, or a household where two employees both need their own claim records.

Who uses it and when

A payroll clerk might update it after each monthly run, while a sole trader with one employee may only need it at quarter-end. A 20-person office could use it every pay period; if 6 staff each submit 8 remote days at €3.20, that is 48 entries to keep tidy in one month.

What the sheet is actually for

The point is not fancy reporting. It is to keep the claim evidence in a format that is easy to check, easy to sort, and easy to hand over when someone asks why a claim was approved, submitted or left incomplete.

That same need for a clean, checkable record carries into contribution estimates, where the figures also have to be easy to sort, verify and hand over when a claim is reviewed.

For tax records in Ireland, the practical rule is simple: keep supporting documents for 6 years. That matters here because remote working relief claims should not live in a stray email trail if you want to prove the figures later.

The template is designed around a basic Revenue-style record: dates, identity details, the claim method and the amounts used. If an employee claims for 10 remote days at the sample rate of €3.20, the working total is €32.00 before you compare it with the underlying household cost basis.

The figures you need to hold together

Remote working relief is not the same as VAT, but the discipline is similar: you need a clean record, not a rough estimate scribbled on a payslip. If one person submits 18 days in February and another submits 12, the workbook lets you see the split without calculating it again from scratch.

Keep the file aligned with payroll

If you run PAYE, PRSI and USC through payroll already, this sheet works best as a supporting schedule rather than a replacement system. My view is to keep the spreadsheet for evidence and review, then let payroll software handle the live deductions and submissions.

The biggest problem is not the maths, it is the gaps. A row with no PPS number, no status, or no clear claim method becomes awkward the minute someone asks whether it was reviewed, approved or paid.

Image 2, the Summary sheet, is there to stop that mess spreading. If 3 claims are marked incomplete and each one takes 10 minutes to chase, you have already lost half an hour before you even start checking the euro amounts.

Missing details cost time

A missing PPS number is not a small issue if you are reconciling a year’s claims. You may have 40 or 50 rows on file, and even 5 incomplete entries can turn a quick review into a long back-and-forth with HR or the employee.

Bad status handling costs money

Another common failure is mixing approved, submitted and pending claims in the same notes field with no proper status. That is how a claim gets missed in the final batch and ends up being queried months later, when nobody remembers whether it was €24.00 or €124.00.

Why the clear layout matters

A clean spreadsheet is cheaper than fixing a claim trail after the fact. If you keep the structure consistent from the first row, you avoid the kind of tidy-up that costs an hour on Friday evening and another hour when the next month closes.

A consistent structure also makes day-rate tracking easier to reconcile at month-end, because each allowance can be checked against the same clean row layout instead of scattered notes.

This template works best when you hook it onto something you already do, such as the monthly payroll run or the end-of-month reconciliations. If you leave it as a one-off file, it will drift after two weeks.

Simple habits that keep it alive

• Update it on the same day each month, ideally just before payroll closes.
• Copy the previous month’s rows and change only the new dates, days and amounts.
• Use the status field every time so approved, pending and incomplete claims stay separate.
• Check the Summary sheet before you file anything away.
• Keep the file in one shared location rather than in three different email attachments.

If you have more than one person entering claims, use one person to review the workbook and one person to submit it. Once you are managing a large workforce, or the file starts carrying dozens of rows a month, it is usually time to move the live process into payroll or HR software and keep the spreadsheet as a control sheet only.