House Manager Operations Toolkit | Staff Rota, Supply Orders, PPM, Renovations | Estate Manager, Butler, PA & Family Office | Excel + Sheets

A big house runs on dozens of small systems: the rota, the orders, the repairs list, the certificates that quietly expire, the keys nobody signed for, the guest who is allergic to nuts. Most house managers keep these in a patchwork of old spreadsheets and notebooks. This toolkit puts them into six tidy workbooks, grouped the way a household is actually run, with the arithmetic and the reminders done for you.

Built for house managers, estate managers, butlers, household PAs and family offices working with UK private households.

01 Staff, Rota & Training

- Weekly rota for every department on one A4 landscape page. Pick a shift code per day; hours are totalled, with days worked, days off, holiday and sickness. Flags catch unknown codes, long weeks, overtime against contract and no day off. A cover check shows any department below its minimum on any day.

- 18 shift codes ready (early, late, day, long day, nights, split, evening, travel, on call, training, holiday, bank holiday, sick, TOIL…). Paid hours come from start, finish and unpaid break. Overnight shifts work.

- Absence log and leave summary: working days counted (bank holidays excluded), holiday-year balances, sickness spells and Bradford score.

- Training & certificates: DBS, first aid, food hygiene, SIA licences, driving licence checks and more, with expiry dates and red / amber / green, plus a who-holds-what matrix. Handover notes sheet.

02 Supplies, Ordering & Waste

- Weekly order sheets for nine departments: drivers, security, kitchen, butler & pantry, housekeeping, maintenance, gardens, laundry and guest amenities. Each is pre-loaded with typical items.

- Item, unit, supplier, par, in stock, qty to order = par – stock, override for pack sizes, unit cost, line total, status, ordered / received dates, approved by. Lines over your approval limit are flagged.

- Order Summary: every department against its weekly budget, what's still awaited, and totals by supplier so you can place one order per supplier.

- Waste control: food waste by service and category, stock write-offs, wine & spirits losses, and a 12-month summary of totals and cost.

03 Property, Maintenance & Projects

- Repairs & maintenance log: priority with response targets, contractor, cost, days open and RAG status.

- PPM & compliance register: 45 typical UK items (gas safety, EICR, legionella, fire alarm, emergency lighting, LOLER, F-gas, chimney, septic tank…), with next due dates and a 12-month calendar.

- Renovation / project planner: projects, phases, tasks with owners and contractors, budget vs actual, start and finish dates, status and a colour-coded 26-week Gantt. 3-quote comparison, snag list and a contractor directory with insurance expiry and ratings.

04 Inventory, Cellar & Security

- Asset register with insured values and a summary by category and property; wine cellar by bin with drinking windows and reorder flags.

- Breakages & damage log with insurance claim and net cost.

- Key, fob & access register: who holds what, signed for, returned or lost, and when codes last changed. Codes are never stored, and entries that are only numbers are blocked.

- Security incident log, lost property, deliveries & post.

05 Family, Guests & Events

- Family preference profiles and guest preferences (dietary needs and allergies highlighted).

- Guest visit planner with transport, a room clash check and a three-week room calendar.

- Events diary and an event plan with a 23-step countdown checklist, run sheet and budget lines.

06 House Checklists

- Daily, weekly, monthly and annual checklists with tick / cross / N/A drop-downs and completion %.

- House opening and closing checklists for a seasonal residence, dated back from arrival and forward from departure.

Every workbook has

- A Start Here tab with set-up steps and links to every tab, and a Settings tab where every drop-down list can be edited.

- Cream input cells and locked calculated cells (no password). Drop-downs, conditional formatting and print-ready layouts.

What's included

1. Six blank workbooks (HM_01 to HM_06). These are the ones you use.

2. Six EXAMPLE workbooks filled in for a fictional London household, so you can see every tab working. All names, numbers and contacts are made up.

3. How_to_use_House_Manager_Operations_Toolkit.pdf: a 12-page A4 guide with a contents page.

4. HM_00_Index.pdf: a one-page index of every template.

Works with Microsoft Excel 2016+ (Windows and Mac), Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice. No macros, no add-ins and no formulas to write. Instant digital download.

Please read before buying

- These are spreadsheets, not software. Nothing connects to suppliers, payroll or alarm systems, and nothing is online.

- The compliance list reflects typical UK practice for private houses. It is not legal, HR, health & safety or insurance advice, so check intervals with your insurer and contractors.

- The files will hold personal and security-sensitive information. Keep them somewhere secure. Never record alarm codes, safe combinations or passwords in them.

- Google Sheets doesn't keep Excel's sheet protection, so take care not to type over the white calculated cells. Apple Numbers isn't supported.

- Licensed for use within one household or one employer's properties.

How to use it

Google Sheets: go to drive.google.com → New → File upload, choose a blank .xlsx and open it. Choose File → Save as Google Sheets, then start on the Start Here tab.

Excel: open the .xlsx, click Enable Editing if Protected View appears, and start on Start Here.