IR35 Status Excel - Free Template

1. Open the Instructions sheet first and read the stated workflow, evidence guidance and limitations of the tracker.
2. Go to IR35 Tracker and enter an Engagement ID, contractor details, client, location, role and contract dates in the input fields.
3. Complete the SDS Issued Date, SDS Review Date, Fee Payer and Client Size / Responsibility fields where applicable.
4. Assess the working-practice fields using the available lists for substitution, client control, mutuality of obligation, financial risk, equipment and integration.
5. Add factual Working Practices Notes, the Annual Contract Value (£), the Final Status and the Evidence / SDS File Reference. Do not overwrite formula cells.
6. Review the calculated Risk Score, Indicative Outcome, Review Status, Days to Review and Potential PAYE/NIC Review Flag.
7. Use Dashboard to review totals and status splits, then update the record when working arrangements, duties, client details or review dates change.

An IR35 tracker is useful for a contractor manager, procurement team, finance manager or operations lead handling several engagements at once. It gives each engagement a distinct record, so a review can start with the contractor, client, role, dates and stated status rather than searching through email attachments.

Contractor and client records

For example, a resourcing manager might enter ENG-2601 for Oliver Bennett, working through Bennett Digital Ltd as a Data Migration Consultant for Atlas Consulting Ltd in London. The record includes a contract start of 06/01/2026, an end of 18/12/2026, an SDS issued date of 02/01/2026 and a review date of 25/08/2026.

The same row captures that the project is managed independently with the contractor's own methods. It also records Agency as the fee payer, Medium or large client responsibility, a Yes substitution right, Low client control, Low mutuality of obligation, High financial risk, Mostly contractor equipment and Low integration.

Reviewing a portfolio

A finance or operations team can use the workbook during a weekly resourcing review, a monthly contractor review or a project change meeting. A second example is ENG-2602: Amelia Clarke's Finance Transformation Lead engagement has a 02/02/2026 start, a 30/11/2026 end and a 11/09/2026 SDS review date.

Its notes say the client directs daily priorities and provides core systems. That detail matters because the tracker is designed to retain actual working-practice information, not just a label copied from a contract.

On the Dashboard, management can see the total number of engagement IDs, the average annual contract value and counts for Outside IR35, Inside IR35 and Undetermined. The two charts summarise those status and indicative-outcome groupings, making the workbook suitable for a review meeting without replacing the underlying row-level evidence.

The IR35 Tracker separates entered information from calculated outputs. You enter the engagement and working-practice fields, while formulas in columns T, U, W, X and Z calculate the Risk Score, Indicative Outcome, Review Status, Days to Review and Potential PAYE/NIC Review Flag. This is preferable to typing the same conclusion in several places because changing one assessment updates the dependent outputs.

Controlled inputs

Dropdowns restrict Fee Payer to Client, Agency, Contractor Company or Other. Client Size / Responsibility has three choices, substitution has Yes or No, and client control, mutuality of obligation, financial risk and integration use Low, Medium or High. Contractor Equipment uses Mostly, Shared or Client. Final Status is limited to Inside IR35, Outside IR35 or Undetermined.

For a worked example, ENG-2603 records Yes substitution, Medium client control, Medium mutuality, Medium financial risk, Shared equipment and Medium integration. Its notes say working arrangements are being clarified after a team restructure. Those selections produce a calculated score and an indicative outcome; they do not themselves constitute a legal determination.

Calculated outputs

The score formula assigns points to the selected indicators, then column U uses a VLOOKUP against Dashboard cells J5:K8 to return the mapped indicative outcome. The Dashboard mapping starts at score 0 for Lower IR35 risk, 4 for Medium IR35 risk, 7 for Higher IR35 risk and 10 for Specialist review recommended.

Days to Review is calculated as the SDS Review Date minus TODAY(). If no engagement ID or review date exists, the result remains blank. Review Status distinguishes Not assessed, Action required, Monitor and Recorded, while the PAYE/NIC prompt changes according to the Final Status. Keep formula cells intact and amend source inputs instead.

The most damaging failure in an IR35 record is often not a broken formula but an unsupported or outdated working-practice entry. If a role changes from independently managed delivery to client-directed daily priorities, leaving Client Control as Low makes the row inconsistent with its own notes and can distort the calculated Risk Score.

Outdated dates and statuses

Consider a hypothetical engagement with a SDS Review Date of 01/09/2026. On 06/09/2026, Days to Review would be -5 because the formula subtracts TODAY() from the stored date. If the review is completed but the date and Final Status are not updated, the Dashboard can continue to count the record as unresolved or show a misleading review prompt.

An empty Final Status produces Not assessed in Review Status. An Undetermined status produces Action required, while Outside IR35 produces Monitor. These outputs are useful controls, but only if the user records the actual decision rather than treating Indicative Outcome as the final answer.

Inconsistent evidence

A row with High financial risk but notes describing no financial exposure needs checking. Likewise, a contractor listed as using Client equipment should not be casually changed to Mostly without supporting working-practice evidence. Use the Evidence / SDS File Reference to connect the row to the contract, SDS, invoices, timesheets, project documents, supervision records or correspondence.

There is also a practical data-entry risk: typing values outside the supplied lists can weaken consistency if validation is bypassed. For example, entering a variation of Outside-IR35 instead of Outside IR35 may prevent the COUNTIF formulas from including the engagement in the Dashboard count. Use the dropdown values exactly and correct source records before investigating the summary.

The tracker is more useful when its update point is fixed. Attach it to an existing contractor, procurement or finance review rather than treating it as a one-off exercise. For example, review new Engagement IDs on a Monday resourcing meeting, then revisit open SDS Review Dates during the first finance review of each month.

Build a repeatable process

• Assign one owner for new rows and one reviewer for status and evidence checks.
• Use the Engagement ID as the reference in related folders, emails and SDS files.
• Update Working Practices Notes when duties, control, client, equipment or reporting arrangements change.
• Check the Dashboard's reviews due within 30 days figure before each review meeting.
• Record the Annual Contract Value (£) consistently so the average shown on the Dashboard remains meaningful.

Use the Instructions sheet as the handover point for a new user. It explains that pale yellow cells are the intended entry area and that formula cells calculate the outputs. This distinction matters when several people maintain up to 999 rows: users should amend inputs, not replace formulas with pasted results.

Know when the workbook is no longer enough

A small team may manage 12 engagements comfortably in this format, but 12 records can still generate frequent changes if each engagement has several evidence files and review events. When you need permissions, an audit trail of every edit, automated reminders, document storage or multiple linked assessments per engagement, consider a dedicated system.

Until then, preserve a controlled copy, avoid changing the validation lists or formula columns, and use the Dashboard as a management view rather than as a substitute for the underlying evidence and professional review.