What's the formula for the Schengen 90/180 rule in Excel?

Conceptually: for any given date D, sum the days you spent in Schengen between D-179 and D, inclusive. Most Excel implementations use SUMPRODUCT with date arrays. The hard part is not the formula — it's that the answer changes every day, so a static spreadsheet is out of date the moment you save it.

Schengen Calculator vs Excel Spreadsheet: When to Switch (2026)

Q: Can I track Schengen days in Excel?

Yes, but with caveats. A spreadsheet can count days in a fixed 180-day window, but the Schengen rule uses a rolling window that shifts every single day. Most DIY spreadsheets calculate the wrong window unless they recompute every time you open them, which most people forget to do.

Q: When should I switch from a spreadsheet to a Schengen calculator app?

Switch when you have more than 3 trips logged, when you start planning a future trip, or when you're approaching 60+ days used. Spreadsheets fail silently — apps update automatically as the 180-day window rolls forward.

Schengen calculator app vs Excel spreadsheet comparison

Guides

Schengen Calculator vs Excel Spreadsheet: When to Switch (2026)

By Entorii Team | Published: April 29th, 2026

If you're tracking your Schengen 90/180 days in Excel or Google Sheets, you're not alone. It's the most common DIY method we see — and it's also the most common source of accidental overstays. The reason is subtle: the Schengen rule is not a simple calendar count, it's a rolling window that moves forward by one day every 24 hours. Spreadsheets can model that, but only if you recompute them every single day. Most people forget.

The short version: a spreadsheet works fine for 1–3 trips taken months apart. It breaks down for frequent travellers because the rolling 180-day window shifts every day, and a static spreadsheet doesn't.

The app version of your spreadsheet

Entorii does what your spreadsheet was trying to do — automatically. 3 free trips, PDF reports, simulation, no formulas to maintain.

Why people start with a spreadsheet

The Schengen 90/180 rule sounds simple. You get 90 days in any 180-day rolling window. So you open Excel, list your trips, sum the days, done — right? Almost. The trap is the word "rolling".

A fixed-window spreadsheet — for example "days used between January and June" — will give you the wrong answer most days of the year. The actual window is "the last 180 days from today", which today is one set of dates, tomorrow is a different set, and a week from now a third. Days you used 5 months ago are about to "expire" out of the window. Without recalculating, you can't see that.

The Excel formula that actually works

If you genuinely want to keep using Excel, here's the formula that matches the European Commission calculator. Assume:

Column A: trip start dates
Column B: trip end dates
Cell D1: =TODAY() (or any date you want to check)

Then, in cell D2, days used in the rolling 180-day window:

=SUMPRODUCT(
  (MAX(A2:A100, D1-179) <= MIN(B2:B100, D1)) *
  (MIN(B2:B100, D1) - MAX(A2:A100, D1-179) + 1)
)

This counts overlap between each trip and the window [D1-179, D1], summing those overlaps. Important: this is "as of D1". If D1 is fixed, your answer goes stale tomorrow.

The more robust version uses =TODAY() in D1 — but you must open the file for Excel to recompute. If you check on Monday and don't reopen until Friday, you've missed four days of window movement.

Where spreadsheets fail in practice

1. Stale data

The biggest issue. The window rolls every midnight. You closed the file Sunday night thinking you had 30 days left. By Wednesday, three trips' worth of "old" days have moved out of the 180-day window — but unless you opened the file, your displayed number is wrong in both directions.

2. Future-trip simulation

Want to know if a 14-day trip in August fits within your remaining allowance? In Excel you have to manually add a hypothetical row, recompute, then remember to delete it before saving. Apps with simulation mode do this in two taps.

3. Border control documentation

If a border officer questions your stay, "I have a spreadsheet" is not a great answer. They want to see entry and exit dates with a clear total. Entorii generates a one-page PDF formatted for immigration officers — your spreadsheet doesn't.

4. Multi-device access

Your spreadsheet lives on a laptop. Your phone is at the airport. iCloud sync helps but the experience is clunky compared to a native app that opens to your current balance.

5. Edge cases

What about same-day entries and exits? Partial days at midnight border crossings? Trips spanning a year boundary? The European Commission has explicit rules for each, baked into apps but easy to get wrong in a homemade spreadsheet.

When to switch from spreadsheet to app

You should switch when any of these are true:

You have more than 3 trips logged
You're approaching 60+ days used in any window
You're planning a future trip and want to know if it fits
You travel more than twice a year
You've ever forgotten to recompute and panicked

If you're at 1–2 trips a year and you remember to reopen the file, a spreadsheet is fine. For everyone else, the maintenance cost of keeping a spreadsheet accurate exceeds the cost of just installing a free app.

How to migrate your trip history to an app

If you've been keeping a spreadsheet for years and want to switch, the migration is simple:

Open Entorii (free for the first 3 trips, full features unlocked once you upgrade).
Tap "Add trip" for each row in your spreadsheet — entry date, exit date, country.
The app recalculates your current 180-day window automatically.
Compare the result with what your spreadsheet says. If they differ, your spreadsheet has been wrong for a while.

Most users find the migration takes 5–10 minutes for a year of travel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I track Schengen days in Excel?

Yes — for occasional use it's adequate. The catch is that the Schengen 180-day window is a moving target, so any static cell value goes stale within hours. If you don't religiously reopen the file, your number is misleading.

What's the Excel formula for the Schengen 90/180 rule?

Use SUMPRODUCT with MAX/MIN to compute the overlap between each trip and a rolling 180-day window ending today (or any chosen check-date). The formula is shown above. It's accurate but only as fresh as the last time the workbook recalculated.

When should I switch from a spreadsheet to a Schengen calculator app?

When you have more than 3 trips, plan future travel, or notice you've been forgetting to recompute. Apps update automatically as the window rolls forward, simulate future trips in seconds, and produce border-control documentation — none of which spreadsheets do well.

Will a Schengen calculator app import from Excel?

Most apps don't accept direct CSV imports yet — manual re-entry is the norm. The good news: a year of trips usually takes under 10 minutes to enter, and most users only do this once.

Bottom line

Spreadsheets are a fine starting point but a poor steady state for tracking the Schengen rule. The rolling window punishes inattention silently, and the consequences (fines, deportation, multi-year entry bans) are not proportional to the convenience of staying on Excel. Try Entorii free for 3 trips — if it matches your spreadsheet, you've upgraded for free. If it doesn't, you've just discovered a problem worth fixing.