Executor Checklist Spreadsheet | Estate Settlement and Probate Tracker for Excel and Google Sheets | Asset Inventory and Deadlines

Grief doesn't pause for paperwork. So the file keeps the dates.

Being named executor arrives at the worst possible moment. You are grieving, and the paperwork does not wait. There are dates now — a few federal, most of them your state's — and every one of them is counted from the day someone died. This workbook does that counting. You enter the date of death once, and fourteen connected tabs work out the rest.

One date in. Every date out.

WHAT THE FILE WORKS OUT — from the sample estate that ships inside (Margaret A. Cole is sample data, not a customer and not a real person)
· 45 deadlines computed from one cell. 29 of them apply to her estate, 6 are already overdue, and the next one is 48 days away — the creditor claim window closing on Sep 14, 2026. Rows that do not apply grey themselves out.
· A gross estate of $1,727,480, of which only $431,480 goes through the probate court. $1,296,000 — 75.0% of it — transfers directly by beneficiary designation, survivorship, transfer-on-death registration and trust. And every dollar of that is still in the taxable gross estate.
· No federal estate tax is owed and no Form 706 is required — and $14,102,178 of unused exclusion still transfers to the surviving spouse only if one is filed. Portability is never automatic. The file prices it and counts the 1,690 days left in the Rev. Proc. 2022-32 window.
· 13 creditors, $123,728 presented, $119,358 allowed, and one $2,500 claim that arrived after the window closed and is barred. Each creditor gets their own deadline and a rank in the statutory order of payment.
· $545,400 of built-in gain erased by the step-up — and three assets that step up by nothing at all, because a traditional IRA is income in respect of a decedent, not cash.
· 22 institutions, and the exact number of certified death certificates they will actually take: 21. The file counts them from your own list instead of guessing.

NOTHING ABOUT YOUR STATE IS HARD-CODED
Probate deadlines, creditor claim periods, small-estate thresholds, executor compensation, bond and state death taxes are state law, and several of them change mid-year — one changed less than a month before this file was built. All 35 of them live on the State Settings tab as cells you fill in, each with a place for your source and the date you checked it, and the workbook tells you out loud when that date has gone stale. Only federal figures are built in, and every one of those appears on the Reference tab with its source and its as-of date.

WHAT'S INSIDE — 14 connected tabs
Start Here · The First Two Weeks · State Settings · Deadline Engine · Asset Inventory · Probate vs Non-Probate · Debts and Claims · Estate Tax Check · Step-Up Basis · Inherited Retirement · Distribution Ledger · Estate Accounting · Contacts and Accounts Log · Reference

Built to be lived in: 60 formula-ready asset rows, 40 creditor rows, 40 institution rows, 70 rows of receipts and disbursements reconciled to the estate bank balance, 40 step-up basis rows, and a Reference tab that cites every federal figure with its source and the day it was checked.

WHAT YOU DOWNLOAD — one zip, eight files
· Estate-Settlement-Executor-Command-Center.xlsx — the main workbook
· Bonus Themes folder — the same workbook in Light, Dark and Editorial
· Quick-Start-Guide.pdf — 13 pages, start to finish
· ACCESS-YOUR-TEMPLATE.pdf — one click opens your own copy in Google Sheets
· README - Start Here.txt and LICENSE.txt

FOUR COLOR THEMES INCLUDED — Classic, Light, Dark and Editorial, same engine.

WORKS IN EXCEL AND GOOGLE SHEETS — one file, both engines. Open the xlsx in Microsoft Excel, or use the included one-click access PDF to make your own Google Sheets copy and share it with a co-executor. No add-ons, no subscription, nothing that reaches out to the internet.

HONEST ENGINEERING
2,114 formulas · recalculated clean · 1,088/1,088 independent math checks · every screen in this listing is the real file. No subscription. Free lifetime updates.

Margaret A. Cole is shipped sample data, not a customer — every screen works the moment you open it, and clears in one select-and-delete when you are ready for your own.

FOUR THINGS THIS FILE WILL KEEP TELLING YOU
· A will does not avoid probate. Titling does.
· You are not personally liable for the decedent's debts by serving. You are liable for what you do wrong, and that liability is capped at what you improperly paid out.
· Portability is not automatic, and it is the single most expensive thing executors forget.
· Not everything gets a step-up in basis. Traditional retirement accounts never do.

PLEASE READ
This workbook is an organiser and a calculator. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, it does not practise law, and it does not file anything for you. Probate is state and county law, and every state figure in this file is a cell you fill in yourself. Most estates can be settled without a lawyer; some very much cannot, and in Florida a personal representative who is not the sole interested person is required to be represented by one. Confirm your own situation with your probate court and, where the money or the family warrants it, with a professional.

WATCH THE FULL WALKTHROUGH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/2JjjxkEMFho

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Instant download · personal use · by NicheToolkits