Every potluck organiser learns the same two lessons the hard way: three people bring potato salad, and nobody brings drinks. This planner catches both — while there’s still time to fix them.
HOW IT WORKS
Set your own target counts per category on Start Here (the sample: 3 mains, 6 sides, 3 desserts, 2 drinks, 2 supplies). Build the Guest Roster — who’s coming, what they’re bringing, the category, how many it serves, their RSVP — and the sheet watches the roster for you: any dish name that appears twice flags itself on every matching row (“DUPLICATE — 3 guests bring this”), and the Coverage Board counts named dishes against your targets and prints the gaps by name.
WHAT’S INSIDE
– Guest Roster (22 rows): guest, dish, category, serves, RSVP (Confirmed / Maybe / No reply), your own dietary notes, and the automatic duplicate flag
– The sample catch: potato salad ×3 — Amara, Ben and Priya — all three rows flagged, and Ben’s “making a vegan version” note kept visible in the notes column
– The Coverage Board: Mains 3/3, Sides 7/6, Desserts 4/3, Supplies 2/2 — and Drinks 1/2: SHORT BY 1, the gap named two weeks early instead of at the door
– Your own contribution, costed like a shopping list: the host’s pulled chicken and supplies total $30.33, line by line
– The Follow-Up Tracker: 12 confirmed, 3 maybes, 3 no-replies still to chase, out of 18 guests
– Expense Log + zero-based Monthly Budget ($150 across 8 event categories), Dashboard and Monthly Summary
Dietary notes are a free-text column for YOUR record of what guests told you — the sheet stores your words and never advises on food or diets. Year-round and generic: neighbourhood potlucks, office parties, team dinners, family reunions — anywhere a table gets filled by a crowd.
How it works: the seven tabs are Start Here (your settings + step-by-step), the two feature tabs, Expense Log, Monthly Budget (zero-based), Dashboard and Monthly Summary. Yellow cells are the only places you type — every yellow value is your own entry. Formula cells are locked (password: sheetdaily, disclosed on the Start Here tab) and every formula is error-wrapped, so an untouched sheet reads blank instead of showing error codes. Instant download, ready for Excel and Google Sheets.
A note on the sample data: every price and date in this workbook is example data, typed in by hand to show you how the sheet behaves. Replace it with your own.
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