Practical guide / Lending Library & Reservations Workbook 1.0
Find the copy, the borrower and the return still due.
Track individual copies, loans, renewals, reservations and actual returns. Availability uses your review date; a planned or future return does not make an item available today.
Your first useful result: Identify each copy Follow the first task
Identify each copy
Give every physical item and borrower an ID. Use short contact references rather than private identity details.
The linked records and input checks use the same stable IDs and your chosen dates.
Review: Review the labelled results and correct source warnings before acting.
Record the loan and due date
Loans holds the original due date. Renewals is a separate dated agreement, preserving the original record.
The linked records and input checks use the same stable IDs and your chosen dates.
Review: Review the labelled results and correct source warnings before acting.
Record the actual return
Returns connects the return date and condition to Loan ID. Condition Review shows current holder, due date and overdue days.
The linked records and input checks use the same stable IDs and your chosen dates.
Review: Review the labelled results and correct source warnings before acting.
Check the assumptions.
- Save a working copy. Manual entry, with no automatic sync or external connections.
- Supplied tables have fixed capacities. Extend formulas, tables and validation together before using extra rows.
- Keep source units and metric definitions consistent. Blank means unknown; enter 0 only for a confirmed zero.
- Resolve the highlighted input rows before relying on the summary.
- Uses exact-mode XMATCH. Requires Excel 2021, Excel 2024 or Microsoft 365; older Excel editions are not supported. Native Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers have not been verified.
- Each physical copy has its own Item ID. This workbook does not manage quantities, barcode scanners, fines, online booking or email.
- Availability is evaluated at the review date. A future return does not make an item available today.
- Supplied rows: 300 items, 150 borrowers, 300 reservations, 500 loans, 300 renewals and 500 returns.
- Dates have day precision. An item returned on a date can be lent again on that same date. Confirm condition and handover yourself.
Keep a copy you can return to.
Keep the supplied clean and example files unchanged. Save your own working file with a useful name, such as lending-library-2027-home.xlsx, and keep a dated backup before a large edit. A purchased ZIP is the blank source, not a backup of your entries.
If an input or formula is replaced
Undo the edit while it is still available, or return to a known good backup. If you need a fresh clean file, transfer only your records into its marked input cells and follow the setup guide again. Do not paste whole sheets over the supplied formulas, validations or reference lists. Check IDs, units, dates and linked results against the example before relying on the copy.
When the supplied rows are full
300 items · 150 borrowers · 300 reservations · 500 loans · 300 renewals · 500 returns. Calculation ranges and validations have fixed capacities. A new row below a table does not prove that every linked result includes it.
For a separate period, project or volume, preserve the old workbook and start a named clean copy. If records must carry forward, record exactly which inputs you transfer, preserve their references and compare the opening and closing figures. Avoid copying historical activity as both an opening amount and a new movement. There is no automatic migration between files.
Inspect the workbook before you choose.
View its real sheets and a fictional calculation example.
Explore Lending Library & Reservations WorkbookWritten for version 1.0. Examples describe the supplied workflow; they are not customer results.