Fast CAT Spreadsheet Template: Formulas, Setup, and When You'll Outgrow It

Plenty of handlers track Fast CAT runs in Excel or Google Sheets — it's free, fully under your control, and easy to share with a co-handler or breeder. If that's where you are right now, this post gives you the exact formulas, a starter template, and an honest take on when a spreadsheet stops being the right tool.

Skip to the section you need:
• The formulas you'll need
• Column-by-column setup
• Downloadable starter template
• What spreadsheets do well
• Where they break down

The formulas you'll need

Fast CAT scoring boils down to three formulas. Every one of these works identically in Excel and Google Sheets.

MPH from time

If your run time is in cell B2 (in seconds):

=204.545/B2

That's it — AKC's published conversion. An 8.00-second run is 204.545/8.00 = 25.57 MPH.

For more precision, you can wrap in ROUND(..., 2) to display two decimal places:

=ROUND(204.545/B2, 2)

Height handicap

If your dog's height in inches is in C2:

=IF(C2>=18, 1.0, IF(C2>=12, 1.5, 2.0))

This implements AKC's three-tier handicap: ×1.0 for 18+ inches, ×1.5 for 12–18, ×2.0 for under 12.

Points

If MPH is in D2 and handicap is in E2:

=D2*E2

A 25.57 MPH run with a ×1.0 handicap earns 25.57 points; with ×1.5, 38.36 points; with ×2.0, 51.14 points.

Career points (running total)

In a column that sums all completed runs in your sheet, with points in column F:

=SUM(F2:F1000)

Or use a structured table reference if you've made your data a real Excel/Sheets table:

=SUM(Runs[Points])

Next title and points to next title

The title thresholds are 150, 500, 1000, then every 500 after. If career points are in H1:

=IF(H1<150, "BCAT", IF(H1<500, "DCAT", IF(H1<1000, "FCAT", "FCAT" & (1+CEILING((H1-1000)/500, 1)))))

Points to next title (in I1):

=IF(H1<150, 150-H1, IF(H1<500, 500-H1, IF(H1<1000, 1000-H1, 500*CEILING((H1-1000)/500, 1)+1000-H1)))

These two formulas turn raw career points into "next title: FCAT3, 142 points to go" automatically.

Column-by-column setup

A reasonable Fast CAT spreadsheet structure:

| Column | Header | What goes in it | | --- | --- | --- | | A | Date | Date of the run | | B | Time (s) | Your dog's 100-yard time, e.g., 8.09 | | C | Height (in) | Your dog's height at the withers — same number every row | | D | MPH | =ROUND(204.545/B2, 2) | | E | Handicap | =IF(C2>=18, 1.0, IF(C2>=12, 1.5, 2.0)) | | F | Points | =ROUND(D2*E2, 2) | | G | Event # | AKC event number from your run slip | | H | Sponsor | Host club name | | I | Notes | Weather, ground, anything you want to remember |

For a household with multiple dogs, add a column A for "Dog" and use one sheet per dog or filter by dog.

In the header area (row 1 or a separate "Summary" tab), add running calculations:
• Total runs: =COUNTA(A:A)-1
• Career points: =SUM(F:F)
• Average points per run: =AVERAGE(F:F)
• Top MPH: =MAX(D:D)
• Next title: paste the title formula above
• Points to next title: paste the points-to-next formula above

Downloadable starter template

A blank starter CSV with the column structure above is available here:

Download fast-cat-tracker-template.csv

It opens directly in Excel or Numbers, and Google Sheets imports it via File → Import → Upload. The CSV is just headers and one example row — you'll add the formulas yourself using the snippets above. (CSV files can't carry formulas; you have to type them in once after import. Good news: it's a 30-second setup.)

What spreadsheets do well

There's a real reason handlers reach for a spreadsheet. The honest case:

Free. No subscription, no signup.

Fully under your control. It's your file, on your computer or in your Google Drive. Nobody can deplatform you.

Easy to share. Send a co-handler or breeder a copy. They can edit it.

Flexible. Add columns whenever you want. Track things the app developer didn't think of.

No vendor lock-in. Google Sheets and Excel will be around in 20 years. Apps come and go.

Good enough for low-volume tracking. Two or three runs a year? You don't need an app.

If your Fast CAT season is light and you're already comfortable in Sheets, a spreadsheet is a perfectly defensible answer.

Where they break down

Spreadsheets stop being enough at predictable points. The ones handlers consistently report:

1. AKC verification is manual

Every run produces two times: the handheld at the trial, and the official one AKC publishes 1–2 weeks later. They almost always match, but when they don't, you have to remember to check AKC's site, look up your dog, and edit your spreadsheet. Most handlers don't, and their spreadsheet's career numbers slowly drift away from their dog's actual record.

The TallyCAT app does this automatically: every run's AKC-published time is fetched and substituted in once results post. There's no parallel mechanism in a spreadsheet.

2. Run slip data entry

Every paper run slip from the trial has six or seven fields you'd want in a spreadsheet (time, event number, club, location, sponsor, date, sometimes weather and ground). Typing those by hand at the kitchen table after a long trial day is the most common reason handlers fall behind on their spreadsheet.

The app scans run slips with the camera and fills the row in.

3. Event finder

Spreadsheets don't tell you when the next trial is. You bounce out to AKC's event search, filter, and copy event numbers back. Doable, but disconnected from your tracking.

4. Live AKC top-20 awareness

If you want to know whether your dog is in the breed top 20, you bounce out to AKC's rankings page, find your breed, scroll. A spreadsheet has no way to surface this. The app pulls live AKC rankings into your dog's profile and notifies you on rank changes.

You can preview the leaderboards on this site too — see live AKC top 20 by breed. Browsing them on a phone is what the app makes routine.

5. Multi-dog management

For a single dog, a spreadsheet is fine. For 3+ dogs, the per-dog filtering, per-breed handicap differences, and side-by-side comparison get messy. Either you maintain one giant sheet with filter views (slow to update) or one sheet per dog (lots of duplication).

6. Photos and per-run metadata

Spreadsheets don't hold photos well. If you want a photo of your dog's run-day expression alongside the row, or a screenshot of the run slip, or temperature/ground notes that survive into a query, the spreadsheet starts feeling thin.

7. Sharing with non-spreadsheet people

Most family members, breeders, and co-handlers don't open spreadsheets eagerly. A shareable image of your dog's career stats card — the kind handlers post to social — isn't a thing your spreadsheet can produce.

When to make the move

Reasonable rule of thumb: when you've spent more than 30 minutes in a year reconciling AKC's published times against your spreadsheet, the spreadsheet is no longer saving you time. The app's free tier (one dog, unlimited runs, no signup, no expiration) covers everything a spreadsheet does and most of what a spreadsheet doesn't.

You don't have to abandon the spreadsheet immediately — keeping both for a season is a reasonable transition. The CSV import path means you can move historical runs into the app whenever you're ready.

Download TallyCAT on the App Store — or use the free calculators from this site as a no-install alternative if you'd rather stay in your spreadsheet for now and just want the math automated in the browser.

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Related reading:
• What to look for in a Fast CAT tracker
• Is there a free Fast CAT tracker?
• What is Fast CAT? A complete guide
• Live AKC Fast CAT leaderboards by breed