A job description template is a fill-in structure for one role’s title, reporting line, pay range, duties and requirements. This job description template holds 22 fields and comes two ways: copyable text and an Excel builder with a labelled fictional sample row. It suits an owner or office manager at a 3-50 person US business who is about to post a role.
Job description builder (Excel)
One row per role, with drop-down lists for work arrangement, employment type, FLSA status and pay basis, a Pay Range formula, a Completeness Check column and a sample row.
If you write in Word or Google Docs, the full template text sits in the next section, ready to paste.
In This Article (9 sections)
Copy the Job Description Template
Copy the block below as plain text: it holds every field of the Excel file, in the same order, with a bracketed prompt for each. The public job posting is built from this description and leaves out its internal lines, Last Reviewed and Before posting.
JOB DESCRIPTION
ROLE BASICS
Job Title: [title as posted]
Department: [team]
Reports To: [manager's title]
Location: [city, state]
Work Arrangement: [On-site / Hybrid / Remote]
Employment Type: [Full-time / Part-time / Temporary / Seasonal]
Schedule: [days and hours]
PAY AND CLASSIFICATION
FLSA Status: [Non-exempt / Exempt / To confirm]
Pay Basis: [Hourly / Annual salary]
Pay Min: [lowest offer]
Pay Max: [highest offer]
Pay Range: $[min] - $[max] per [hour / year]
THE WORK
Job Summary: [why the role exists; what success looks like]
Essential Functions:
- [core duty] ([share of time])
- [core duty] ([share of time])
- [core duty] ([share of time])
- [core duty] ([share of time])
Additional Responsibilities: [occasional tasks]
REQUIREMENTS
Required Qualifications: [must-haves]
Preferred Qualifications: [nice-to-haves]
Physical Requirements and Work Environment: [demands tied to the duties]
ABOUT US
Benefits: [what the role gets besides pay]
About the Company: [two sentences]
Last Reviewed: [date]
Before posting: [every field filled; pay range shown in the posting text]The Pay Range and “Before posting” lines stand in for the Excel file’s two formula columns, which fill themselves.
What’s in the Template: What a Job Description Should Include
The template has 22 fields in five groups; the table gives what to enter in each next to a sample value, and the Excel header row uses the same 22 names in the same order.
The Example column is invented sample data for a fictional bakery, used again in the filled example further down.
| Field | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Job Title | The role’s name as posted | Front-of-House Shift Lead |
| Department | The team the role sits in | Front of House |
| Reports To | The manager’s title, not a name | Store Manager |
| Location | City and state of the work | Anytown, ST |
| Work Arrangement | On-site, Hybrid or Remote | On-site |
| Employment Type | Full-time, Part-time, Temporary or Seasonal | Full-time |
| Schedule | Days and hours | Thu-Mon, 6:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m. |
| FLSA Status | Non-exempt, Exempt or To confirm | Non-exempt |
| Pay Basis | Hourly or Annual salary | Hourly |
| Pay Min | Lowest pay you expect to offer | 18.00 |
| Pay Max | Highest pay you expect to offer | 21.00 |
| Pay Range | Formula from Pay Min, Pay Max and Pay Basis | $18.00 – $21.00 per hour |
| Job Summary | Why the role exists and what success looks like | Runs the morning counter shift |
| Essential Functions | 4 to 8 core duties with a share of time | Leads a crew of 3 on shift (35%) |
| Additional Responsibilities | Occasional or marginal tasks | Covers phone orders |
| Required Qualifications | Must-haves | 1 year of food-service experience |
| Preferred Qualifications | Nice-to-haves that screen no one out | Prior shift-lead experience |
| Physical Requirements and Work Environment | Demands tied to the essential functions | Lifts trays up to 25 lb |
| Benefits | What the role gets besides pay | One staff meal per shift |
| About the Company | Two sentences on the business | A 12-person neighborhood bakery |
| Last Reviewed | Date last checked | 2026-11-01 |
| Completeness Check | Formula: “Complete” or the count of empty fields | Complete |
Sources: sample data, fictional business.
Federal or state rules touch five of the template’s entries: FLSA Status, Essential Functions, Physical Requirements and Work Environment, Pay Min with Pay Max, and Pay Range. They get their own section after the steps.
How to Use the Template
You can finish a description in seven steps, one action each, and the order matters because the duty list should exist before the posting does.
- Fill in the role basics: Job Title, Department, Reports To (a title, not a name), Location, Work Arrangement, Employment Type and Schedule.
- List 4 to 8 essential functions, each with an approximate share of time, before you advertise or interview; Essential Functions and the ADA, below, explains why the timing counts.
- Set FLSA Status from the role’s duties and pay, not its title. Choose “To confirm” until you have checked the tests covered under Fields That Official Rules Touch.
- Choose Pay Basis, then enter Pay Min and Pay Max as plain numbers. In the Excel file, the Pay Range cell writes the range itself and adds “per hour” or “per year” from Pay Basis.
- Split the qualifications: Required holds what screens a candidate in or out, Preferred holds what would be nice. Then fill in Benefits and About the Company.
- Check that Completeness Check reads “Complete”, then copy the row into the text template above.
- Enter the date in Last Reviewed, and revisit the row whenever the role’s duties, pay or location change.
Example: A Filled-In Job Description for a Bakery Shift Lead
Here is the whole template filled in for an invented business, Maple & Pine Bakery, so you can match its tone and level of detail; every entry is sample data.
| Field | Sample entry |
|---|---|
| Job Title | Front-of-House Shift Lead |
| Department | Front of House |
| Reports To | Store Manager |
| Location | Anytown, ST |
| Work Arrangement | On-site |
| Employment Type | Full-time |
| Schedule | Thu-Mon, 6:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m. |
| FLSA Status | Non-exempt |
| Pay Basis | Hourly |
| Pay Min | 18.00 |
| Pay Max | 21.00 |
| Pay Range | $18.00 – $21.00 per hour |
| Job Summary | Runs the morning counter shift and keeps service moving so customers are served within a few minutes at peak. |
| Essential Functions | Opens the store and sets up the counter (20%); leads a crew of 3 on shift (35%); handles cash and end-of-shift counts (15%); restocks the pastry case and checks product dates (20%); trains new counter staff (10%) |
| Additional Responsibilities | Covers phone orders when the manager is out |
| Required Qualifications | 1 year of food-service experience; available weekends |
| Preferred Qualifications | Prior shift-lead experience |
| Physical Requirements and Work Environment | Stands for most of the shift; lifts trays up to 25 lb; works near hot ovens |
| Benefits | Paid time off; one staff meal per shift |
| About the Company | Maple & Pine Bakery (fictional) is a 12-person neighborhood bakery. |
| Last Reviewed | 2026-11-01 |
| Completeness Check | Complete |
Sources: sample data, fictional business.
The five duties add up to 100% of the shift (20 + 35 + 15 + 20 + 10); a duty with no share of time is usually an additional responsibility. FLSA Status reads Non-exempt because the shift lead is paid by the hour, while the standard exemptions generally require pay on a salary basis.
With 12 employees, the fictional bakery would sit above New York’s four-employee line for pay ranges but below the 15-employee line that ADA Title I and California’s posting rule use.
Those size lines decide which official rules apply, field by field.
Fields That Official Rules Touch
Those five entries carry legal weight, one row each in the map below, which links each to its federal or state page.
| Field | Rule | What the official page says | Applies to | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLSA Status | FLSA white-collar exemptions | Job titles do not determine exempt status; duties and a salary of at least $684 per week must meet all requirements | Any role you want to mark Exempt | U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #17A |
| Essential Functions | ADA Title I definitions | A written description prepared before advertising or interviewing is considered evidence of the essential functions | Employers with 15 or more employees | 42 U.S.C. 12111; ADA.gov |
| Physical Requirements and Work Environment | ADA Title I definitions | A qualified individual can perform the essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation | Employers with 15 or more employees | 42 U.S.C. 12111 |
| Pay Min and Pay Max | New York Labor Law 194-B | Minimum and maximum annual salary or hourly pay believed accurate at posting; state if commission-based | New York businesses with four or more employees | New York State Department of Labor |
| Pay Range | California Labor Code 432.3 | A good faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage range expected upon hire, in the posting itself | California employers with 15 or more employees | California Labor Commissioner’s Office |
Sources: Fact Sheet #17A, 42 U.S.C. 12111 on govinfo.gov, ADA.gov introduction to the ADA, New York pay transparency page, California Equal Pay Act and pay transparency FAQ, checked November 2026.
Check your state
Pay rules vary by state and city. This map covers the federal FLSA and ADA plus New York and California; for a role in any other state, check that state’s labor department before the posting goes live.
FLSA status: duties and salary decide it
No, a “manager” title does not make a role exempt: Fact Sheet #17A says job titles do not determine exempt status. The duties and the salary must meet every requirement, and the standard exemptions generally require pay on a salary basis of at least $684 per week.
The executive test also asks that the employee regularly direct two or more full-time employees or their equivalent. Leave the drop-down on “To confirm” until you have read the test that matches the role.
Essential functions and the ADA
Write the duty list before you post because the ADA’s definitions treat a written description prepared before advertising or interviewing as evidence of the job’s essential functions. Title I covers employers with 15 or more employees, counted for each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year.
The same section defines a qualified individual as someone who can perform those essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation. So Physical Requirements and Work Environment should describe what the listed duties demand, not a generic fitness line.
Pay range in the posting
Yes in New York and California, above set employer sizes. New York’s Section 194-B applies once a business has four or more employees: designated jobs, promotions and transfers need a pay range, from the minimum to the maximum annual salary or hourly pay you believe accurate when you post. A commission-based role must say so, and a New York City job may also fall under the city’s own law.
In California, an employer with 15 or more employees must put the pay scale in any job posting: a good faith estimate of the salary or hourly range expected on hire. Bonuses, tips and benefits can stay out, but a piece-rate or commission range goes in when pay is built that way. Elsewhere, check the state labor department before you leave the range off.
Customize It by Role Type
Four adjustments fit one template to every common kind of role:
- Hourly roles. Fill in Schedule with real days and hours, set Pay Basis to Hourly and expect Non-exempt; Fact Sheet #17A’s one hourly exemption is for computer employees paid at least $27.63 an hour. Blue-collar trades such as carpenters, electricians and plumbers are not exempt under Part 541, however highly paid.
- Salaried roles. Mark a role Exempt only after its duties pass one of the Fact Sheet #17A tests. Most of those tests also require a salary of at least $684 per week; the outside sales test lists no salary level, and the computer test also accepts $27.63 an hour. Until then, “To confirm” keeps the row honest.
- Remote roles. Set Work Arrangement to Remote and use Location for the states the role can be filled from. California’s Labor Commissioner reads the posting rule to apply if the position may ever be filled in California, in person or remotely.
- Part-time, temporary and seasonal roles. Put weekly hours and the start and end dates in Schedule, because Employment Type alone does not tell a candidate how long the job lasts.
Common Mistakes
Five mistakes make a posted job description fail, and you can check for each one before you post:
- Classifying by title. Marking a role Exempt because it says “manager” skips the duties and salary tests that Fact Sheet #17A requires.
- Linking to the pay range in a California posting. The pay scale must sit in the posting itself, not behind a link or a QR code, and California’s Labor Commissioner lists civil penalties between $100 and $10,000 per violation.
- Writing duties after the interviews. A list drafted after you have met candidates misses the timing explained under Essential Functions and the ADA.
- A catch-all “other duties as assigned” line. It tells candidates nothing and blurs which duties are essential; name the real occasional tasks in Additional Responsibilities instead.
- Never updating Last Reviewed. A description written for last year’s role misstates today’s duties, pay and physical demands.
When Job Descriptions Outgrow a Spreadsheet
The Excel builder holds every role in one sheet, which is enough for a business with a handful of roles. My threshold for software: you post roles every month, more than one person approves each description, or descriptions need to sit next to employee records. Then compare HR software for small businesses on how it stores roles and approvals before you pay for one.
Once candidates are in the pipeline, the next document you will need is a follow-up email after an interview, and the role’s description is the source for what you promised in it.
After the offer is accepted, open my employee onboarding checklist for the next step.
When a review of someone in this role comes due, read my performance review template with this row’s duty list beside you.
FAQ
Is there a Word or PDF version of this job description template?
No. This page offers an Excel file and the full template text to copy; there is no separate Word or PDF file here.
Does the Excel file open in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload the .xlsx file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets, then confirm that the Pay Range and Completeness Check columns still calculate on the sample row.
Can I write a job description with AI?
Yes, as a first draft of the Job Summary and the duty list; my ranking of AI writing tools matches tools to that kind of drafting job. Check every field afterward yourself, because FLSA Status, the pay range and the essential functions depend on facts only you know.
What is the difference between a job description and a job posting?
The job description is the internal record of the role; the job posting is the public ad built from it. The New York and California pay-range rules apply to postings, so the range goes in the posting text.
