Project management with excel

Want to know more about managing projects with Excel? 

Or are you looking for a helpful Excel project management template?

You’ve come to the right place!

Microsoft Excel is an incredibly versatile tool that you can use for a number of different tasks. However, it’s not without its drawbacks. 

In this article, we’ll review using Excel for project management and give you some handy Excel templates to use right away.

Let’s start.

Is Excel Project Management Useful?

Microsoft Excel is a handy tool that can do many different things to help you and your project team. And on its good days, Excel can function as a basic project management tool. 

Here’s what it can offer you:

1. Detailed spreadsheets 

This is the most obvious reason to turn to Excel.

Excel is great for crafting detailed spreadsheets with tons of project data. Categorize information easily, highlight important sections, and even create separate sheets within a spreadsheet. 

For example, Excel is perfect for a long list of prospects to keep track of their details. 

You can also create a timesheet in Excel to keep your team accountable or maintain expenses on a budget template. 

When it comes to data logging, Excel is still one of the best tools in the business!

2. Conditional formatting

Another great Excel feature is conditional formatting.

You can turn simple project data into powerful insights. 

There are tons of Excel formulas you can employ to automate the data logging process and create detailed calculations. With the right formula, you can organize large amounts of data within seconds.

Say bye to that complicated scientific calculator!

For example, Excel can manage your project budget or timesheet a piece of cake with its advanced mathematical formulas. 

The only issue with conditional formatting is that it’ll take some time to get used to.  

3. Data storage and recovery

Excel can handle all project-related data. 

From your project budget to your timeline, you can store it in Excel without worrying about losing it. 

Additionally, like most other Microsoft tools, Excel has built-in data backup functionality. So if, for example, your timeline data gets accidentally deleted, you can always recover it!

10 Excel Project Management Templates & Use Cases

Excel is pretty much the Superman of basic project management, powerful enough to take on most tasks you’d otherwise have to struggle with manually. 

Here are some examples of Excel project management templates and use cases:

1. Excel Gantt chart template

Your brain responds better to visual stimuli, and a Gantt chart is nothing but that!

It gives you a complete overview of a project, all at once. 

A Gantt Chart project template makes it easy to map out a project’s course. 

Use it to keep on top of all the project milestones, dependencies, and project tasks that are left before your end dates.

2. Excel Project timeline template

Once the project begins, all anyone will think of is deadlines. 

But how do you track them?

A project timeline template is similar to a project milestones sheet.

Use it for tracking project progress as you move towards completion. With an accurate project timeline, you’ll be able to know what stage a project plan is in at all times.

3. Excel Task list or project tracker template

You won’t go shopping without a shopping list. 

So why not carry around a task list for your project too?

A task list gives you a list of deliverables for completion, along with their deadlines. 

Use this task tracking template for tracking the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and project phases to keep track of your project schedule.

But what’s WBS anyway? Check out this detailed breakdown of a project scope document to learn about your WBS. 

4. Excel Multiple project tracking template

This multiple project tracking template in Excel allows you to get an overview of all the current projects underway.

Super helpful to manage a business’s project portfolio or implement your organization’s enterprise project management!

You can enter all the project’s data in the Data Sheet, and view the overall progress of the project plan in a dashboard. Furthermore, you can filter by individual columns and see all the tasks in a Gantt chart.

5. Excel SWOT analysis template

Simple pros-cons lists may help you decide on your next vacation.

But you need more when it comes to project management.

In project management, you need to SWOT things!

A SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats) analysis template is used for tracking a project’s strengths and weaknesses when evaluating your project plan. 

After you’ve conducted this analysis, reformulate your project activities, project phases, and deliverables to align with your findings.

6. Excel Project Budget Templates

This project budget template itemizes your WBS. You can input the projected cost of each task depending on which column it fits under.

With this template, you can keep track of labor, materials and fixed costs, as well as keep a pulse on actual spend.

When the actual cost is incurred, the handy formulas of this template will let you know whether you are over or under budget.

7. Excel Cost-benefit management template

The cost-benefit management template lets you gauge a project’s success before you start it. Because if something costs more than it gains, it’s already a loss. 

Remember, doing a cost-benefit analysis isn’t needed for all software development projects. 

However, it does have applications in some industries which use Agile project management. Moreover, this chart in Excel is important for senior leaders in charge of project accounts and budgets.

Calculate the value of a project’s deliverables vs. what the project budget is and use this project information to schedule a cost-effective Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) with correct project phases.

8. Excel Agile project planning template

Want to say goodbye to traditional project management methods like Waterfall and enter the Agile realm?

Good for you. You’re about to deliver better results, faster. 

And isn’t that what every project planner wants?

However, that’s possible only if you do it on a project management tool that supports and enhances your team’s agility throughout the project lifecycle. 

While we’d never recommend doing it on Excel, the right template might just do the trick for you. 

Catch up on Agile project management and Agile software development. 

9. Excel Burnup chart template

In an Agile project, a burnup chart is an essential part of your arsenal. 

It helps you keep track of all you’ve accomplished in each sprint and keeps you well within the project scope. 

But here’s the thing. 

Setting a burnup chart requires careful calculations about each aspect of your sprint. 

So you can either start setting aside some time each day to deal with numbers. 

Or you can download a simple burn up chart template for Excel. 

10. Excel Workflow Template

Microsoft Excel’s SmartArt Flow Chart template is a helpful instructional list of graphics that you can effortlessly manipulate and customize to build out your diagram. By selecting the Insert tab, users unlock an array of vibrant color-coded visuals they can add text, shapes, and other formatting elements to in order to develop their desired workflow sequences quickly and effectively.

Challenges of Using Excel Templates for Project Management

While Excel templates add some functionality to your standard Excel file, they aren’t ideal project management solutions. 

Here are three significant reasons why:

A. Not a dedicated project management software

Remember, Excel wasn’t built for project management. 

It’s an excellent data management tool that can supplement your project management. 

But that’s about it. 

So why use an Excel report template when you have access to far better tools for managing projects for free?

From creating your project charter to managing projects and analyzing your breakdown structure, the ClickUp management tool can handle it all!

B. An Excel project management template is difficult to customize

Working on Excel templates is like shoe shopping. 

There’s no customizing it once you’ve bought them. 

So you don’t have a lot of flexibility when it comes to customizing the templates for Excel as per your project’s needs. 

For example, you may be using a sales invoice template or budget report template but can’t tweak it to reflect the project budgeting interface you want accurately. 

C. There’s no automatic data entry

All the templates in Excel require manual inputs at all points. 

There’s no way to schedule automated updates or create team-wide notifications like project management tools can. 

For example, if you’re using an Excel schedule template, you won’t be able to readjust task dependencies and deadlines automatically after schedule changes.

Remember, Excel templates can help, but they can’t solve all the issues associated with Excel project management. 

Bonus: Data Entry Software

Let’s explore these limitations and the solutions with a dedicated free project management tool: ClickUp

Excel Project Management Template Alternatives

Excel isn’t always the ideal way to go about managing your project tasks.

Check out these project management templates from ClickUp:

1. ClickUp Project Mangement Template

This ClickUp Project Management Template is a great way to get started quickly with your projects and tasks. By following the pre-made templates, you can streamline your process and make sure all of your tasks are organized and tracked in an efficient manner. The template includes steps for creating a project plan, assigning tasks, tracking progress, monitoring deadlines, and more.

The template also includes helpful views such as a Board View, Gantt Chart, and List View. All of the components are easy to customize so you can tailor the project management system to fit your needs.

2. ClickUp Agile Project Management Template

The ClickUp Agile Project Management Template is the perfect choice for anyone looking to efficiently manage agile projects. It covers all aspects of project management, from sprint planning and story mapping to creating user stories and tracking progress on tasks. This template not only streamlines your workflow but also helps you prioritize requests with clarity, organize sprints in multiple views, collaborate with team members as well as stakeholders seamlessly!

Related Excel Resources:

• Create burndown charts in Excel
• Create a form in Excel
• Create a graph in Excel
• Create a mind map in Excel
• Create a flowchart in Excel
• Create an Org Chart in Excel
• Create a Database in Excel

Break Free From Excel Project Management

While Excel has many uses, project management isn’t something it does very well. 

Even with Excel templates, you’re still going to have a tough time managing your projects in Excel.

While there are many Excel alternatives to consider, the smarter choice would be to use a specialized task management tool like ClickUp instead.

That’s because ClickUp is a tool designed for project management. Its features were designed to help you manage your projects more efficiently at a very friendly pricing point!

So why not try ClickUp for free and experience it yourself?

There are hundreds of software tools for project management, but familiarity with spreadsheets and the flexiblity that they provide makes using Excel a very popular solution. The project templates listed here are mostly related to project scheduling. Our Gantt chart template is the most useful project management template that we offer. Anything more complicated would probably require Microsoft Project or other project management software.

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Вы можете допустить это— вы используете таблицу Microsoft Excel для управления проектами и не видите веской причины для изменения. Вы не одиноки.

Создать план проекта в Excel очень просто, так как он помогает быстро перечислить все проекты, упорядочить их и даже создать что-то похожее на представление диаграммы Ганта. Однако при вычислении изменений в проекте не хватает электронных таблиц.

Если вы совмещаете несколько проектов, прерываете расписания и общие ресурсы, сохранение расписания в электронных таблицах становится сложной задачей. С его динамическим механизмом планирования, средствами управления ресурсами и поддержкой для лучшей коммуникации Microsoft Project помогает отслеживать процесс.

Что необходимо сделать

• Преимущества корпоративного управления ресурсами

• Позвольте Project вычислить эффект изменения даты

• Использование гибких методов отчетности

• Интеграция с Excel

Преимущества корпоративного управления ресурсами

Что происходит при использовании электронных таблиц для отслеживания проектов, когда одному ресурсу назначено несколько проектов? Управлять ресурсами за пределами плана проекта можно вручную или с помощью стороннего программы. Часто ресурсы непреднамеренно перенастрояются, и вы можете тратить много времени на перепланику работы.

С помощью Microsoft Project Server все проекты в организации могут рисовать из централизованного корпоративного пул ресурсов. Это позволяет руководителям проектов быстро доступность ресурс, прежде чем назначать его задаче.

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Позвольте Project вычислить эффект изменения даты

Предположим, что вы отслеживали проект в электронных таблицах. У этого проекта есть задача, которая не может начаться, пока в другом проекте не будет конечные результаты. Срок поставки запланирован на 18 июня. Сейчас 25 июня, и вы все еще ждете его. Сколько времени займет обновление таблицы до новой даты для задачи, которая зависит от ее результатов? Может быть, это недолго, если задача находится в конце проекта, но что делать, если она находится в начале? А что делать, если в проекте больше 50 задач? Более 100 задач?

Project поможет вам быстро скорректировать расписание проекта и назначения ресурсов с помощью динамического механизма планирования. Она полностью обрабатывает изменение даты и его влияние с учетом всех зависимостей, результатов и назначений ресурсов. Он не только автоматически пересчитает расписание, но и выделяет измененные даты, чтобы можно было быстро увидеть влияние каждой смены.

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Использование гибких методов отчетности

За десять минут вам нужно обсудить состояние проекта с руководителем. Вы хотите вывести отчет о ходе выполнения проекта, но в таком коротком уведомлении лучше всего распечатать таблицу и надеемся, что все данные точны. Вы хотите предоставить руководителю более надежный отчет о проекте, но это невозможно сделать в такие короткие сроки при использовании таблицы.

С помощью Project вы можете быстро создать наглядный отчет с использованием шаблона, который экспортирует данные в сететсхиму в Microsoft Visio профессиональный. Вы можете выбрать поля, которые вы хотите выделить в отчете, включая настраиваемые поля, которые вы настроили для проекта, и представить краткий отчет для собрания с руководством.

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Интеграция с Excel

Экспортив данные проекта в Excel, вы можете продолжать использовать его функциональные возможности работы с электронными таблицами, при этом пользуясь преимуществами Project для отслеживания календарного плана и ресурсов проекта. Вы также можете импортировать или встраить данные Excel в план проекта.

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Small teams and businesses prefer using excel for project management for its availability, familiarity, and cost-effectiveness. Further, templates make it easy to get started with Excel project management quickly.

But what are the best practices when using Excel for project management?

That’s what you’ll learn in this article. Here’s what we’ll cover:

• When Should You Use Excel For Project Management?
• Disadvantages Of Managing Projects In Excel
• Excel Project Management Use Cases
  • Create A Project Timeline
  • Manage tasks
  • Plan & Manage Resources
  • Effort Tracking
• A Better Alternative to Excel Project Management

Ready to get started? Let’s begin.

When Should You Use Excel For Project Management?

You don’t always need project management tools to manage projects. Sometimes a simple spreadsheet can do the job. Here are some situations where project management in Excel makes sense:

• You work on simple projects: If you work on projects with very few dependencies and team members, you may not need project management software. A simple spreadsheet to track project tasks is perfect for such simple projects.
• You work on one project at a time: If you work on multiple projects simultaneously, you’ll need to share team members across projects. Shared resources create complex dependencies. But if you work on a single project at a time, spreadsheets are often enough.
• You already have access to Microsoft Office: Almost everyone already has access to Microsoft Office. You, too, can consider using Excel for managing projects if you have easy access to it. 

Disadvantages Of Managing Projects In Excel

Even if you have access to Excel and manage simple projects, Excel still may not be the right choice. These are some of the disadvantages of Excel project management:

• No communication features: All spreadsheets, including Excel, lack communication features. Communicating with clients and other team members can be a big challenge.
• No collaboration features:  There’s no way to share files or documents via Excel. You’ll have to use a file hosting service to share files. On the other hand, most PM tools come with built-in file sharing.
• Information overload: Over time, Excel spreadsheets accumulate a lot of information. Clients and most team members rarely need access to all this information. As a result, time is wasted looking for information.
• Hard to ensure data integrity: When everyone is updating the same sheet, it’s easy for someone to update or remove information accidentally. Plus, project information can get lost as we discuss tasks over chat or email.
• Expensive in the long run: Most PM tools have a free plan. Paid plans often cost less than $10 per user per month. Considering the above disadvantages, using Excel for project management can be expensive in the long run.

Excel Project Management Use Cases

So far, you’ve learned about the kind of work you can manage with Excel. You’ve also learned about the disadvantages of Excel project management.

Next, let’s look at the project use cases you can manage with Excel.

Create A Project Timeline

A timeline is a simple way to visualize plans — whether it’s a high-level project roadmap or a detailed project schedule. Using Excel or other spreadsheet software like Google Sheets, you can easily create a project timeline. 

Typically, a project timeline is created using a Gantt chart. 

The Gantt timeline helps your team members visualize the project’s schedule.

Excel and other spreadsheets are not meant to be used as project planning tools. They don’t have an in-built Gantt chart feature. Instead, you can customize the horizontal bar chart to look like a Gantt timeline. Check out these tutorials on how to create a Gantt timeline in Excel and Google Sheets.

Other than the above-mentioned disadvantages:

• Excel timelines are hard to keep up to date. 
• There’s no way to add milestones to an Excel Gantt timeline.
• And, it’s almost impossible to work collaboratively on an Excel project timeline.

Gantt Timeline Template For Excel

If you want to use Excel, despite its disadvantages, use this simple template or choose from the project timeline templates available here.

Manage Tasks

Once the project plan is ready, the next step is to start executing and tracking day-to-day tasks.

Using a spreadsheet, it’s fairly easy to track task status. 

List down all the start with their start and end dates. Assign tasks to team members. And, finally include a column to track task status. You can either create a simple to-do list using checkboxes or include more task statuses in a dropdown.

Tracking task progress using Excel suffers from the same disadvantages mentioned above. Also:

• You cannot create custom task workflows.
• Unlike Kanban boards, it’s not easy to visualize task progress in Excel.

Project Task List Template

You can use the same timeline spreadsheet template given above or use this simple spreadsheet template to track task progress. 

Plan & Manage Resources

Planning resource availability and allocating them to projects is the next use case for Excel project management.

Before you allocate resources to a project or a task, you need to know if a resource is available. For example, you cannot plan for a team member who’s on vacation or busy with another project. 

You’ll need two separate spreadsheets — one to track off-days and another to track project allocation.

Using Excel to manage resources is hard. You’ll have to update the spreadsheet constantly based on inputs from team members and other project managers.

Resource Management Templates

These templates cover all team resource management use-cases, including:

• Track team availability
• Allocate resources to projects
• Plan project resources
• Plan resource capacities

You can copy these from File > Make a copy or download as Excel from File > Download as > Microsoft Excel (.xlsx).

Learn more about how to use these resource planning templates.

Track Project Efforts

Finally, using Excel, you can track your team’s actual number of hours into a project. This is a critical step in project management, especially if you bill clients by the hour.

You can calculate the total number of hours put in by each team member in a project. Also, you can set the rate for each team member and calculate the billable amount.

Tracking project efforts in Excel is fairly easy. But, it’s cumbersome to record the time spent on each task. 

Excel Timesheet Template

Use this simple Google Sheets template to track time spent on a project. You can make a copy of it from File > Make a copy or download it as an Excel from File > Download as > Microsoft Excel (.xlsx).

Toggl Plan: A Better Alternative to Excel Project Management

Considering the use cases above, it’s definitely possible to manage projects using Excel. But keeping information up to date in all these spreadsheets can be quite a task. 

That’s where using a project management tool like Toggl Plan can help.

Toggl Plan is a beautifully simple tool that helps you with project planning, task management, and managing team workloads.

Here are some ways you can use Toggl Plan to manage projects:

Project Planning

With Toggl Plan, you can create unlimited project Plan Timelines. 

Creating a Gantt timeline is as simple as dragging and dropping tasks on the timeline. Also, you can add color-coded milestones to keep track of critical dates.

You can zoom in to a week to look or zoom out to get a bird’s eye view of the entire year.

Also, you can share a read-only view of the timeline with clients and other stakeholders to keep them up to date.

Tasks can be assigned right from the timeline. Plus, you can import tasks to the timeline from a spreadsheet.

Task Management

You can manage tasks in Toggl Plan from timelines and task boards. 

With Toggl Plan, task workflows are customizable. You can assign tasks to one or more team members, record task estimates, and categorize tasks using tags.

Also, team members can collaborate on tasks using file attachments and task comments. 

Using task boards, your team can visualize task progress. And update task status by just dragging the task across the board.

Team Management

Along with Plan Timelines, you can also create unlimited Team Timelines. Team Timelines can be created with people across your organization, including shared team members.

On the Team Timeline, you can visualize your team’s availability and workloads. 

If you find overworked team members, you can rebalance work right from the timeline.

Any changes you make in one timeline or board automatically are reflected everywhere.

Toggl Plan Pricing

Solo users can use Toggl Plan for free.

Paid plans range from $9-$15 per user per month and have a 14-day free trial. Toggl Plan paid users get Team Timelines, multiple assignees for a task, and recurring tasks.

Get started with Toggl Plan for free.

Project management templates in Smartsheet

A project management template is an effective tool for any project — big or small, simple or complex. Even if the deliverables are small, you still need to estimate timing, identify the resources required, and assign tasks to team members. That’s why it’s important to find the right project management solution to help ensure that your next project is delivered on time and on budget.

One solution is Smartsheet, a work execution platform that enables enterprises and teams to get from idea to impact — fast. Top project management leaders rely on Smartsheet to help align the right people, resources, and schedules to get work done.

Use Smartsheet to create consistent project elements, increase speed, and improve collaboration with scalable options that fit individual work preferences. Hold yourself and your team accountable, improve visibility into team priorities, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. See how easy it can be to use a project management template in Smartsheet.

Get free Smartsheet templates