5 Must-Have Excel Templates for Efficient Project Management and Tracking

Think about everything you need to do to kick off and complete a project with as few problems as possible. It can seem pretty overwhelming, right? You’ve got resource planning, scheduling, budgeting, and task delegation, just to name a few. Luckily, Excel is here to help! We’ve rounded up five of the best customizable Excel templates for project management and tracking. Take a look below.

Gantt charts are essential for managing projects of any size. They’re among the most common project management tools. A Gantt chart is a bar chart that shows the start and end dates for each task, along with the time allocated for each one. Tasks and subtasks are typically laid out in a detailed work breakdown structure, making it easier to keep track of deliverables and understand task hierarchy.

For more complex projects, you might need advanced Gantt charts with special features. However, simple Excel Gantt charts are usually sufficient for small to medium-sized projects. Plus, you don’t need advanced Excel skills to modify these templates to fit your needs.

The Project Tracker Template is perfect for keeping all project details in one place, making it easy for team members and collaborators to find and access information. This real-time template lets you plan and organize projects in phases, assign tasks to teams or individuals, add more tasks, set deadlines, track hours, break down deliverables, and highlight priorities. You can even set alerts for due dates and project milestones.

Every project consists of tasks and subtasks. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Template provides a hierarchical view by breaking tasks into smaller parts. This helps you and your team see what needs to be done and what’s already completed.

The WBS template is great for planning, scheduling, and budgeting. Use it to kick off a project and track its progress from start to finish.

The Critical Path Method (CPM) is crucial for effective project management. It helps you identify which tasks need immediate attention and which can be delayed. Creating a CPM used to be a complicated task left to advanced software, but now you can download ready-to-use CPM spreadsheets for Excel.

This CPM template makes it easy to perform a critical path analysis with minimal effort. It produces a Gantt Chart showing critical tasks and possible delays for non-critical tasks. While it may not have all the features of specialized CPM software, the Excel template is much cheaper and easier to use.

Project reviews are key to successful project management. Reviewing each phase allows you to evaluate and understand the project’s current status. Many project managers use Excel to create overviews highlighting completed tasks, outstanding deliverables, financial details, and risk management plans. The Excel Project Review Template helps document and share project reviews with your team or communicate data to executives and clients.

There are many software options for tracking, planning, and organizing tasks, but Excel spreadsheets remain a favorite, especially for new project managers. Excel offers the familiarity and flexibility needed to manage tasks effectively, making it a reliable choice for project management.