task focused project management template

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Project Management

10 minute read

Best Free Project Management Templates in 2023

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Successful project managers work smart. They build skills, train hard, and use the right tools . No wonder they often get things done using project management templates. These ready-made forms not only make it easier to monitor tasks and track progress, but they also help accelerate, standardize, and improve the entire project management process.

Because each project has many aspects, project documentation covers a wide range of areas. In fact, there are templates for just about any stage in the project lifecycle, from inception to completion.

Project management templates serve many purposes. They can help teams set goals, assign tasks, manage expenses, monitor progress, stay on schedule, and move a project from one milestone to the next.

Here are 30+ of the most useful free project management templates that can help you organize tasks, save time, and tick off all the items in your checklist.

Download your free project management templates

These handy templates will save you precious time when running your projects.

30+ most useful templates in project management

To help you find the template you need easily and quickly, we’ve organized the list into common categories.

Project charters & project plans

Project tracking, timeline, and gantt charts

Project timelines and schedules may be created using simple tables, but complex documents with multiple variables should be built as Gantt charts instead. Such sophisticated documents provide greater detail by showing specific milestones and their summaries, component tasks and deliverables, task owners, start and due dates, dependencies, and other relevant information.

Budget management

The following documents help project leaders track and manage project-related expenses. They also enable managers to create resource allocation and cost strategies that drive both efficiency and productivity without breaking the bank.

Task monitoring & to-do lists

Such documents enable managers to set priorities, clarify role ownership, assist struggling stakeholders, and ensure that no major roadblocks will emerge down the line. The following templates will help you hold each member of the team accountable and ensure that deliverables are met on time, within budget, and on par with expected quality standards.

Timesheet tracking & work schedules

These documents will help you plan schedules, track time, and ensure that your team’s pool of talent never goes to waste.

Issue tracking & change requests

KPI monitoring

KPI Tracker (Smartsheet, Excel)

Team management

Communication plans

These templates will help you keep everyone updated and always on the same page. Use dashboards to provide a bird’s eye view of a project’s status and performance. Create informative and actionable meeting notes to establish clarity and move teams forward. And always cap a completed project with a post-mortem “lessons learned” session.

If you hate challenges, you’ll never love project management . To succeed in the field, you need to handle a lot of moving parts — from timelines and budget to quality control and issue handling. Managing a project takes skill and discipline, but fortunately, you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel.

The processes, practices, and documentation in project management have become standardized over the years. As such, you can find plenty of document templates to meet every-day requirements.

These templates include some of the most commonly used documents in project management. You can download the documents to your device or make copies in your cloud storage. These can always be repurposed by every team in your organization. Remember, you can customize or fine-tune any of the documents listed here to fit your specific project or operational environment.

To get started on project management, you can check our Project Management Basics course . If you need advanced training, we have a library of bite-sized lessons to keep your skills sharp.

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Joseph Mapue wears his writer's hat wherever he goes, crafting top-notch content on business, technology, creativity, and innovation. He is also a dreamer, builder, father, and gamer.

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20 Must-Have Project Management Excel Templates and Spreadsheets

Still using spreadsheets to manage your projects? Revolutionize how you manage your projects with ProjectManager. Plan, track and report with automated tools.

Before you can plan your project, you have to have the right tools to collect the data you need in order to formulate a strategy—and project management Excel templates are a great place to start.

Using Excel for Project Management

Think of all the things you have to process along the way to a successful project—scheduling, resource planning, defining tasks and milestones, etc. The days of Post-It notes and notebooks filled with scraps of paper are long gone. Thankfully, today project managers can use Microsoft Excel templates for project management.

Microsoft Excel does a lot of things well: mathematics, analysis, organization. But, it’s not intuitive for project management due to its blank spreadsheet format. So, without using pre-built project management spreadsheets or templates, it’s hard to execute project management on Excel.

Best Project Management Templates & Spreadsheets for Excel

Visit our templates page and you’ll find Excel and Word templates for creating all the project documents you need to manage your project. But, if you just need free Excel project management templates and spreadsheets, then look no further.

Here are 20 essential project management Excel templates you can download and use right now. Transform your bland Excel spreadsheets into expertly-designed project management templates, and take your project management Excel processes to the next level.

1. Gantt Chart Template

A Gantt chart is a visual tool that helps you see at-a-glance the scheduling of tasks and their dependencies over the project timeline. That makes it a great project planner template.

While it’s true a Gantt chart can be overly complex in Excel spreadsheets, especially when you are in need of more advanced scheduling features like task dependencies and resource allocation, they remain a vital part of any project manager’s toolkit. That’s why we recommend using online Gantt chart software to help plan tasks and projects collaboratively with your team.

Online Gantt chart tools integrate into project management & planning software, so it can update in real time. This allows for easy drag-and-drop changes and can be color-coded to customize as you need. ProjectManager is a project management software that does all that and more. Try it for yourself today!

ProjectManager's free Gantt chart template

But to quickly make a Gantt chart from your task lists, download this free Gantt chart Excel template for an easy way to create a project schedule. Just add tasks and deadlines to this Excel spreadsheet and visualize how long your project will take.

2. Project Status Report Template

The need for a project status report is obvious. If you don’t have good intel on what is happening in the project, then you are managing blind. You have no idea if you’re on track or if resources are being blocked.

Project Status Report Template for Excel

With this free Excel project status report template, you have a tool to greatly improve your project communications, both with stakeholders when you’re delivering a presentation, but also with team members.

It’s up to you to decide on the frequency of the reports. But with a project status report template a lot of the busy work that can pull you away from a project is already done, giving you greater access to the information you need.

3. Work Breakdown Structure Template

A project is made up of deliverables and those deliverables are created by tasks. The work breakdown structure (WBS) is a way to visualize the project deliverables, the tasks, and the subtasks, which are necessary to make them.

Work Breakdown Structure Diagram Template

ProjectManager has a free WBS template that structures the process of breaking down the large project into smaller and smaller tasks, in a hierarchical visual that allows you to see the entire scope of the project work.

This is a key element of project planning, but it is also critical to estimating project costs and setting up a realistic schedule. Better still, because our WBS free template is an Excel spreadsheet, it can then be uploaded into the ProjectManager software to initiate a project, assign tasks to team members and monitor and track progress once the project is executed.

4. Action Plan Template

A project is initiated to complete the realization of a goal. But to achieve that objective requires a strategy and then the steps to implement that strategy successfully. In short, an action plan .

Projects are pragmatic and the action plan is a framework to collect your thoughts about executing the project plan in an effective and efficient way. With our free action plan template, you can just fill in the blanks to make sure that you’ve covered all bases and make your project start on the right foot. It’s a great companion template to an overall project plan and project charter.

From prioritizing tasks to assigning and noting the status, timeline and resources, we have you covered. And, again, the action plan can be uploaded seamlessly into ProjectManager, so you can then use all our great features to visualize workflow with kanban boards and monitor progress with our real-time dashboard.

5. Project Tracker & Task List Template

Tracking the project is crucial to ensure that it remains on schedule. That means also keeping tabs on the work at a task-level.

This project tracker & task list template can help as a task to-do list, and it includes columns for the planned and actual duration of the project in order to know what’s working and what needs more attention.

Once you integrate your project and task tracking template into a project management software system, you can then produce Gantt charts to get a clear visual on the project timeline, as well as get that data delivered to your dashboard to note project progress in real time. And, of course, you can import your Excel and Microsoft Project files seamlessly into ProjectManager. Our software can transform your static Excel files into stunning, dynamic project management tools.

6. Risk Register Template

Risk is a part of managing a project. The job involves being able to anticipate what risks are likely to occur and then formulating a response to get the project back on track. That’s where this free Excel risk tracking template comes in.

First, it allows you to list all the possible risks you believe may happen over the course of the project. Next you can define how it will impact the project. You determine level of the risk and assign it an owner, so that someone is responsible to keep an eye out for it.

Now you have a plan in place to resolve that risk quickly, and a document that can be shared so risk is never given a chance to blindside a project.

7. Issue Tracker Template

Issues are when something is happening right now in your project. So, what do you do when this happens? You track those issues and resolve them with the help of this free issue tracker template.

The first thing, of course, is identifying those issues as they occur. This is the document in which you can collect that information. The issue tracking template serves you by making sure every step of the way, from identifying to resolving the issue, is documented.

Of course you will want to share the issue tracker template, and you can with this free Excel template, but only as a static document. In a project management software program, that information is easy to collect and share, as well as edit in real time.

8. Change Request Form Template

One thing that’s constant in any project is change. Those changes, however, must be managed. That’s where the change request form comes in.

Free downloadable Change Request Form Template

Our free change request form template gives you the structure to identify, track and resolve those changes when they arise in a project. The free template has space to note what the change is, give a team member ownership to lead the task of resolving it and then get it signed off on.

When used in conjunction with ProjectManager, the change request form is more dynamic. It can act as a collaborative platform in which team members can communicate and attach relevant documents, even hand-offs and sign-offs. Keeping everything under one roof is something you’ll not want to change.

9. Project Budget Template

A project can have a great plan, but without the financial backing to pay for it nothing can happen. That’s why a project budget, as tedious as it might be, is one of the most important phases of getting a project on track to a successful completion.

With this free Excel project budget template you can literally see when you’re in the red, because it’s color-coded. And this document, more than just one that is crucial to the start of a project, is also a way to track that budget across the lifecycle of the project.

This template has room to cover all your costs, from easy ones to collect — such as labor and materials — to ones that change or carry over from project to project. Budgets are estimates, but with this free template those numbers will be more accurate.

10. Project Timesheet Spreadsheet

Team members need to have a way to track their work through the tasks they are assigned, and a simple timesheet can provide an easy way to keep them on schedule as well as give you the needed information to know where they are in their tasks.

The free Excel timesheet can calculate cost per hour and includes vacation and overtime columns, to accurately note the time spent on and off the project. But project timesheets are useful for a number of different purposes, so this is a handy tool.

When you manage timesheets with online project management software , then the rubber hits the road. You’ll be able to filter columns and customize reports, easily share in an email, PDF or Excel and CSV file. Plus your team can submit timesheets based on actual tasks in the system, and you’ll get alerted by email when they do.

11. Project Dashboard Template

The project dashboard is what keeps you in the driver seat as you travel through the lifecycle of the project. It allows for you to monitor the project, tracking the task status, budget and more in one place.

Project Management Dashboard Template featuring tasks, workload, task lengths and costs

From this free project management dashboard for Excel, you create graphs and charts that give you a visual and easily digestible look at your task and workload management, as well as cost. It’s a sure way to stay on top of a project generally and know where you have to drill down into specifics.

You can add more power to your PM dashboards when you use online project management software. That way, when team members are updating statuses on tasks, the dashboards are populating with real-time data.

12. Project Plan Template

A project plan template has everything you need to map out your project once it’s been approved. It has space for you to define your project goals, activities, tasks as well as all the resources you’ll need to execute the work. You can begin to schedule your activities , tasks and the duration of each across a project timeline. There’s even a place to identify task dependencies.

free project plan template for project management

Project plans are tailored around your project and no two are the same. That’s why this project management template has a place to add appendices. Here is where you can attach a scope, cost and schedule management plan or a work breakdown structure (WBS) as well as your business case, feasibility study and project charter.. The more detailed your project plan, the more you position yourself and team for success when the project is executed.

13. Project Estimate Template

This free project estimate template for Excel will help you forecast a more accurate budget and realistic schedule. Before you can plan a project, you need to identify all the costs that will be associated with it. This free project management spreadsheet allows you to do a more detailed collection of what you’ll need to spend on your labor, materials and project resources.

free project estimate template for Microsoft Excel

From a job description to estimate details, this project template is a great way not only to figure out your budget but collect the various vendors and contractors you’ll be employing to help you execute the project. Create as many project phases as you require. Each is subtotaled and those subtotals are then tallied automatically for a final sum. Change is impossible to avoid when managing a project, but the more accurate your estimate, the more likely you’ll deliver on time and within budget.

14. RACI Matrix Template

Using a RACI matrix template is an essential tool for organizing projects. Projects can be confusing, and if people aren’t sure of their roles, problems are going to occur. The RACI template for Excel is a free tool to identify and define the various roles and responsibilities of everyone involved with the project.

Project management RACI matrix template for Microsoft Excel

This project management Excel template is broken up by project phase on the left and across the top all the various project positions are listed. Then in the corresponding box beneath the title is filled in with R, A, C or I to explain their relation to that specific point in the project. RACI stands for responsible, accountable, consulted, informed. Defining these roles with this Excel spreadsheet leads to smoother operations.

15. Change Log Spreadsheet

Try our free change log template for Excel and create a successful change management process. Change is going to happen in every project, whether requests from stakeholders or from external forces, such as weather or supply chain issues. Being prepared for change and how to respond to it is going to make or break your project.

Project Change Log Template for Microsoft Excel

This project management Excel spreadsheet allows you to number changes that you identify in the project to track them easier. There’s a place to capture when the change was first discovered, who owns it and is tasked with dealing with that change. There’s even space to note its status and set the priority so you know which changes should be dealt with first. Having a change log means you can manage change and not allow change to negatively impact your project.

16. Resource Plan Template

Resources are anything you need for a project. Our free resource plan template for Excel is the first step to managing your team and resources. You can use it to identify, list and organize all your project resources as well as figure out how much of each you’ll need and what that will cost. You can use this project Excel template to integrate with your schedule and budget to track costs as you execute the project.

project resource plan template for Excel - free download

While you’ll want to start your resource plan during the planning phase of your project, it should be a living document that is regularly updated as things change over the life cycle of the project. Once the project has been completed, you can save the template and use it when you are planning resources for future projects that are similar. Using this free project management template for Excel keeps everyone informed, which leads to a better running project.

17. Stakeholder Analysis Spreadsheet

Stakeholders are invested in the project and project managers have to keep them updated and manage their expectations. That’s where this free stakeholder analysis template for Excel comes in. It helps you identify and manage all the stakeholders in your project. This free template is a cornerstone of any thorough stakeholder management plan.

Free stakeholder analysis template in a spreadsheet format for Excel

The stakeholder analysis template gets you started with a project overview, which is followed by a list of all the stakeholders involved with the project. There’s a dropdown menu to note if that particular stakeholder is of high, medium or low influence. That means, how much power do they have to impact the project. That information is crucial to how to manage them. Then you identify each stakeholder in the spreadsheet as they relate to the project. Note the frequency you need to communicate with each stakeholder and more to manage them and keep the project moving forward.

18. Gap Analysis Template

If you’re looking to improve your business and stay innovative, then you need this gap analysis template for Excel. It’s one of the tools you can use to get a strategic analysis of where you are now and how to get to where you want to be in the future. This project management spreadsheet will help you devise an action plan to move you from your current state of affairs to wherever you plan to take your organization in the future, whether that’s an increase in marketshare or getting a product to market quickly.

Project gap analysis template for Microsoft Excel in a spreadsheet format

This free Excel template has everything you need to start meeting your goals, from general information and the current state of your business to the future state you’re aiming to achieve, what the gap percentage is and the actions necessary to close that gap. You can identify who in the organization can lead the initiative and even track the status. You have to start somewhere and a gap analysis is where it all comes together.

19. Cost Benefit Analysis Spreadsheet

Crunch the numbers to learn if your project is worth pursuing with our free cost benefit analysis template for Excel. You can see if the project can be delivered within a specific time frame and reasonable cost. This Microsoft Excel template allows you to compare what you expect to spend against the benefits or opportunity the project might provide. Therefore, from a cost perspective, you can see if the project is viable.

free cost benefit analysis template for project management

Whether a personal or professional project, our free cost benefit analysis template is a powerful and flexible tool. It can be used over and over again, collecting the project information, quantitative costs (indirect, intangible and opportunity) and then the quantitative benefits (direct benefits, indirect benefits, intangible benefits and competitive benefits). Adding up the three cost sections and the four benefits sections of the template provide a total cost to compare against total benefits. It’s an essential analysis to undertake before committing to any project.

20. Weekly Work Schedule Spreadsheet

If you need help handling your human resources, get our free weekly work schedule spreadsheet for Excel. You can use it to manage your team’s weekly work and the project’s workflow. Note the days your team can work and collect the rate of pay and hours they work on their tasks. This flexible employee work schedule can apply to the regular nine-to-five work week or a more hybrid model.

Weekly work schedule template for Microsoft Excel in a spreadsheet format

Use this project management template for Excel to get info on your team members and their work schedule. You can add their name, tasks assigned to them and the project they’re working on. There’s space to list all the days they’ll be working. This Excel template is a great place to capture data but it’s a static document. If you want to update it, you have to do that manually. It can take time and pull you away from managing the project and your team’s work.

Go Beyond Excel Templates & Spreadsheets with ProjectManager

Project management software can take you way further than Excel templates for project management ever could. ProjectManager , an award-winning project management software, is a comprehensive platform that lets you plan, track and report on your projects online. Because it’s an online tool, you get live visibility into your project team and their tasks.

Plan your projects from start to finish with our Gantt chart feature. This feature allows you to map out all of your project tasks in phases, and then assign them to team members. You can even create dependencies and set milestones. Plus, you can import Excel files and Microsoft Project files into the Gantt chart, bringing your static templates to life. In addition, ProjectManager integrates with over 1000 third-party apps such as Google Drive, Slack and Microsoft Office 365 so that you can share your project with everybody on your team.

Team members (and managers) can choose to manage their own tasks in either the task list or kanban view. The kanban view is a favorite for visual workers who have a lot of different projects going on. The customizable columns on a kanban board allow a user to easily see their progress, or sort their tasks by project or department. Of course every view, whether it’s the Gantt, List or Board, allows you to collaborate with other team members and get more work done than you ever thought possible. You’ll wonder why you ever did project management Excel processes.

ProjectManager's kanban boards make project management templates come to life

Get all the features of these Excel project management templates and more when you use ProjectManager . All of these tools are available in our award-winning project management software to help you plan, track and report on your project in real time. See what it can do for you by taking a free 30-day trial run .

Click here to browse ProjectManager's free templates

Deliver your projects on time and under budget

Start planning your projects.

11 Free Project Plan Templates to Simplify Complex Tasks

Project plan templates helps you organize all the tasks involved, assign deadlines, consider who may help, and estimate future projects more accurately.

Creating a project plan from scratch can feel overwhelming, and that’s when templates help. There are many free project plan templates available online that you can customize according to your needs and use whenever necessary.

With these templates, you can see where your work stands, identify next steps, and take action quickly to stay on track. They’ll help make sense of how the pieces of your project fit together and get real-time insight into the state of your team’s work—all in one place.

In this article, we have listed down 11 such templates and the formats in which they’re available.

11 Ready to Use Free Project Plan Templates

1. timeline focused project plan template from office timeline.

One of the key components of every project plan is the timeline. This template from Office Timeline provides a large list of tasks that help focus on a range of daily activities and their completion dates. You can utilize it to keep your team activities on track or to give presentations to stakeholders.

Download: Office Timeline (Free, available as a PowerPoint file)

2. Task Focused Project Plan Template From Analysis Tab

Rather than the outputs or deadlines, this project plan template concentrates on tasks. It lets you visualize your project progress through its Gantt chart.

This template is ideal for smaller projects that involve a few tasks and dependencies. It includes a sample dashboard and a project tracker.

Download: Analysis Tab (Free, available as an Excel file)

3. Project Timeline Template by Office

This project timeline template by Office will help you track answers to the most common questions related to your project like, “How is the project coming along?” and “Are the deadlines being met?”.

You can utilize this template to track project deadlines and status. It is a complete four-week project timeline template that lets you add the project start date, team members’ names, and their assignments.

Download: Office (Free, available as an Excel file)

4. Document Based Project Plan Template by Filestage

Filestage's document-based project plan uses different colors to identify several essential elements for an effective project plan. The document is divided into different sections like project goal, scope, task scheduling, communication, resources, and more.

Each section comprises key questions where you can fill in answers related to your project objective, tasks, subtasks, mode of communication, deadlines, etc.

Download: Filestage (Free, available as a Word document)

5. Schedule Focused Project Plan Template by Vertex 24

This project schedule template allows you to create a simple timeline for your project without all the bells and whistles of a Gantt chart. This project template divides your entire project into numerous phases.

Each phase is further subdivided into several tasks to provide you with a comprehensive picture of the project's development. It includes blank weekly and monthly schedule worksheets that you can customize according to your needs.

Download: Vertex 24 (Free, available as an Excel file)

6. Gantt-Chart Focused Project Plan by Template Lab

Template Lab provides a plethora of ready-to-use Gantt chart templates. They can be used for planning a project for which you will require time estimations. They include a detailed list of activities and tasks that are related to them.

If you are planning any sort of time-driven or collaborative project, these templates will help you see what needs to be done and when. This will enable you to offer a clear outline of upcoming work to cross-functional teams and stakeholders and align everyone on your strategy.

Download: Template Lab (Free, available as Word document, Excel sheet, PPT, and PDF)

7. Action Plan Template by Project Manager

As the name suggests, a project action plan is a plan of action that describes the approach needed to complete a project successfully. This template will help you describe the team, time, and resources needed for the project.

It contains a timetable that helps organize work, their priority, and team members accountable for completing those tasks. The template is broken down into three sections—actions steps, timeline, and resources.

Download: Project Manager (Free, available as an Excel file)

8. Project Plan Template by Atlassian

This simple and easy project plan template by Atlassian includes all the necessary and essential elements. This is a suitable template for small or individual projects that don’t need to be too detailed. In the first section, you can enter details of the players involved in the project.

After that, you can enter the due date for the entire project, key outcomes and success metrics you’ll be monitoring, and the project’s status. It also helps map out your project scope, plan deadlines, and include reference materials.

Download: Atlassian (Free)

9. Milestone chart template by Smart Sheet

This template by Smart Sheet makes sure you track and achieve all targets so that your project runs well. Highlight the essential milestones for your project, specify the owners of each target, and state the time you estimate every milestone to take in days, weeks, or months. This way, before you begin and go on with the tasks, you will have completely planned your project.

Download: Smart Sheet (Free, available as a Word document)

10. Word WBS template by MyWord Templates

Looking for a basic WBS template without Excel's complexity? Then this is the perfect template for you. It is made in Microsoft Word, where you can simply edit and add your own deliverables. It will help you create a detailed step plan for project execution, lets team members schedule the duration for tasks, and helps the top management to keep accountability of team members. The only drawback of this template is that it only supports three levels of deliverables.

Download: MyWord Templates (Free, available as a Word document)

11. Project Gantt Chart Template by Spreadsheet123

If you are a project manager in charge of large-scale projects, this Gantt chart template is made just for you. It consists of detailed task lists and has a neutral design—making it ideal for managing big projects with a long list of tasks.

Download: Spreadsheet123 (Free, available as an Excel file)

Get More Done With a Project Plan Template

It's almost never easy to organize a project. Luckily, the above project plan templates can help lift some of that load. By using them, you will be able to easily identify the project's scope, goals, milestones, and deliverables.

Simply download the template that suits your requirements, and you will be on your way to creating an impressive and effective project plan!

Free Project Organizational Templates: Management and Team Structures

Smartsheet Contributor Kate Eby

June 1, 2021

We’ve compiled the most effective project organization templates for project sponsors, steering committees, project managers, and project team members. Plus, get tips on creating useful project organizations for your unique projects.

Included on this page, you’ll find seven essential project organization templates, including a project organization chart template , a project management organizational structure template , a project team organizational chart template , and a matrix project teams org chart template .

Project Organization Chart Template

Download Project Organization Chart Template

Microsoft PowerPoint | Microsoft Word | Google Slides

Use this simple, reusable project organization chart template to create an organizational structure that defines the relationships between team members on projects and programs . This template includes sections for a project’s steering committee, sponsor(s), manager, and additional team members, and is available in Microsoft Word and Google Docs as an individual project organization chart template, as well as in PowerPoint as a shareable presentation template.

To learn more about project organizational chart templates in Microsoft Word and see reports, read “Free Organizational Chart Templates for Microsoft Word.”

Project Management Organizational Structure Template

Download Project Management Organizational Structure Template

Microsoft Excel | Microsoft Word

Use this simple project management organizational structure template to clearly define project structure roles for your individual projects. Customize the project’s roles by entering compiled-by and date-completed information, as well as other details about your team members. Download and share this project-by-project template for one-off projects, or save and reuse it for interrelated projects.

To learn more about project organizational chart templates in Microsoft Excel, see “Free Organizational Chart Templates for Microsoft Excel.”

Project Team Organizational Chart Template

Download Project Team Organizational Chart Template

Microsoft Excel | Microsoft Word

Use this visually rich project template to show the organizational structure of your project-specific team to coworkers, clients, and other stakeholders. Designed with space for photos of each team member, this personable report keeps everyone apprised of your project team members’ roles, and familiarizes all relevant personnel with a project’s key players.

To learn more about creating org charts in Microsoft Excel, see “How to Create Organizational Charts in Microsoft Excel in Minutes.”

Matrix Project Teams Org Chart Template

Download Matrix Project Teams Org Chart Template

Microsoft Excel | Microsoft Word

Use this matrix project teams org chart template to keep the members of your team and other stakeholders apprised of your project’s organizational structure. Get the big picture of your project’s finalized or in-progress hierarchy, including sub-teams, with this completely customizable and shareable template.

To learn more about creating org charts in Microsoft Word, see “How to Create Organizational Charts in Microsoft Word.”

RACI Matrix by Assignment Template

Download RACI Matrix by Assignment Template

Microsoft Excel | Google Sheets

Clarify project roles and responsibilities using this RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) matrix by assignment template. This template can help members of your team, stakeholders, management, and project sponsors quickly understand the components and stages of your project, and who is responsible for each project task. Enter individual ownership and accountability information for each task, so that anyone can quickly assess the state of — and players in — your project.

Project Plan Template

task focused project management template

Download Project Plan Template — Microsoft Excel

Track every component of your project plan with this ready-made project plan template. Enter work breakdown structure (WBS) codes, status (e.g., Not Started, In Progress, etc.), start and end dates, duration, and comment details for each task to keep you on schedule. This comprehensive template provides space for all project-specific details, so you can assure stakeholders that every aspect is accounted for.

Gantt Chart Project Template

Download Gantt Chart Project Template

Microsoft Excel | Smartsheet

Gain a solid understanding of your project’s task owners and deadlines with this visually rich Gantt chart project template. Enter task-by-task project details, including task ID, task title, task owner, dates, due date, duration (in days), percentage of task complete, week-by-week progress, to ensure your project is progressing smoothly and on time.

How to Use a Project Organization Template

Successful project organization templates provide immediate insight into a project’s personnel hierarchy. These templates also show the status of each project component and any roadblocks to achieving successful project completion.

A customizable project organization template allows you to modify the team players to fit your project’s structural needs, while also giving you details about each team member, so you can clearly see who’s responsible for each individual project task. While project organization templates vary, they typically include the following sections:

Additionally, project organization templates frequently include the following project-organization-specific components:

By defining and agreeing upon a single-source project-organization tracking system from the outset, you, your team, and all additional stakeholders can rest assured that your project will progress and conclude smoothly.

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The 9 Best Project Management Templates for Excel (2023)

Project managers are known for their decisiveness and time management.

A project’s success depends on how a project manager identifies, plans, and employs the resources available for any given project (especially the timespan).

If you, too, have a complicated project ahead of you that requires sophisticated planning – don’t sail all the way along alone. 😃

Bringing you the best templates, Excel consistently provides a solution for everything. It offers a wide variety of project management templates that make your job all the easier.

To learn what these templates are and how you may use them, continue reading.

Table of Contents

Why Project Management in Excel?

Template 1: Gantt Chart

Template 2: Project Budget

Template 3: Action Item Report

Template 4: Project Dashboard

Template 5: Multiple Project Tracking

Template 6: Status Report

Template 7: Critical Path Method

Template 8: Project Timeline and Budget

Template 9: Content Calendar

There’s no denying the plethora of software for managing projects in the market. A new project management software comes out daily, better than the previous versions.

But even with all the excellence. Not a single software has been able to take the place of Excel project management – and there’s no wonder why.

Microsoft Excel is by far one of the most efficient software for managing tasks. And a huge number of project managers all around the world only use Excel for their work.

Their familiarity with the Excel spreadsheet greatly contributes to the software’s favor. Excel offers so many wonderful project management templates, and a lot of them are for FREE! 🤩

However, know that you can always switch to Microsoft Project software. That is if you prefer more advanced project tracker template options.

Now, let’s see the templates Excel has to offer.

1. Gantt Chart Template

The Gantt Chart template is a very helpful visual tool. It gives you an overview of the project schedule of your team at all times.

A typical example of its use can be a small content creation agency. It needs a system to assign tasks and keep a record of the deliverables. This way, you are never behind schedule.

In the Gantt chart, all the data is represented in color-coded bars. And you can customize them for different teams and individuals by changing the colors, elements, and more.

You can divide the tasks into phases or milestones with a summary of their progress. The chart also offers different layouts, and you can choose any one that suits your needs and appeals to the eye.

Excel has different variations of the Gantt chart template, from simpler ones to advanced charts. One of the most used Gantt chart templates includes the Vertex42 Simple Gantt Chart .

You can get it from Excel templates as well. And if you don’t understand how to create a Gantt chart , try watching this YouTube tutorial.

In addition to the simple template, you can also use the Ultimate Excel Gantt Chart . That is if you are a business that is constantly expanding. This graph can be a bit difficult to understand, but nothing a YouTube video can’t solve.

2. Project Budget Template

Finalizing the budget is the first step toward successful project management. And you wouldn’t want to make any mistake here as it sets the base of the project.

You must keep track of all the expenses from start to end, and the project budget template helps you do just that.

It color-codes Balance when you are exceeding your project’s budget. This is your cue to reconsider the expenses. The best part is that you can set expenses per team, phase, equipment, travel, and others using this.

You can get the all-in-one Project Budget template from the Project Manager . It can even help you set an estimate for all the project resources and costs. The template comes with two sheets, including a how-to guide.

But it isn’t limited to that. You can explore other options. And even customize a project budget template using SmartSheet .

3. Action Item Report Template

The Action Item Report is one of the most useful Excel templates. Every company has a to-do list of items assigned to its team.

The Action template lets you organize the tasks and keep the workflow going swiftly. It lets you set the task status as high, low, or medium and shows each task’s progress in one glance.

You can rank tasks, update deadlines and pay special attention to team members who need help.

It is the perfect template for effective project management. You can get the Action template from Excel or from Vertex 42 – both work wonderfully. 😉

4. Project Dashboard Template

The project dashboard template gives you a bird’s eye view of all the tasks and their statuses.

It gives you a visual representation of where your team stands. And gives you the latest key performance metrics every time.

You can also choose the layout or style you want in your Excel project management template. This makes it easy to understand the project phases.

And the best part is that this Project Dashboard template is 100% free – the only fee is your Email.

5. Multiple Project Tracking Template

Being a project manager is not an easy task. Managing multiple tasks and supervising the team spells difficult. And on top of that, sending daily reports to authorities is enough exertion.

A little help in the form of a reliable project planning timeline template is necessary. It can be a tad bit complex to understand, but once you get a hold of it, you should be able to do it with your eyes closed.

The Multiple Project Tracking Template lets you manage all the tasks in one go. You can add as many projects as you like, manage over 40 tasks at once, and you get all this for free! Isn’t that amazing?

Download yours today and manage your daily tasks with a few clicks only. 😃

6. Status Report Template

There is nothing more embarrassing than being the project manager and not having the correct project details. Luckily, we have the Status Report template to save the day.

It lets you keep an eye on your progress as a team and identify challenges. So you can prepare for the next project while keeping the data compact and concise.

You can also keep strict and clear intel on the workflow. And this is so important while managing different projects.

If you are not already using the Status Report template , you are working blind-eyed. And the resources of the project are subject to threat.

Using the Project Status Report template, you will know where the team members lack and how you can help them. This helps construct more relevant and purposeful follow-ups than simply increasing the bottlenecks.

7. Critical Path Method Template

CPM has a special place when it comes to project management.

With the Critical Path Method, you can pay special attention to tasks that are long overdue. Provide extra resources, and determine which task requires more consideration with increased proficiency.

Usually, you’d need specialized software to keep track of such details. But now all you need is the CPM software.

The best part is that it’s so simple you don’t need to learn any new formulas or terms to perform a critical analysis. Moreover, you can simply copy and paste data acting upon a few guidelines.

The CPM uses a Gantt chart that works like a bar chart . But offers more benefits with increased ease of use and low cost.

Creating and designing a CPM is truly a challenging task. But with this new, free version of Critical Path Method , provided by Vertex42, you can set it up in minutes. 😀

8. Project Timeline Template

Project timelines are great for having an overview of all important tasks. They give you an insight into the project plan that you and your team can follow timely.

This way, there are no communication gaps. And everyone is well aware of their tasks and the deadlines approaching. It really adds to a more peaceful and organized working environment.

You can also customize the template as you like. You change the color bars from 6 different colors. And quickly insert and delete milestones.

Although this template is very resourceful, creating it can be tedious. This is why we’ve brought you the free Project Timeline template that has everything prepared for you. Just erase the existing text and add your own – you’re good to go!

9. Content Calendar Template

If you’re a blogger or a social media person, a content calendar is your go-to tool. And without a calendar, you’re knee-deep in trouble. 😬

But thank God we have Excel to our rescue.

The brilliant Content Calendar template of Vertex42 is tailor-made for your needs. It will take you through all the chaos – from planning content to publishing it.

It will not only help you plan your content but also track its progress and schedule content to post.

Once you get a hold of it, it will really be your best friend in times of urgency. A single glance at your calendar in the morning, and you’re well prepared for the tasks of the day.

And the best part is that it’s free to use, unlike the other expensive, good-for-nothing project management software. So get your free Content Calendar template today!

That’s it – Now what?

This article helped us learn a lot about project management Excel templates. And how they can help you better organize and manage your projects.

But it doesn’t end here. You can choose any project schedule template from the Microsoft Excel templates. And even customize one to fit your needs.

If you are new to Excel, try our Excel course designed specifically for you. Where you learn some core Excel functions like the VLOOKUP, IF, and SUMIF functions.

To become a pro at these functions (and others), enroll in my 30-minute free email course today. 😃

Other resources

Excel has been a major hub of project management templates for years now. And it is improving with each passing day.

All these advancements make it a more reliable software for managing project tasks.

You can use Excel not only for project management but also to create Dashboard , Budget , and Power BI templates .

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COMMENTS

Free Project Task List Templates for Project Management
Use this simple project task list template to list each project task and set its status, deadline, assignee, and priority. The template includes columns that help you track the percentage done, fixed cost, estimated cost, and actual hours for each task.
Best Free Project Management Templates in 2023 | GoSkills
Project management templates serve many purposes. They can help teams set goals, assign tasks, manage expenses, monitor progress, stay on schedule, and move a project from one milestone to the next. Project-related documents are created using different authoring tools such as Excel, Microsoft Project, Google Sheets, and PowerPoint.
20 Must-Have Project Management Excel Templates and Spreadsheets
Our free change request form template gives you the structure to identify, track and resolve those changes when they arise in a project. The free template has space to note what the change is, give a team member ownership to lead the task of resolving it and then get it signed off on.
11 Free Project Plan Templates to Simplify Complex Tasks - MUO
Task Focused Project Plan Template From Analysis Tab Rather than the outputs or deadlines, this project plan template concentrates on tasks. It lets you visualize your project progress through its Gantt chart. This template is ideal for smaller projects that involve a few tasks and dependencies. It includes a sample dashboard and a project tracker.
Free Project Organization Templates - Smartsheet
Download Project Plan Template — Microsoft Excel. Track every component of your project plan with this ready-made project plan template. Enter work breakdown structure (WBS) codes, status (e.g., Not Started, In Progress, etc.), start and end dates, duration, and comment details for each task to keep you on schedule.
The 9 Best Project Management Templates for Excel (2023)
Why Project Management in Excel? Template 1: Gantt Chart Template 2: Project Budget Template 3: Action Item Report Template 4: Project Dashboard Template 5: Multiple Project Tracking Template 6: Status Report Template 7: Critical Path Method Template 8: Project Timeline and Budget Template 9: Content Calendar Why Project Management in Excel?