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Project Management, Project Planning, Templates and Advice

Essential Microsoft Project: The 20% You Need to Know
  • Concise, focused guide that cuts through the clutter
  • Step-by-step instructions for creating a project plan in under a day
  • Master essential skills like work breakdowns and task sequencing
  • Real-world troubleshooting for 20 common scheduling challenges
  • Rapidly get up to speed if you're new to Microsoft Project
  • Includes glossary, support resources, and sample plans
The cover of the book 'Essential Microsoft Project: The 20% You Need to Know'

Excel Project Plan Template [with project tasks]

by | reviewed 13/10/2022
Planning a project? Download this free Excel project plan template to kick start your schedule.

Simply enter your tasks and the template will create a Gantt Chart showing when the tasks need to happen, it will also tracking progress.

This template enables you to:

  • Enter tasks and activities
  • Create a unique ID for each task
  • Track planned start and end dates against actual end date
  • Enter task duration or work days planned
  • See Work Days Elapsed
  • Calculate Work Days remaining
  • View Work Days Overrun

Excel project plan template free download


This template is pre-populated with typical project phases and tasks including: Initiation, requirements, design, development, testing and operations. You can edit, add and delete tasks easily, and the template will format and update the Gantt chart automatically.

How to use the template

First download the template using the link below. Unzip the zip folder and save the file.

How to set up your Gantt Chart

  1. Enter the name of your project in cell A1.
  2. Enter the start date and today's date
  3. Enter your name or organization in the 'PM' field.
  4. Check the Settings tab and adjust the settings if you wish. We recommend leaving the default settings.

How to add new summary and sub-tasks

  1. Start entering your tasks. You can add new tasks or overwrite the existing tasks.
  2. Give each task a unique ID. For summary tasks use whole numbers.
  3. Enter the start and end date.
  4. The days planned, elapsed, remaining and overrun will calculate automatically!

How to insert additional tasks

  1. Select the row where you want to add an additional task, right click and select 'Insert'.
  2. Give the task the next unique ID e.g. if the previous task was 1.4 number this task 1.5. It is best practice to align the numbering of tasks in your project plan with the numbering in your Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
  3. Enter the start and end date.
  4. The Work Days Planned, Elapsed, Remaining and Overrun will calculate automatically!
  5. Update the numbers of the tasks below, so each tasks has a unique ID.
This Excel template uses macros and conditional formatting, but doesn't require any specialist knowledge to use. That said, it is not password protected so you can dig into the code if you wish.

Download the automated Excel Project Plan Template

Excel download - Excel Project Plan template (Excel)

Office Move Excel project plan

Example project schedule for a Warehouse build

Download a project planning checklist [in Word, PDF & Infographic]

Acknowledgements

This Gantt chart uses a template created by Chris Read and released under a Freeware license. You can download the template from https://www.professionalexcel.com/project-manager-gantt-chart/

The tasks and activities in this template are based on material available on www.cdc.gov/cdcup/ see Project Schedule (xls) at https://www2a.cdc.gov/cdcup/library/templates/default.htm

This template is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/