Project tracker and timelines
Create project trackers and timelines in Microsoft Excel to visualize project progress, track milestones, and meet deadlines.
Monitor project progress with tracker and timeline templates
Visualize project phases key milestones with free online templates in Excel. Use visual tables and timelines to track progress, identify roadblocks, and delegate responsibilities.
Customize flexible templates
Easily customize templates to track any project, like marketing campaigns, product launches, or business events. Modify drop-down options like status and assignee, and use pre-formatted columns to track dates and times.
Visualize milestones on a timeline
Plot key milestones on a detailed project timeline with connected date tables. Use a timeline to plan your week, month, or quarter and quickly edit event placements when priorities shift.
Assign and manage tasks
Manage team tasks with project trackers in Excel. Use custom fields and drop-downs to change assignee and status as the task moves from planned to complete. Sort tasks by status, sprint, assignee, due date, and more.
Track progress from multiple angles
Use charts and graphs in Excel to visualize project completion rate, late tasks, tasks by status, and more. Automatically highlight tasks past the due date with conditional formatting for quick identification. View tasks by assignee and see if you need to adjust capacity levels based on hours.
Create and analyze with Copilot in Excel
Tell Copilot what you want to accomplish and have it generate suggested formulas or add formatted table columns. Ask Copilot to highlight overdue statuses or show which task category requires the most work hours to optimize delivery timelines.
Generate accurate project reporting
Update project timelines to customers, clients, investors, and other stakeholders with accurate report summaries. Present helpful timeline and bar graph visuals at progress check-ins.
Collaborate with team members
Share online spreadsheet access to allow team members to co-author status updates and reassign tasks where required. Create pivot tables for personalized assignment lists and tag users in comments to collaborate remotely.
Ways to use project trackers and timelines
Project managers: track team performance with Gantt charts and tables.
Startups: track feature launch progress on timelines.
Construction teams: manage subcontractors and track bids.
Entrepreneurs: use touch base tracking to organize potential leads.
Nonprofits: running fundraiser campaigns and reporting to stakeholders.
How to create project trackers and timelines in Excel
Start with a project tracker or timeline template that matches your goal
Customize a timeline with your key dates and milestones
Modify project tracker parameters to include dependencies, resources, cost, and other attributes
Enter task information including priority, lead times, and completion status
Update task statuses as you or your team completes them
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Frequently asked questions
What is a project tracker?
A project tracker is a centralized hub for monitoring tasks, resources, and deadlines for completing a project. Project tracking systems allow you to assign things like status, owner, cost, due date, and category to tasks. Project trackers often include dashboards to visualize overall progress.
What is a project timeline?
A project timeline is a visual representation of either key milestones or all tasks needed to complete your project in chronological order. Milestone-based timelines communicate major phases of the project, while task timelines arrange individual tasks in sequence. Either can help you stay organized and find potential bottlenecks preventing successful project completion.
How to estimate a project timeline?
To estimate a project timeline, break down the project into its component tasks. Estimate the time for each task and consider which are dependent on prior tasks. It can be helpful to use a Gantt chart or techniques like the critical path method or program evaluation and review technique (PERT). Then, add up realistic time estimates for the tasks that must be completed to finish your project (including time for revisions and contingencies).
How to create a project milestone timeline in Excel?
The easiest way to create a milestone timeline in Excel is to start with a free template. From there, you can customize the milestone dates and information to align with your project. You can use milestones that work for you, like beta release, user acceptance testing, and project deployment in software, for example.
How to create a project timeline in Excel with dates?
Choose a project timeline template in Excel to begin with a visual timeline and date table. Edit the table below to change the start and end dates, then add the dates of your milestones. Choose the text you want to display for each milestone in the timeline graphic and the height above or below the line.