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Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. Without setting measurable goals and keeping track of various efforts and resources, projects don’t stand a chance of seeing a successful completion.

There are many useful tools out there for project management. One such program you can utilize to keep track of your projects is Microsoft Excel. With Excel’s free templates

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, you can turn your simple spreadsheets into project management charts and forms.

In this article, I will cover a few of the most useful Excel project management tracking templates as well as how to find and install them.

Searching Microsoft Excel Templates

We’ve used Excel 2016 for this article, but the procedure is similar in Office 2013.

Defaults

When you start up Excel, the first window you see will contain a search field for online templates. When you’re starting from an existing workbook, go to File > New to arrive at the same view.

Excel comes with a selection of pre-installed templates. They are listed underneath the search field. You can pin favorite ones by clicking the respective symbol in the bottom right of the listing.

Search Online Templates

The fastest way to finding the kind of template you need is searching for it. Once you start a search, for example for the term project, you will also see template categories listed next to the templates that match your search.

Narrow Down Your Search

A neat feature is that you can narrow down your search by selecting multiple categories. This helps you exclude templates that may match your keyword, but not your desired category. On the downside, you may find that the perfect template is not available in Excel.

Preview & Create Your Template

When you click a template, you’ll see a preview with a brief description of what the template provides. You can also pin the template from its preview; the symbol sits in the top right.

To download and use a template, click the Create button, which will open a new Excel workbook with the template pre-filled.

Excel Project Management Templates

Now let’s have a look at a few Excel project management templates.

Business Plans

Excel has its own category for business plans

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.

Start by using the default business search, then select the Business Plans category.

In addition to a couple of marketing plans, you’ll find the following Excel templates:

• Startup expenses
• Business plan checklist
• Business plan checklist with SWOT analysis

For more business plan templates

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, have a look at Microsoft Word templates

How to Manage Your Project with Word Templates

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In project management, preparation is half the battle. To organize and document your project, you may need many different reports, forms or plans. We have compiled a selection of Word templates to get you started.
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.

Planners

A search for planners will bring up a wild mix of personal and business-related templates, including 113 planners and trackers.

Narrow down your search by selecting the categories that relate to the project management task you’re dealing with. By combining the search for planners with the Projects category, you’ll find 16 candidates across the Office suite. Six of these are Excel templates.

Have a look at the following three:

• Weekly time planner
• Gantt project planner
• Project cost tracker

You can continue this search strategy, i.e. combine search terms and categories, until you find the perfect template. Keywords you might want to try are project, gantt, time, and schedule.

Third-Party Project Management Templates

Couldn’t find the template you need in Excel? You can also turn to an online resource to find the perfect Excel template.

Vertex42

This website has a few great project management templates for Office 2003 and up. The site notes that its templates are mostly related to project scheduling and anything more complicated might require Microsoft Project or other project management software.

On the page dedicated to project management, you’ll find a list of useful material, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Timeline
• Project Budgeting
• Critical Path Method

Each page contains a quick rundown of what the template does, one or more templates, and further tips and tricks for the respective project management tool. It’s a great resource for budding project managers.

TidyForms

TidyForms has a respectable selection of Excel project management templates. The most popular categories are listed on the homepage. If you can’t immediately spot what you need, switch to the Business section or try the search feature.

When you scroll to the bottom of a section, you’ll see a list of popular categories and related categories. This can be helpful when trying to find just the right template.

We recommend the following pages:

• Gantt Chart
• Project Proposal
• Work Breakdown Structure

Still looking for the perfect template? You might have to create a custom Excel template

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.

Template Ready, Set, Go

While you’re at it, review our list of useful office templates

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and stock up on business letter templates

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We have covered a lot of project management tips and tricks the past. Once you’re good with templates, you might want to consider additional tools and solutions. For example, did you know that Outlook is great for project management

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How to Use Outlook for Simple Task and Project Management
Outlook can work as a simple tool for managing projects and tasks. We show you how to set up Outlook Tasks to set reminders and due dates, assign to-dos, and track tie.
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? Likewise, you could use OneNote for project management

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How You Can Use Microsoft OneNote for Project Management
OneNote is the ideal collaboration tool for managing simple projects in small teams. And it’s completely free. See how OneNote can help your projects take off!
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. And you could integrate OneNote with Outlook for project management

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OneNote can do more than you think. We’ll show you how to turn your Outlook to do list into a powerful project management tool using the OneNote plugin for Outlook.
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? The possibilities are endless.

Whatever you do, before you start a project, prepare a Work Breakdown Structure

How to Organize Any Project with a Work Breakdown Structure

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A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Every complex project consists of multiple components. The Work Breakdown Structure can help you identify all the steps and put them into sequence.
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.

Have our resources helped you find a template you can use for your project management needs? What other apps besides Excel do you like to use for managing your projects?

Please leave your thoughts, ideas, and comments below.