Free Project Management Report Template
Creating effective reports is one of the many duties of every Project Manager. This is, however, a time-consuming activity: reports should be comprehensive of every useful data about the progress of the project, easy to understand (remember that while you know every detail of your project, you must communicate it to people who lacks your knowledge and expertise), and good-looking too (yes, appearances also count).
This is why we have developed an easy-to-use template you can use and customise for your next reports, so you’ll communicate clearly the advancement of your project while saving time.
How to use the Project Management Report Template
The report template is really easy to use, nevertheless in this guide we’ll show you some tips to make the best out of it.
Step 1. Copy or download the template for free
So, where to find the Project Management Report Template? Here’s the Google Sheets version: Report Template Google Sheets, remember that you must create a copy of it before you’ll be able to edit it with your own data. If you prefer the Excel version, you can download it for free here: Report Template Excel version
Step 2. Names and dates
Start by filling out your company’s information and some basic info about the project. By adding the project name and the date and the sequential number of this report, you’ll automatically get the report title.
Tip 1: The report will look more professional when you add your company’s logo, so don’t forget it! Tip 2: The report’s date and sequential number are especially useful to go back to this exact document in the future.
Step 3. Project Summary
This section will answer the question “How things are going?”, so it is possibly the most important for your clients and stakeholders. Use the standard RAG (Red-Amber-Green) colour code to indicate the status at-a-glance. Red means that there are some serious issues or delays, amber means that you recognise some problems, but they don’t affect seriously the progress of the project, green means everything ok.
Tip 4: Anticipate clients’ and stakeholders’ questions by explaining the red issues in the comment section.
Step 4. Project Completion
Add the start date, the baseline end date (that is, the original deadline, forecasted when planning the project) and the expected end date (the updated forecast). The difference between the original and the expected date will be automatically calculated (variance). Tip 5: The project completion percentage is another very important information clients and stakeholders will look at, in order to understand if the project is on track.
Step 5. Budget
This is easy: add the original budget and the expenses so far, so you’ll automatically get the left budget. Tip 6: Add a comment explaining if you are under or over budget, this is another piece of information clients and stakeholder will surely need.
Step 6. Milestones and Issues
Finish the report with two lists. In the first one, add all the critical milestones with their due dates and flag the ones which are already completed. This way, you’ll communicate progress. Add a comment to every missed or delayed deadline. In the second list, add all the problems which caused or are still causing delays, blocks, or unexpected expenses. Qualify their status (open, investigating, solved, etc.) and write in the action plan column how you plan to manage them.
Tip 7: If you have developed a Gantt chart, add it here. It will provide a visual timeline representing the project activities over time.
Bottom Line
This template is an easy way to quickly create an effective report to show progress and updates to your team, clients, and stakeholders. Of course, you can easily edit it to suit your own needs, and if you are looking for a more powerful way to automatically create PM reports, try Mindiply Timeline the tool for planning, managing, presenting & reporting projects of every size.
Originally published at https://mindiply.com.
