Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What is Google Sheets Project Management?
- Some Benefits Of Google Sheets Project Management
- 10 Google Sheets Project Management Templates
- 1. Google Sheets Monthly Expense Tracker
- 2. Google Sheets Project Charter Template
- 3. Google Sheets Project Plan Template
- 4. Google Sheets Simple Gantt Chart Template
- 5. Google Sheets Event Planning Gantt Chart Template
- 6. Google Sheets Project Tracking Dashboard Template
- 7. Google Sheets Schedule Template
- 8. Google Sheets Construction Gantt Chart Template
- 9. Google Sheets Website Traffic Tracker Template
- 10. Google Sheets CRM Template
- Limitations Of Google Sheets as a Project Management Tool
- Project managers have migrated to powerful tools like ProofHub!
- Bottom line
Introduction
I’ve been playing around with Google Sheets recently and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. It’s not the prettiest package, but if you’re the kind of person who likes to smash two birds with one stone (or rock), it’s a great tool for getting stuff done.
It has so many awesome features too — from templates to collaboration tools, to real-time online archiving (no more uploading spreadsheets) that it makes me wonder why more people don’t use it for project management.
In this post we’ll look at how Google sheets can help you manage your projects and then move on to some resources that can help you out even more.
What is Google Sheets Project Management?
Over the course of the last several years, Google Sheets have emerged as an extremely versatile tool for businesses.
In the beginning, spreadsheets were mainly used to manage data. You could create, store and access all of your information in one place.
However, times have changed, and these days it’s not only possible to use Google documents for traditional purposes – but also for project management purposes.
If you’re looking for basic tools that help you manage projects, then Sheets might be a great place to start. A google spreadsheet is often best used when you have a small number of people and tasks, compared to excel.
It’s a way to keep track of the progress of your project and stay on top of your work, whatever it may be. A google sheets project is like an Excel spreadsheet that you can update whenever you need to and share with everyone else who has access to it.
You can use it to manage your projects in all sorts of ways: track your progress, monitor your schedule and budget, know what needs to happen before the deadline, or keep track of any other tasks that need doing along the way.
Some Benefits Of Google Sheets Project Management
- Free to all Gmail users (and organizations or businesses using G Suite, like Google Docs).
- Accessible anywhere with an internet connection.
- Easy to share with others, particularly in a work setting where not everyone may use the same project management software.
- Easy to make changes collaboratively, and then track the progress of those changes across projects and teams.
- across projects and teams.
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10 Google Sheets Project Management Templates
1. Google Sheets Monthly Expense Tracker
This Google Sheets template is perfect for tracking your monthly expenses. It will automatically calculate the total amount of all your expenses at the end of each month. You can also add the paid and balance amounts at the bottom of this sheet.
To use this template, click on “Make a Copy” and start adding your expenses.
2. Google Sheets Project Charter Template
What is a project charter? A project charter (sometimes known as a business case or project statement) is an official document that defines the purpose and scope of a project. It’s usually created by the project manager and approved by the customer and senior management.
3. Google Sheets Project Plan Template
Now that you have a clear idea of what your project will look like, it’s time to make your plan. The Google Sheets project plan template above is helpful in this regard and simplifies the process. For example, it can break your project into phases and steps, complete with due dates for each—all of which are customizable to fit your needs.
To create a project plan:
- Open the template from the link above, or by going to File > Make a Copy. If you’re not already logged into your Google account, you’ll need to do so at this point.
- Add milestones for each phase of your project in the “Milestones” column. For example: determine vendors, schedule meetings with vendors, etc.
- Enter tasks in the “Task” column corresponding to each milestone, along with their due dates and any other relevant details (e.g., who is responsible).
You can also fill out any other columns as needed (e.g., notes on progress).
This will help get you organized and keep you on track throughout every step of your project!
Once complete, share it with any members of your team who need it—then start working!
4. Google Sheets Simple Gantt Chart Template
If you have a straightforward project that doesn’t need to be broken down into tasks, a simple Gantt chart is a great way to manage it. A simple Gantt chart is ideal for any project that: Doesn’t need to be broken down into tasks. Is small enough that you will be able to remember all of your steps, resources and deadlines without having them written out in front of you. Only involves one person or team on your end.
5. Google Sheets Event Planning Gantt Chart Template
Event planning Gantt charts are common project management tools that allow you to track tasks in a simple timeline format. The Google Sheets Gantt chart template breaks down a project by phase and task, noting who’s responsible, task start and end date, and percent completed.
This is a great tool to use when you have a project with multiple steps that need to be completed in order.
For example, this Gantt chart could be used for event planning—grouping the tasks by:
- Audience & sponsorships
- Communications & branding
- Venue & catering
- Budget & finance
6. Google Sheets Project Tracking Dashboard Template
Google sheet’s chart feature is a powerful tool for visualizing data. One of the most useful ways to use a chart is to create a Gantt chart, which is used to represent your project schedule.
This template includes:
- A list of tasks, showing their start and end dates and durations in days
- A table that shows task status.
- A table that shows sources of risks and issues in the project
7. Google Sheets Schedule Template
The Google Sheets schedule template is a great tool to use for project scheduling. The template can be downloaded and used as is, or you can customize it to suit your specific needs.
There are several ways in which the template can help with project scheduling. First, the template makes it easy for people to see when things need to be done.
It also helps teams manage their time better by providing them with visual reminders of what tasks need to be completed by certain dates and times.
Finally, the template provides an easy way for team members to keep track of their progress throughout their projects so they don’t get behind on deadlines or goals.
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8. Google Sheets Construction Gantt Chart Template
As you can see from the example above, Google Sheets is incredibly powerful for project management.
Any business or organization can benefit from using this tool to keep track of the progress of their projects.
If you want to take your organization one step further with Google Sheets, we would recommend checking out these free templates that are available on Google Sheets.
Here are some ways you could use them to improve your efficiency as a project manager:
- Construction Schedule Template – This template allows you to construct an innovative schedule that will help manage and organize all tasks involved in building a home or office over a period of time.
- Construction Gantt Chart Template – Nowadays, most construction companies use Gantt charts when they’re designing the design and construction of a new building or renovation project.
These charts are not only helpful for making sure that everything is going according to plan but also for helping keep track of which stages will finish at what time so that all parties involved in the project have clear visibility on what exactly is happening and when it will occur.
- Project Management Report Template – With this template, you can create reports that contain information about different projects in your company or organization that might be relevant to other departments within your company or organization; while this template is particularly useful if you work with multiple teams in different geographical locations, it could be used by any individual who needs an optimum way of communicating information between different members within an organization.
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9. Google Sheets Website Traffic Tracker Template
If you want to track your website’s traffic and see which countries, cities, devices, browsers, referral websites, and social media sources your visitors are coming from than this is the template for you.
This Google Sheets Website Traffic Tracker Template has a custom menu that allows you to select the date range of the data you want to view.
You can track traffic by country, you can also track traffic by city, you can also track traffic by device, you can also track traffic by browser, and last but not least, you can also track traffic by referral source as well as social media.
As usual, this template is 100% free.
10. Google Sheets CRM Template
CRM stands for customer relationship management, which is a method of tracking and organizing your interactions with clients (also called “leads”) in order to convert them into paying customers.
It’s useful for understanding the behavior patterns of your leads, predicting what they might respond to, and identifying trends among your target audience.
As a result, CRM can help you generate more sales leads and grow revenue exponentially.
The Google Sheets CRM template gives you access to a simple but effective spreadsheet designed to organize information about your leads over time.
You’ll be able to enter data about each lead—name, email address, communication history and any other details—along with the information you’ve gathered from past interactions with them.
This will give you insight into what works best for each lead individually and for groups of leads that respond similarly to certain strategies or messages; in turn, this will help you come up with new ways to approach your audience that are relevant and specific to their needs.
Limitations Of Google Sheets as a Project Management Tool
There are many spreadsheet applications available today. It can be a bit overwhelming to wade through the sea of options, especially when trying to find one that fits your needs.
One of the most common requirements is having a built-in calendar and chat or messaging application to communicate with other team members.
Unfortunately, Google Sheets, as a project management tool, is severely lacking in features.
Let’s see how and why:
- It doesn’t have built-in templates—While Google Sheets is great for creating spreadsheets from scratch, sometimes you need a template to get started. If you’re using Google Sheets as your main project management tool, then you’ll need to create your own templates.
- You can only have one sheet tab per spreadsheet—If you’re using one spreadsheet for each project, then this shouldn’t be an issue. But if you’re using one spreadsheet with tabs for all of your projects, then this could cause problems.
- It’s difficult to add images and files—Adding images and file attachments to your spreadsheets can help keep projects organized and documented, but it’s not easy to do in Google Sheets.
- They don’t support real-time collaboration—Google Docs does support real-time
- Inability To Link Tasks. You can’t link one task to another, which means that you can’t create dependencies between them.
- No Automatic Scheduling. Because you can’t link tasks, Google Sheets won’t automatically adjust your schedule based on the changes you make to one task—you’ll have to do it manually.
- Inability To Assign Tasks. Google Sheets doesn’t let you assign tasks to specific people, which can make it hard for teams to collaborate.
- Google Sheets does not support dependencies between tasks. This means that if Task A depends on Task B being completed first, and Task B gets delayed, Task A will still show as on time even though it won’t actually be able to start until later.
- No Task Management Features. You can’t use features like recurring due dates or reminders within Google Sheets.
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Project managers have migrated to powerful tools like ProofHub!
Well, Google Sheets can get the job done—especially if you’re just starting out as a project manager or doing something simple like tracking a vacation for your team. But if you want to bring your project management game to the next level, ProofHub is where it’s at.
ProofHub provides you with tools that are specially designed for the purpose of managing projects.
However, with Google Sheets, you can only create a spreadsheet and use it for storing data pertaining to your projects.
You cannot perform standard project management functions like creating tasks and subtasks, task dependencies, scheduling tasks, assigning resources etc.
Task management is at the core of any project management software.
ProofHub lets you create tasks and subtasks that help keep all your work organized under one umbrella.
The main feature that makes ProofHub so great is the discussion feature—you can create discussions around specific tasks and invite your team members to join in.
You can even upload files directly into the discussion window, which will make sharing those files within the conversation much easier than it would be through Google Sheets
A Gantt chart gives you a better understanding of your project by showing you the start date, end date and duration of any task or activity.
It’s not an active feature in Google Sheets so there’s no way to view your project structure in the form of Gantt charts.
Unlike Google Sheets, ProofHub is built for project managers and the needs of your projects.
You can collaborate on a project without the fear of losing data or overwriting someone else’s work.
ProofHub lets you set up custom roles for team members, so you don’t have to worry about security risks from unauthorized access to your confidential information.
Bottom line
No matter what workplace you’re in, it’s bound to have project managers. Think of your company and the people that are managing the most important projects.
There’s a chance the project manager is using Google sheets, either because they haven’t heard of alternatives or they simply refuse to change a system that works without issue.
Sadly, many project managers out there suffer from severe problems – namely, disorganization and lack of transparency. It isn’t pleasant.
As a project manager that uses Google Spreadsheets, you can significantly improve your organization skills with ProofHub.