Ultimate Excel Project Management Template – Standard: Changelog

A ground-up rebuild of the template – a new Kanban board, rebuilt dashboards, a full RAID log, 100+ live data-quality checks and smarter data sheets.

• NewKanban board – five status lanes (Open, In Progress, On Hold, Completed, Cancelled) with project, owner, priority, phase and tasks / milestones filters, progress bars, priority stripes and ⚠ overdue flags. Change a task’s status and its card moves.
• NewGantt bars now fill with each task’s actual % complete – four bar views: Planned Schedule, Actual Schedule, Planned vs Actual and Actual + Progress.
• NewGantt KPI strip and filters – schedule health, next milestone, overdue / due / starting in 7 days, hours used vs plan; 8 filters including Flag and a Due By / Due Within window.
• NewResource Dashboard Capacity section – capacity vs demand (12 weeks), availability (next 4 weeks), utilisation vs target, over-allocated list and a Resource Attention top 5.
• NewProject Dashboard Status Report – one-page report with a selectable period (week, month, year and more).
• NewExecutive Dashboard RAID section with a likelihood × impact matrix, plus budget-burn and hours-variance KPIs.
• New100+ live data-quality checks across every input sheet – missing or invalid owners, clients, projects and dates, duplicates, overdue items and chart-capacity warnings, each with the first problem row and how to fix it.
• NewRAID scoring – likelihood × impact gives a score and level, with thresholds you set on Setup.
• NewInvoice due dates from client payment terms, plus payment status (Paid / Part Paid / Open / Overdue).
• NewClient status and payment terms.
• NewResource email and start / end dates, with capacity, availability and utilisation views.
• NewTask predecessors, WBS numbering and 6 custom fields; custom column names via row 10 above each table.
• NewProject description, sponsor and baseline end date for slippage tracking.
• NewExpense categories, billed-to-client flag and invoice link.
• NewSample Data edition plus an identical Blank edition.
• ImprovedExecutive, Project and Resource dashboards rebuilt – Project Health table, alert cards, milestone countdown and a refreshed status report.
• ImprovedRisks & Issues log upgraded to a full RAID log – adds Assumptions and Dependencies, response strategies and closed-on dates.
• ImprovedNew Home hub, step-by-step Instructions, License sheet, a Back-to-Home link on every sheet and a link to the online documentation.
• ImprovedLabels expanded from 31 to 78 – rename or translate block titles and shape headings, not just chart titles.
• ImprovedFaster recalculation – volatile OFFSET formulas in the Gantt and Task Management replaced with INDEX (about 1,800 formulas).
• ImprovedDashboards, Gantt, Kanban and Home protected without a password to prevent accidental edits (Review › Unprotect Sheet).
• ChangedHolidays, Lists and Template Options combined into one Setup sheet.
• ChangedChart capacity is now stated: 15 projects, 15 resources and 10 clients on portfolio charts – Data Quality warns if you go over.
• ChangedStill works in Excel 2016 – no Excel 2019-only functions are used. Runs in Excel 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024 and Microsoft 365, on Windows and Mac.
• Removed“Planned Progress” Gantt view – progress now shows on the actual bar (Actual + Progress).

Upgrading from v1.x? Copy your rows into the matching v2.0 tables (Paste › Values) – new columns are optional. Re-enter holidays, list edits and custom labels in Setup and Labels, then check Data Quality.

• FixedResource heatmap now always uses the correct person’s maximum daily hours.
• FixedGantt label typo (“TASKA” → “TASKS”).
• ImprovedCalculation sheets are now hidden for a cleaner workbook.

• FixedExecutive Dashboard Project Timelines bars now end exactly on each project’s end date.

• FixedProject Dashboard timeline bars now end exactly on each task’s planned end date.

• FixedResource workload now totals planned hours.
• ChangedProject Dashboard opens on the first project by default.

• NewMax Hours Per Day for each resource.
• NewCustomisable heatmap colour thresholds for hours and tasks.
• ImprovedHours heatmap compares load with each person’s capacity, with a Low / Average / High colour legend.
• ChangedResource workload now based on planned work instead of a simple task count.

• NewResource heatmap can show Tasks or Hours.

One spare custom column in Task Management is now used by the heatmap (7 spare columns remain).

• FixedTypo on the Home screen (“Milestines” → “Milestones”).
• FixedFile re-saved to prevent a possible repair message when opening.

First release – Executive, Project and Resource dashboards, Gantt chart (Daily to Yearly views, 7 filters), 7 data sheets, holidays, lists and template options.