Gantt Chart Project Plan (Excel)
Type each task's start date and how many working days it takes; the workbook works out the end date (skipping your weekly offs and holidays), draws the bar across a weekly or daily timeline, shades the part already done and marks today with a red column. Late tasks turn red by themselves, so the plan tells you where to look without anyone colouring cells by hand.
Free · no sign-up · opens in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and WPS Office. Files contain no macros.
Preview
Real view of the file with its sample data (yellow cells are where you type).
| Oct | Nov | ||||||||||||
| ID | Task, milestone or phase | Type | Owner | Start | Duration (work days) | End | % done | Status | Depends on | Oct-26 | Oct-26 | Oct-26 | Nov-26 |
| 1 | Plan | Phase | Oct-26 | Done | |||||||||
| 1.1 | Project kick-off held | Milestone | Priya | Oct-26 | 0 | Oct-26 | 100% | Done | ◆ | ||||
| 1.2 | Requirements and sitemap agreed | Task | Priya | Oct-26 | 5 | Oct-26 | 100% | Done | 1.1 | ||||
| 1.3 | Content inventory of the old site | Task | Sana | Oct-26 | 4 | Oct-26 | 100% | Done | |||||
| 2 | Design | Phase | Nov-26 | In progress | |||||||||
| 2.1 | Home page and key page mockups | Task | Arjun | Oct-26 | 8 | Oct-26 | 100% | Done | 1.2 | ||||
| 2.2 | Mobile layouts and style guide | Task | Arjun | Oct-26 | 5 | Oct-26 | 80% | Late | 2.1 | ||||
| 2.3 | Design approved by sponsor | Milestone | Priya | Nov-26 | 0 | Nov-26 | 0% | Not started | 2.2 | ◆ | |||
| 3 | Build | Phase | Nov-26 | In progress | |||||||||
| 3.1 | Hosting and staging site set up | Task | Vikram | Oct-26 | 3 | Oct-26 | 100% | Done | |||||
| 3.2 | Page templates built | Task | Vikram | Nov-26 | 10 | Nov-26 | 0% | Not started | 2.3 | ||||
| 3.3 | Page content written and edited | Task | Sana | Oct-26 | 12 | Nov-26 | 40% | In progress | 1.3 |
What's inside
- Plan sheet with up to 150 lines: ID, task or milestone name, type (phase, task or milestone), owner, start, duration in working days, end date, % done, status and "depends on"
- Timeline of 30 columns that draws the bars by itself: a light bar for the whole task, a darker part for the work done, a navy bar for phases and a ◆ for milestones
- A red today column, and tasks that should have finished by today highlighted in red
- Settings for the project name, weekly off days (Saturday and Sunday, Sunday only, Friday and Saturday, Friday only or none), timeline start and a Weeks or Days scale
- Holidays list: dates you type there are skipped when end dates are worked out
- Summary: planned start and finish, overall % complete weighted by duration, tasks done, in progress, late and the next milestone
- A sample website redesign plan dated around today so you can see how everything looks before you replace it
How to use it
- Open the Settings sheet. Type the project name and manager, and pick your weekly off days from the list.
- Add your public holidays and office closures on the Holidays sheet, one date per row.
- On the Plan sheet, delete the sample rows: select the yellow cells from row 6 down and press Delete.
- Add a Phase row for each stage of the project (for example Plan, Design, Build, Launch) and the tasks under it. Pick "Milestone" for a checkpoint such as "Design approved" and give it a duration of 0.
- For each task type the start date and the duration in working days. The end date, the bar and the status fill in by themselves.
- Each week, update the % done of every task that moved. The darker part of the bar grows and the Summary sheet shows the overall progress.
- To see a long project, set the scale to Weeks; to plan a short one in detail, set it to Days and the timeline start a few days before the first task.
Tips
- Keep tasks between 2 and 15 working days. Longer tasks hide problems; shorter ones turn the plan into a to-do list.
- Write tasks as outcomes ("Home page design approved") rather than activities ("Work on design") so it is clear when they are done.
- When a date slips, change the start or duration instead of colouring cells: the bars, status and summary follow.
- Use the "Depends on" column to note which task must finish first, then check those pairs whenever a date changes.
- Freeze the first columns (already done) and print with File › Print › Landscape; the sheet is set to fit one page wide.
Questions and answers
How is the end date calculated?
The end date is the start date plus the duration in working days, counting the start day itself and skipping the weekly off days you chose on the Settings sheet and every date on the Holidays sheet. Excel's WORKDAY.INTL function does the counting.
Why is a task shown as Late?
A task is Late when its end date is before today and its % done is below 100%. Update the % done, or move the dates if the plan has changed.
How is the overall % complete worked out?
Each task's % done is weighted by its duration, so finishing a 20-day task counts four times as much as finishing a 5-day task. Phase and milestone rows are left out so nothing is counted twice.
Can it link tasks so one starts when another ends?
Yes, in a simple way: instead of typing a start date, type a formula such as =WORKDAY.INTL(G8,1,Settings!$B$9,Holidays!$A$4:$A$103), which starts the task on the next working day after the end date in G8. Note the dependency in the "Depends on" column too.
Does it work in Google Sheets and LibreOffice?
Yes. The bars are made with conditional formatting and the dates with WORKDAY.INTL, both supported in Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc.