Excel still represents the go-to data management tool. Not only can it store and organize huge amounts of data, but it also offers a variety of analytical tools and features, including Gantt charts. No matter the project size, Gantt charts allow you to visualize your tasks easily, organized by their estimated duration. Let’s explore more benefits of a Gantt chart Excel template, and how you can use the Sheetgo template to streamline and optimize your operations as a project manager.
Why use the Sheetgo Gantt chart Excel template?
Sheetgo provides an entire template workflow that connects all your Excel files and automatically transfers data between them. This template workflow includes 4 Excel spreadsheets: the master sheet, and 3 colleague files.
Firstly, when you assign tasks to your team members in your master sheet. Sheetgo will transfer this task data to the corresponding colleague spreadsheet. In these colleague spreadsheets, each team member can update the progress status for each of their tasks. Then, Sheetgo directly transfers this progress data back to the master sheet, where it is visualized as a Gantt chart. As a result, you have a complete overview of all the project operations, so that you can supervise everything effectively.
- Automated system from start to finish: Not only does this template automate your data transfer, but you can also schedule automatic transfers, resulting in a completely self-sufficient system that always provides you with the latest insights.
- Avoid human error: As Sheetgo transfers your data automatically, there is no need to manually copy and paste, avoiding any unwanted errors.
- Scalability: You can add as many collaborator spreadsheets as needed for your department. The workflow can grow as your project grows.
- Maintain data privacy: You can share spreadsheets with the corresponding collaborators without losing control over the master sheet, which stores all the data.
- Easy integration: This template integrates with your Excel spreadsheets so that you can easily manage your pre-existing data. Also, you can also integrate data from other departments, which makes it ideal for creating comprehensive reports.
How to install Sheetgo’s Gantt chart Excel template
Add Gantt chart template to your Drive
Click the button below to install the Gantt chart Excel template. As you can see, you can install the template on Google Drive, OneDrive, Sharepoint, and Dropbox.
The official name of the template is Project management template, and includes a Gantt chart to monitor your team’s progress visually.
Project management
Google Sheets workflow template to allocate tasks, get status updates and track progress.
Below is the Overview of your template. As you can see, there are the 4 files under the File tab. Go through each file and familiarize yourself with the template’s format. Each file contains sample data, which you can simply replace with your own.
How to use Sheetgo’s Gantt Chart template in Excel
Now that you have installed the template, it’s time to prepare the template so that it’s ready to share and use!
Step 1: Open master spreadsheet
In the template Workflow, open the master spreadsheet by clicking on the pencil icon, and then Edit File.
Step 2: Fill out inputs
You will see how there are three tabs: Instructions, WBS, and Gantt.
Go to the Instructions tab and fill out the following inputs: Start date, Gantt view mode, and Week start day. This will customize the template to your specific needs.
Step 3: Enter your project, subproject, and task data
In the WBS tab, enter all relevant information for each project, subproject, and task in their corresponding column.
Step 4: Enter task dependencies
Now that you entered the project, subproject, and task, define the dependency for each.
- Start-to-start: The selected task can start while the dependent one is still in progress.
- Finish-to-start: The selected task can only start when the dependent one has finished.
Step 5: Select task duration and assign owner
Enter the duration of the task in column J, and the co-worker responsible for carrying out the task in Column K.
Step 6: Rename the team member spreadsheets
As mentioned previously, this template contains sample data, and so it includes example names. Replace these names with those of your co-workers responsible for the tasks you have added to the master sheet.
Go to Workflow, click on the File tab and click on More options (⋮) > Rename for each colleague spreadsheet.
You can find the steps for this process in the next section.
Step 7: Run workflow
Now that you have prepared the spreadsheets for your operations, it’s time to update the connections to transfer your new data.
Click the Run button in Workflow to transfer the tasks in your master sheet to your colleagues’ spreadsheets.
Step 8: Share with colleagues
It’s time to share each colleague spreadsheet with the corresponding team member. Open the spreadsheet by double-clicking on it.
Click the green Share button located in the toolbar, enter the email address of your team member, and click Send. They now have access.
Step 9: Team members enter status progress
Each team member can now enter the progress status of the task in Column G of their individual colleague spreadsheet.
Step 10: Automate the workflow
You must schedule automatic transfers to receive the latest insights. If any of your team members update their spreadsheet, your master sheet will also be updated.
Head to Workflow, and click on Automate in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
Once finished, click Save.
How to add more team member spreadsheets to your project management template
Have more than 3 team members in your project management process? The Sheetgo template is completely scalable, so you can easily add more colleague templates into your workflow.
Let’s see how you can quickly add more team members:
Step 1: Make a copy of the spreadsheet
Go to your online storage folder where you chose to download your template. For this example, I’ve saved the template to my DropBox account.
In order to duplicate a spreadsheet, you must select one of the colleague spreadsheets, right-click, and press Copy to. In the pop-up, make sure you choose to copy the spreadsheet to the same folder you’re currently in.
Once finished, click Copy here.
Step 2: Duplicate the team member spreadsheet in Sheetgo
Head back to your workflow on the Sheetgo web app. Click on the Connections tab. Then, select the More options (⋮) button next to one of the WBS connections and click Duplicate.
In this example, I will replace “Emanuel” with “Sandra”.
Complete your changes by clicking Finish and save.
Step 3: Add another source file in Sheetgo
Go to Connections > Report from collaborators and select More options (⋮) > Edit.
Click on +Add another source file to add the new colleague spreadsheet.
Project management template in Excel
And there you go! With the Sheetgo Gantt chart Excel template, you now have complete control over your various project tasks. Not only will you receive the latest task progress statuses from your team members automatically, but you can visualize these in the form of a Gantt chart. The entire project management process is automated for your benefit from start to finish!
If you are looking for more Excel-based workflow templates to add to your operations, check out this post on the Sheetgo automated timesheet Excel template.
Alternatively, take a look at the related blog posts down below.
