But using project planning templates is, at best, only a starting point. To ensure your plans are well-managed during project execution, you\u2019ll want to upgrade to project management software.<\/p>\n
ProjectManager<\/a> is award-winning project and portfolio management software that helps you plan projects and manage and track them in real time. We have multiple project views, from kanban boards to task lists, sheet and calendar views, but project managers typically plan their projects on our powerful Gantt charts.<\/p>\n Unlike templates, our Gantt charts organize your tasks, add resources and costs and link all four types of task dependencies to avoid costly delays. Gantts can filter for the critical path to identify essential tasks and set a baseline to track your planned progress against actual progress in real time. That\u2019s how you deliver on time and within budget. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not ready to use project management software, these 23 project planning templates for Excel and Word can help you get your project planned properly. They cover all the bases, from creating a timeline to chart your tasks to having a risk register to prepare your team for issues that inevitably arise in every project.<\/p>\n Project plans are essential, but sometimes, Excel is the preferred format. It maps out milestones, deadlines and resource allocation, giving the team a clear roadmap. A good project plan ensures everyone knows what to do, when to do it and who is accountable, reducing confusion, avoiding delays and boosting the likelihood of successful results.<\/p>\n This Excel project-plan template provides a clean, organized spreadsheet for mapping out tasks, start and end dates, assignments and status. It helps you build a timeline, track deadlines and monitor progress<\/a> in one place. Customize columns to match your project\u2019s needs, log details clearly and easily update information. Ideal for small- to medium-scale projects, it brings clarity and coordination to your team\u2019s workflow.<\/p>\n A project execution plan (PEP) is a focused blueprint that defines how a project will be carried out: its scope, schedule, resources, costs and responsibilities. It bridges high-level planning and on-the-ground work, making sure everyone knows what needs to be done, when and by whom. A clear execution plan reduces confusion, aligns the team around shared goals, helps manage resources<\/a> and ensures the project stays on track from start to finish.<\/p>\n This Excel template offers a structured format to map out every aspect of project execution, including tasks, deliverables, schedule, resource needs, and budget, in one document. It helps specify what\u2019s in scope<\/a>, assign tasks with start\/finish dates, track task status and percent complete, and monitor cost variances. The template also makes it easy to define required materials, labor and equipment, and to clearly assign responsibilities. It\u2019s ideal for teams that need to coordinate complex workflows and keep execution transparent and organized.<\/p>\n A project plan<\/a> is a big endeavor. Our free project plan template for Word helps you organize the various project management documentation needed to prepare your project for success. You get to address the planning basics, such as defining your project scope, identifying milestones and breaking the project down into manageable phases and tasks.<\/p>\n Then you can create a project schedule, including task dependencies, project assumptions and constraints. There\u2019s also a section that addresses the project budget, risk and change management, which is essential to stay on track. Included is a risk log and the process you\u2019ll use for change management<\/a> to avoid delays.<\/p>\n Another powerful project planning template is a timeline. It\u2019s a visual representation of your schedule laid out from start to finish. On the project timeline<\/a>, you can plot your project tasks, due dates, milestones and more. Use our free project timeline template for Excel to start your project scheduling process.<\/p>\n When you open our free project planning template for making timelines, you’ll see that it’s divided in half. On the left is a spreadsheet where you can list all the project tasks in one column, their start date in another and the end date in yet another. The last column notes the duration of the task in days. As you\u2019re doing this, a timeline on the right will automatically populate to show you the entire project in one place.<\/p>\n PERT<\/a> stands for program evaluation review technique. A PERT chart is used when scheduling, organizing and coordinating project tasks. This free PERT chart template for Excel breaks down each task so project managers can analyze them to estimate the minimum amount of time needed to complete the project.<\/p>\n This project planning template allows project managers to analyze the work breakdown structure, task connections and the risks associated with the project. Plan even complex projects by visualizing the dependencies between each step, and create a more realistic schedule.<\/p>\n A work breakdown structure<\/a> is a project planning tool that allows you to identify your project tasks and deliverables and, in turn, begin the scheduling process of your project plan. You don\u2019t want to neglect any deliverables or you\u2019ll suffer delays and cost overruns during the project execution phase. A work breakdown structure is a hierarchical chart that incrementally breaks down the project into deliverables and the tasks that are needed to complete those deliverables. Our free work breakdown structure template for Excel is a customizable project planning template made up of two sheets, one that has a task list and the other a tree diagram to help you identify not only deliverables<\/a> and tasks but dependencies, resources and more.<\/p>\n The critical path<\/a> is a network diagram that shows tasks as nodes or boxes. These are then connected by arrows that represent the dependencies between tasks. This free critical path template for Excel makes it easier to schedule work because it allows project managers to visualize the longest, most important chain of tasks that must be completed to deliver a successful project.<\/p>\n This project planning template has everything you need to calculate the critical path. Set preceding tasks, estimate durations and automatically calculate slack. This knowledge allows project managers to better prioritize tasks as they know which are essential and which aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n An action plan<\/a> is a plan. It charts the steps necessary to achieve whatever goals you have in mind. It’s a project planning template that can help you define your project timeline and resources.<\/p>\n Using our free action plan template for Excel gives you space to list your tasks ad note the phase in which they’ll take place and who\u2019s assigned to that task. There\u2019s a column to mark its status to help you track the task, as well as a place to add start and end dates, resources and their associated costs.<\/p>\n You can collect project planning templates without touching on milestones<\/a>, which are part of the project planning phase. They’re used to indicate important dates on a project timeline, often showing the end of one phase and the beginning of the next, which helps with tracking progress.<\/p>\n You can open our free project milestone template in our software and import your project plan from Excel or create your own in the free template. The milestones are represented on the Gantt chart timeline as diamond icons. Our software gives you access to the Gantt chart and multiple project views, but more on that in the next section.<\/p>\n RACI is an acronym for responsible, accountable, consulted and informed. A RACI matrix<\/a>, often referred to as a diagram or chart, is a tool that ensures that all project stakeholders are on the same page and working together, making it an important project planning template.<\/p>\n Our free RACI matrix template for Excel helps you identify and define everyone involved with the project. The template lists all the project stakeholders across the top row and tasks down the left side of the template. Then just add R, A, C or I to define who is responsible for what.<\/p>\n A project charter<\/a> is an important project planning document. It provides high-level information on the project to ensure stakeholders are aware of the project deliverables, milestones and the roles and responsibilities of the project team. It also explains the reason for the project, including how the project plan and project team will be structured to meet the project goals.<\/p>\n Using our free project charter template for Word will define the project vision and scope for everyone involved. It\u2019s presented to the project sponsor in a neat, organized and easy-to-digest fashion. From the executive summary to the appendix, everything is collected to show how to achieve the project\u2019s goals. The project charter template defines the project and shows the plan that will outline the milestones, tasks, dependencies and resource management plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n Resources are part of any planning process and, therefore creating a resource plan<\/a> is an essential part of the project planning phase. You need to identify and plan everything needed to execute your project, and the most important resource is your team. Our free resource plan template for Excel helps you align resources with your project schedule and budget.<\/p>\n Our free resource plan template helps you organize tasks by team members and the department in which they work. You can also estimate the planned effort for each task, the team member\u2019s rate of pay and the total cost for the duration of that work. There\u2019s also a calendar to schedule the team\u2019s work.<\/p>\n All projects cost money. Being able to accurately estimate those costs and make a realistic project budget<\/a> can make the difference between a healthy profit margin and losing money on the project. That\u2019s why using our free project budget template for Excel is such a vital part of any project planning template offering. It can help you monitor project expenses and avoid cost overruns.<\/p>\n The free project planning template lets you list all your tasks and subtasks, including who’s assigned to each. Then you can estimate the labor, materials and other costs<\/a>, such as travel, equipment, food and more. There\u2019s also a column to track the actual costs for each of these categories to monitor the budgeted versus actual costs. A final balance column shows if you\u2019re in the red.<\/p>\n A project kickoff is the formal start of active project work, and arriving at it without a structured agenda is one of the fastest ways to lose team alignment before the work even begins. A project kickoff template gives you a consistent framework covering objectives, scope, team roles, timeline and decision-making authority. Starting strong here reduces misalignment and rework throughout the rest of the project.<\/p>\n The project kickoff template includes sections for project overview, goals and success criteria, team roles and responsibilities, key milestones, risk considerations and next steps. Each section prompts the right conversation without requiring a facilitator to improvise the agenda. Distributing it before the meeting gives attendees time to review context and arrive with informed questions rather than blank stares.<\/p>\n Use this template for any project involving multiple stakeholders or cross-functional teams. A well-run kickoff reduces ambiguity early and makes every subsequent planning conversation more productive.<\/p>\n Every project generates information that different stakeholders need at different times in different formats. Without a communication plan, critical updates get missed, the wrong people get overwhelmed with detail and the right people hear nothing until something goes wrong. A communication plan template helps you map out exactly who needs what, when and through which channel before the project starts.<\/p>\n The communication plan template includes columns for audience, information type, frequency, format, owner and delivery method. Filling it out during planning forces deliberate decisions about reporting cadence and stakeholder expectations that are easy to leave implicit until they cause friction. A completed plan also gives each team member a clear reference for what they are responsible for communicating and to whom.<\/p>\n This template is especially valuable for projects with external clients, executive sponsors or cross-departmental teams where communication breakdowns carry the highest cost.<\/p>\n Risk is a certainty with projects. Not preparing for risks is dangerous, which is why everyone should download this free risk management plan template for Word. It helps project managers identify, assess and control threats to the project\u2019s scope, schedule, budget and quality. There\u2019s also space to develop an action plan if any risk is realized in the project.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Included in this project planning template are fields to define the risk management methodology, a risk register to document risk and a risk breakdown structure, which further identifies risk categories and structures riks in order of importance.<\/p>\n A project requirements document is a structured record that outlines everything a project must deliver \u2014 from scope and objectives to stakeholder needs, functional and non-functional criteria, constraints and success criteria<\/a>. It ensures all key details are defined before work begins, giving the team a shared understanding. By capturing requirements early, you reduce misunderstandings, prevent scope creep, and set a clear foundation for planning, execution and evaluation.<\/p>\n In this Excel template, you can organize all your project requirements in one place; from basic project info to business, stakeholder, functional, non-functional, technical and compliance requirements. It lets you list each requirement, document who requested it, specify its type and priority and include acceptance criteria or constraints. The template keeps project scope clear and ensures that once development begins, everyone knows exactly what must be delivered, reducing confusion and helping guide project execution<\/a> smoothly.<\/p>\n The project scope<\/a> outlines your project, so this project planning template is extensive. It’s a detailed document that shows the project\u2019s activities, resources, timelines and deliverables. It lists your key stakeholders, the processes you\u2019ll be using in the project, assumptions and constraints, all so you can understand what\u2019s in and out of scope for the project.<\/p>\n Our free project scope template for Word is very thorough, though you can add to it as suits your project needs. We have space for project managers to explain the need for the project, what\u2019s in and out of scope, its business objectives, deliverables and cost estimates and much more.<\/p>\n Change is part of managing a project, and it must be controlled like every other aspect. This free change management plan template for Word can be used for a variety of transitions, whether involving teams, projects or organizations. It guides these changes from the current to the future state.<\/p>\n This Word template will reduce disruptions that can negatively impact the project by defining dependencies, providing a timeline for the transition and optimizing resources. There are tables to document information, history and approvals, another to capture change management documents and the change management team.<\/p>\n Calendars are one of many ways to plan a project. As a project planning template, calendars can provide a monthly overview of the assignments and deadlines of the project. Use our free project calendar template for Excel to plan your project on a calendar<\/a> grid.<\/p>\n When you open our free project calendar template, you\u2019ll find 12 sheets, one for each month of the year. The calendar has color coding to indicate the task and which phase it belongs to. We\u2019ve created some examples, which you can use or change to suit your project, as the template is customizable.<\/p>\n To plan an event, it’s important to make a thorough plan because of all the different activities that are required, such as securing funding, selecting a venue, contracting the participants, creating advertising materials and so on. This free event plan template for Excel helps assign these tasks to team members and track their progress so events go according to plan.<\/p>\n Before any project moves from planning to execution, the team needs to understand who has a stake in the outcome and how much influence they hold over it. A stakeholder analysis template provides a structured way to identify everyone who could affect or be affected by the project, assess their level of interest and power and determine how to engage them through planning and delivery. Missing a key stakeholder during planning is one of the most common sources of late-stage disruption.<\/p>\n The stakeholder analysis template includes a grid for mapping stakeholders by influence and interest, along with fields for communication preferences, potential concerns and engagement strategy. Plotting stakeholders this way makes it easy to see where active management is needed versus where a lighter-touch update cadence is sufficient. The result is a clearer picture of the human landscape the project has to navigate.<\/p>\n Use this template early in the planning process, before scope is finalized or key decisions are made. It works naturally alongside the communication plan and RACI matrix above.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve used the milestone template in ProjectManager, then you can see the advantages of project management software over static project planning templates. Templates must be manually updated and aren’t great for collaboration.<\/p>\n ProjectManager<\/a> is award-winning project management software that helps you plan, manage and track your projects in real time. Everything you can do with the above project planning templates, you can do better in our software. We\u2019ve already shown how our powerful Gantt chart helps you organize tasks, resources and cost when building a project plan, schedule and budget. Here\u2019s what else our tool can do.<\/p>\n Resources are part of any project planning process. Our software makes it easy to assign team members to tasks by allowing you to set up their availability in advance. You can note each team member\u2019s vacation time, PTO and even global holidays for those with remote teams.<\/p>\n Once everyone has been assigned, toggle to the color-coded workload chart, which makes it easy to see team allocation at a glance. If some are overallocated, you can re-allocate those resources to balance the team\u2019s workload and keep them working at capacity and productivity without eroding morale. During project execution, our secure timesheets<\/a> streamline payroll and help you track labor costs to stay on budget.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more than one way to track project costs once the project has moved into its execution, monitoring and controlling phases. For a high-level view, project managers can use real-time dashboards<\/a>, which automatically collect data and display it on easy-to-read graphs and charts. You can see how the project is progressing against your plan, compare costs against your budget and much more. If you\u2019re managing multiple projects, use our portfolio dashboards.<\/p>\n For more details, use our reporting features. Customizable status and portfolio reports capture your project in time, but there are also reports on variance, timesheets, workload and more, all of which can be filtered to show only the data you want to see. Then share them with stakeholders to keep them updated.<\/p>\n Project planning is a big subject and we have many more articles that discuss all aspects of it, from making a project plan to explaining what an implementation plan is. Check out a sample of our project planning content below.<\/p>\n ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams whether they\u2019re in the office, out in the field or anywhere in between. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Construction-Gantt-light-mode-task-info-general-CTA-BUTTON-1.jpg\")
<\/a>22 Best Project Planning Templates<\/h2>\n
1. Project Plan Template for Excel<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/project-plan-template-for-excel.png\")
<\/a>2. Project Execution Plan Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/project-execution-plan-template.png\")
<\/a>3. Project Plan Template<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Project-Plan-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>4. Project Timeline Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Project-Timeline-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>5. PERT Chart Template<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"PERT](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pert-chart-template-screenshot.png\")
<\/a>6. Work Breakdown Structure Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Work](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/WES-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>7. Critical Path Template<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Critical](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/critical-path-method-screenshot.png\")
<\/a>8. Action Plan Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Action](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Action-Plan-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>9. Project Milestone Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/milestone-template-jpg-1.jpg\")
<\/a>10. RACI Matrix Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/RACI-Matrix-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>11. Project Charter Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Project-Charter-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>12. Resource Plan Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Resource](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Resource-Plan-Screenshot-e1704301619226.jpg\")
<\/a>13. Project Budget Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Project-Budget-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>14. Project Kickoff Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/project-kickoff-template-image.jpg\")
<\/a>\n15. Communication Plan Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Communication](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Communication-Plan-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>\n16. Risk Management Plan Template<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Risk](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/risk-management-plan-template-for-word-screenshot-600x564.jpg\")
<\/a>17. Projects Requirements Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Project-Requirements-Template.png\")
<\/a>18. Project Scope Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Project-Scope-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>19. Change Management Plan Template<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Change](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Change-Management-Plan-Template-e1723048906671-600x354.png\")
<\/a>20. Project Calendar Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Project](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-2.png\")
<\/a>21. Event Plan Template<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Event](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/event-plan-template-zoomed-in-1600x713.jpg\")
<\/a>22. Stakeholder Analysis Template<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Stakeholder](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Stakeholder-Analysis-Screenshot.jpg\")
<\/a>\nProjectManager Helps With Project Planning<\/h2>\n
Manage Resource and Labor Costs<\/h3>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Team-Light-2554x1372-1-1600x860.png\")
<\/a>\nTrack Project Progress, Time and Costs<\/h3>\n
![\"ProjectManager's](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/real-time-project-dashboards-1.jpg\")
<\/a>\nRelated Project Planning Content<\/h2>\n
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