When Excel is the best choice

Sometimes less is more. Just because you can purchase fancy project
management software platforms out there doesn’t mean you should open
up your wallet. Here are a few reasons to eschew those solutions for Excel:
 You’re a one-man band: If you’re, say, a small contractor firm consisting
of just yourself or a couple of others, you don’t need a platform that's
loaded with features and geared toward large enterprise firms.
 You just want something easy: Even the easiest-to-use project
management software platforms have a learning curve. With Excel, you
just punch in your task list, materials orders, man-hours, or whatever else
you want to track right in the spreadsheet.
 You want to save money: Good software is expensive, costing hundreds
or even thousands of dollars per month. That money comes directly from
your bottom line, so if Excel meets your needs, you can save a lot of
money simply by declining to get specialized software.
When you should use project management software over Excel
As your business grows, you'll find that Excel will struggle to keep up. Here
are a few signs that you're reaching the point where you need specialized
project management software:
 You have more than a few employees: Once you get past five or so
employees, project management software starts to get more valuable. It’s
hard to use a spreadsheet to manage a business with a lot of moving parts,
so if you started with Excel, you will find as you grow that your projects
outstrip its capabilities.
 Calculations are complex: A big problem with Excel is that even a small
data-entry error can produce inaccurate results that could jeopardize your
project. As calculations become more complex, you need project
management software that can automate most of your data entry.
 You’re frustrated by Excel’s limitations: Excel’s primary appeal is in its
simplicity, not in its features. If you want a platform that offers extras like
job monitoring, bid management, design, and other aspects of project
management, graduate from Excel to a dedicated software platform.
 You’re making costly mistakes: If trying to manage everything through
Excel is causing you to make mistakes like missing certain deadlines or
ordering the wrong amount of materials, you need more powerful software
geared toward managing your projects.
Best use cases for Excel project management
Excel’s tools aren’t specifically designed for project management like some
software, but it will handle a lot of tasks associated with mapping out
the project scope, handling the financials, and managing day-to-day
tasks. Here are a few specific ways Excel templates will help with project
planning.
1. Timeline
Excel can create a visual timeline chart and help you map out a project
schedule and project phases. Specifically, you can create a Gantt chart,
which is a popular tool for project management because it maps out tasks
based on how long they'll take, when they start, and when they finish.
The timeline tracker features horizontal bars representing each task, and
they are aligned side by side to give you a complete picture of your
project's schedule and deliverables.
The Excel schedule template and other project planning tools take time
to get the hang of, but they allow you to go beyond a simplistic list of
deadlines.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsxi4qaEnOg.
2. Budget
Excel thrives when it comes to crunching numbers, so it is particularly well-
suited for creating a project budget. This works best for small to mid-sized
projects, as larger projects would outstrip the software's capabilities.
Creating a budget is very easy if all you want is to track a short list of
expenses against a list of income. But if you want to go beyond that and
create more detailed budgets, Excel can do that as well.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uksHkXFcf-k.
3. Task list
Excel will help you create a task list or to-do list so you can manage your
own activities on a day-to-day basis -- or, you can create one for your team
each day to ensure your projects stay on track.
The obvious way to do this is to list each task, a description of what is to
be accomplished, necessary resources, the responsible employee, and so
on. However, you can make the to-do list more dynamic and automated if
you're willing to put the time into it.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEge5na2how.
4. Project tracking
Once the project is set in motion, you can use Excel as a project
tracker and manage any issues that come up. Create columns for the
name of the project, the task, the manager in charge, duration, progress,
budget vs. actual, and so on.
This shows you how close tasks are to completion, what's over budget, and
anything else you want to monitor.
You can then use this data to create charts that help you visualize the
status and progress of projects so you're not just looking at a set of
numbers.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qtSioTE2wY.
5. Project review
Thanks to all the data you collected, creating customized reports and
analytics that will help you break down your performance after the project
is much easier. Excel has number-crunching tools that can automatically
generate these reports based on the inputs you choose -- which also gives
you endless customization options.
It's complicated, but once you learn how to do it, you’ll be able to make
educated decisions about future projects.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPKFlVnzv5c.
Draft a quick project now
The best way to find out if Excel is right for you is to give it a try. Create a
quick timeline, schedule, task list, and budget using multiple sheets within
Excel to see if the software can manage it. Experiment with creating
custom reports. Visualize how the day-to-day would look running a project
through Excel.
Then, check out a few of the project management software solutions The
Ascent has reviewed. Download trials for software options that interest
you, and do a little experimenting to see if a comprehensive project
management tool is right for you.
It will take time, but taking these actions will give you a clear picture of
whether Excel is enough for you, or if you need project management
software.
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