How to Create an Excel Project Timeline (With Timeline Templates)

Excel is a powerful tool that simplifies complex tasks in the business sphere. One task Excel can help with is building project timelines. By creating a project timeline in Excel, managers and team leads can keep track of project progress, deadlines, and milestones with ease.

Excel’s overwhelming functionality might intimidate many, but once you comprehend the process, it’s easier than you think. In this blog, we’ll show you the step-by-step process to create an Excel project timeline and provide you with read-to-use excel timeline templates. Let’s get started!

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What is an Excel Project Timeline?

A project timeline chart is a visualization of the chronological order of events in a project. It’s a series of tasks (assigned to individuals or teams) that need to be completed within a set time frame.

Here’s what a comprehensive project timeline chart contains:

Tasks in various phases
Start date and end date of tasks
Dependencies between tasks
Milestones

In short, it’s something your project team will refer to track what’s done and what needs to be done.

How To Create A Project Timeline In Excel?

1. SmartArt tools graphics

SmartArt tools are the best choice for a basic, to-the-point project timeline in Excel.

Here’s how you can create an Excel timeline chart using SmartArt.

Click on the Insert tab on the overhead task pane
Select Insert a SmartArt Graphic tool
Under this, choose the Process option
Find the Basic Timeline chart type and click on it
Edit the text in the text pane to reflect your project timeline

Add as many fields as you want in the SmartArt text box by simply hitting Enter in the text pane to open up the respective dialog box.

Excel also lets you change the SmartArt timeline layout after you’ve inserted the text.

You can change it to a:

Line chart
Basic bar chart
Stacked bar chart

And of course, feel free to play around with the Excel chart color schemes in the SmartArt Design tab.

A SmartArt graphic is perfect for a high-level project timeline that displays all the important milestones. However, it may not be sufficient to display all the tasks and activities that lead up to them.

For this, your Excel dashboard will need something more complex: like a scatter plot Excel chart.

2. Scatter plot charts

Scatter plot charts display every complex data point at one glance.

First, lay the foundation for the chart by making a data table with basic information such as:

Task (or milestone) name
Due date
Priority level (1-4, in increasing order)

When you add dates, make sure your cells are formatted to reflect the correct date format. For example, DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, etc.

Here’s what a sample data table looks like:

To generate a scatter plot chart from this:

Drag and select the data table
Click on the Insert tab in the top menu
Click on the Scatter chart icon
Select your preferred chart layout

Format this basic scatter chart to show your data even more clearly:

Select the chart
Click on the Chart Design tab on the overhead task pane
Click on the Add Chart Element icon in the top left corner
Add a Data Label and Data Callout
Edit the chart title

Keep exploring to customize the scatter plot chart further.

While scatter plot charts are slightly more complex than a SmartArt graphic, they may still not be enough for your horizontal timeline.

And let’s not forget that the purpose of a project timeline is to manage time on a project. How’s one supposed to do that while attending Excel 101 classes to create a simple chart?

The answer lies in using a project timeline template:

3 Excel Project Timeline Templates

If building a project timeline from scratch doesn’t fit your needs, we’ve found 3 excel project timeline templates to help get you started:

3 Limitations Of Using Excel To Create A Project Timeline

1. No individual to-do lists

Sure, being able to access gigantic spreadsheets and data series with conditional formatting is great.

But you know what’s better?

Something that tells you what you need to do.

After all, Excel can’t help you build a functional to-do list and assign it to individual team members.

Unless your idea of a team meeting is looking into your spreadsheet’s soul with a magnifying glass, Excel won’t cut it for to-do lists.

However, let’s say you physically type out each person’s deliveries in a sheet, you still have the problem of…

2. Manual follow-ups

In the age of customized app notifications and uber-smart reminders, Excel project management depends on manual follow-ups.

What will your strategy be? Email colleagues, conduct hourly check-ins, or tap on everyone’s shoulders to ask if they’re done with their task. 🤯

Not only is it terribly inconvenient (and frankly annoying) it gives you no idea about your project’s progress.

3. Non-collaborative

Do you work in a non-hierarchical Agile environment where the whole team is involved in the decision-making process?

Well, guess what?

An Excel file can’t handle this.

Microsoft Excel (and other MS tools like Powerpoint) believe in single ownership of documents with limited support for collaboration.

Alternative Project Timeline Tools

Excel is a smart, handy tool that’s also occasionally clunky and very intimidating. But what if you could have a tool that can do everything Excel does, except far better? The answer is ClickUp!

ClickUp is an award-winning project management tool that ensures end-to-end project management without the need to toggle between windows.

Just use the Timeline view, Gantt Chart, and Table view to get a complete picture of your project timeline on ClickUp.

1. Timeline view

ClickUp’s Timeline view is for those who want more from their timelines!

It gives you more tasks per row and more customization options than you can imagine.

2. Gantt chart view

If you’re plotting a project timeline, chances are you’re also plotting a Gantt chart.

It’s one step above a linear timeline as it lets you visualize project progress (as opposed to just the scheduled tasks) and trace dependencies clearly.

And with ClickUp on your side, it’s never been easier to create a Gantt chart!

Simple Gantt Chart Template by ClickUp

Identify blockers early on and take prompt action for smooth project completion with the ClickUp Simple Gantt Chart Template

Use ClickUp’s Simple Gantt Chart Template is a great way to plan out tasks and estimate how long they will take.

Easily view the relationships between tasks in an easy-to-read timeline, so you can quickly adjust resources when needed. Plus, all changes are synchronized across teams, making it simple to stay up-to-date with everyone’s progress.

Make the most of your Gantt chart experience by managing Dependencies.

Draw lines between tasks to schedule project dependencies
Reschedule them with drag and drop actions
Delete them by hovering over and clicking on the dependency line and then selecting Delete

Find out the progress percentage of your project by hovering over the progress bar.

3. Table view

You may be wondering, “Hey, that all sounds good, but Microsoft Excel feels like home.”

That’s why we have the ClickUp’s Table view.

It’s a condensed look at your project timeline.

But you can also enhance it to show as much background information as you want.

Amp up your spreadsheet experience with these functions:

Drag to copy your table and paste it into any Excel-type software
Pin columns and change the row height for handy data analysis
Navigate the spreadsheet with keyboard shortcuts

Manage Deadlines with Project Timelines

Excel can be a handy tool for creating project timelines. However, for a more streamlined, all-in-one project management solution, consider giving ClickUp a try. With its advanced features, real-time collaboration, and intuitive interface, project tracking becomes even easier. So why wait? Simplify your project management process and enhance productivity with ClickUp today.

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