🔍 Did you know?
According to the American Psychological Association, almost 79% of employees report experiencing work-related stress in their current role.
Work-related stress and burnout often stem from heavy workloads, unclear roles, and poor work-life balance. Clear communication and defined workflows can help prevent these issues.
That’s where Kanban boards come in! ✅
Kanban boards use columns to represent workflow stages like:
- To-do: Tasks yet to start
- In progress: Tasks underway
- Done: Completed tasks
Cards on the board represent individual tasks or items. As work progresses, cards are moved across the columns to reflect their current status.
Using Kanban boards transforms how you organize and visualize your work, making project tracking more intuitive and efficient. In this article, we’ll showcase Kanban Board Excel Templates to help you boost collaboration, streamline projects, and enhance productivity.✨
Best Kanban Board Excel Template Options For Better Project Management
- What Makes a Good Kanban Board Template?
- Top 5 Kanban Board Excel Templates
- Limitations of Using Excel for Kanban Boards
- Alternative Kanban Board Templates
- 1. ClickUp Kanban Template
- 2. ClickUp Simple Sprints Kanban Board Template
- 3. ClickUp Kanban View Roadmap Template
- 4. ClickUp Kanban for Software Development Template
- 5. ClickUp Agile Sprint Planning Template
- 6. ClickUp Getting Things Done Template
- 7. ClickUp Customer Onboarding Template
- 8. ClickUp Hiring Selection Matrix Template
- 9. ClickUp Project Retrospective Template
- 10. ClickUp IT Support Template
- 11. ClickUp Business Expense Report Template
- 12. ClickUp Blog Editorial Calendar
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Makes a Good Kanban Board Template?
🧠 Fun Fact: The Kanban board and Kanban cards system for managing projects was first developed in the late 1940s by an industrial engineer at Toyota, Taiichi Ohno.
Since creating a Kanban board in Excel is often a tedious task, a good Kanban board template should ideally focus on key aspects like:
- Simplicity: Select a template that is simple and intuitive, enabling you to adapt it to your team’s specific needs and manage resources efficiently
- Adaptability: Pick a Kanban board template that has indicators like color-coded priorities, a task owner field, and a status update column to make it easier to view your project’s progress
- Visual clarity: Go for Kanban boards that represent your workflow using columns that reflect the different stages of a project, from ‘To Do’ to ‘Done’
- Ease of use: Choose a Kanban board template that is easy to understand and use, ensuring you define individual tasks based on several parameters. You should also be able to manage tasks and move Kanban cards between stages with ease
Summarize this article for me pleaseTop 5 Kanban Board Excel Templates
We’ve curated a list of the top Excel Kanban board templates to help you visualize your workflow, track project stages, and stay organized.
Whether overseeing software development, coordinating a team, or managing personal to-dos, these templates offer the customization needed to adapt to your unique requirements. 🤩
Let’s look at each Kanban template to help you find the perfect option for your project.
1. Excel Kanban Board Template by ProjectManager
The Excel Kanban Board Template by ProjectManager stands out with its clean, intuitive design, making it effortless to track tasks through various workflow stages. This free template offers fully customizable columns, so you can tailor it to fit your unique processes and manage tasks with ease.
What sets it apart is its built-in reporting features. These allow you to generate detailed progress reports, keeping stakeholders informed about project timelines while providing valuable insights to optimize workflows. It’s a powerful tool for staying organized and improving efficiency—all without leaving Excel.
Why you’ll love it:
- Bring clarity to projects by tracking task progress through each stage with color-coded Kanban cards
- Access multiple project views and automated workflows to better your team’s workflow
- Add or remove pre-defined Kanban columns to categorize tasks and start tracking project progress
Ideal for:
This template is suitable for project managers, team leads, or anyone looking to manage simple projects with a visual tool
2. Excel CFD Kanban Board Template by Agile-Mercurial
The Excel CFD Kanban Board Template by Agile-Mercurial takes a unique approach to the Kanban board. It integrates the powerful Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) into the framework for tracking project progress over time.
Integrating CFDs into your project analysis lets you observe patterns and trends, helping teams understand what isn’t working and maintain consistent progress. The best part about the CFD template is its easy integration into the Excel framework.
Why you’ll love it:
- Adjust columns and add new rows to the datasheet in a few simple steps, and pull the right data for your CFD visualization
- Track progress with Cumulative Flow Diagrams for in-depth data analysis
- Use Kanban methodology with project analysis to understand workflow stages and pin-point areas where tasks are getting stuck and slowing down progress
Ideal for:
This template is perfect for Agile teams, scrum masters, software developers, and managers who want deeper insights into workflow dynamics
3. Kanban Board Template by You Exec
If you need professional and visually appealing Kanban board templates, the Kanban Board Template by You Exec is great. It has several advanced features, such as swimlanes, task dependencies, and progress tracking, making it ideal for planning your next sprint.
The best part is that it includes detailed instructions for setup and use, making it beginner-friendly while offering advanced features for seasoned users. This template is a great choice for creating a more sophisticated Kanban board within Excel without sacrificing ease of use.
Why you’ll love it:
- Visualize your tasks with a comprehensive 12-month calendar view that allows you to sort and prioritize based on upcoming due dates
- Monitor task completion and assignments effortlessly using the dashboard, tracking completed tasks, remaining tasks, and distribution across team members and project stages
Ideal for:
This template suits business professionals, team leads, and managers who prefer a more refined and customizable Kanban board Excel template
4. Excel Kanban Board Template by Vertex42
The Kanban Board Template by Vertex42 offers a streamlined, easy-to-use approach to project tracking. This template is ideal for those new to Kanban, providing a clean layout that is intuitive for any user and is available for both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.
This template features pre-labeled columns and color-coded cards, allowing you to easily add Kanban cards, assign due dates, update priority levels, and customize the columns according to your workflow stages.
Why you’ll love it:
- Get a more detailed overview of each task requirement with additional sections for task descriptions and deadlines
- Prevent distractions from pending items and focus on higher-priority tasks with the ‘Hiding the rows’ option
- Get a detailed dashboard to monitor the progress of tasks and identify potential roadblocks using the minimalist Kanban system
Ideal for:
This template is great for small teams, freelancers, and anyone looking to manage tasks with a no-frills approach
5. Excel Kanban Board Task Tracker Template by Indzara
The Kanban Board Task Tracker Template by Indzara is tailored to track tasks with more detailed information. The Kanban board’s detailed project management fields, such as task priority, assignee, and completion percentage, make it ideal for tracking project progress in depthl.
Another highlight of this template is its “task dependency” feature, which enables team members to identify interconnected tasks, minimizing workflow interruptions. With this tool, managers track task status and ensure tasks are completed in the proper order, adhering to project timelines.
Why you’ll love it:
- Locate specific tasks and monitor progress with built-in filters and search options
- Use warning flags to indicate due dates that are fast approaching and tasks that are past due
- Go beyond the basics with the fully automated data input solution within Excel
Ideal for:
This Kanban board Excel template is best for individuals and teams who need detailed and organized Kanban boards to manage their tasks
Summarize this article for me pleaseLimitations of Using Excel for Kanban Boards
While Excel Kanban board templates are a practical and budget-friendly solution, there are some limitations to keep in mind:
- Limited visualization features: Microsoft Excel is ideally a spreadsheet tool with a limited visual representation for tasks and projects. Although a basic Kanban board template is customizable, it doesn’t always provide the same level of visual clarity or customization as specialized Kanban tools
- Lacks intuitive UI: Excel also needs features like drag-and-drop task management, notifications, and integrations with other tools (like time-tracking or communication platforms), which are available in different project management tools
- No real-time collaboration & automated workflows: In an Excel sheet, real-time collaborations are impossible—you will have to manually update the main spreadsheet’s contents, leading to version control issues and delayed data updates. While Google Sheets do allow this, it becomes a problem when multiple team members across different departments are involved
To overcome these limitations, many teams turn to dedicated project planning tools, which offer a more optimized and feature-rich environment for managing tasks and projects efficiently.
Summarize this article for me pleaseAlternative Kanban Board Templates
If you’re looking for a more dynamic and powerful way to manage tasks, many Kanban board software alternatives to Excel sheets offer advanced features and greater flexibility.
ClickUp is one such project management tool. It offers a range of free Kanban board templates designed to simplify workflow management, enhance team collaboration, and easily track project timelines. These templates come pre-configured for different use cases, making them a fantastic choice for various industries and team sizes.
💡 Pro Tip: As teams grow and tasks become more intricate, maintaining clarity and organization becomes challenging. With ClickUp’s Kanban Board View, visualize your workflow over distributed teams, optimize each task’s progress, and enhance collaboration.
Here are some compelling reasons to:
- Customize your Kanban sheet workflow with flexible columns tailored to your project’s unique stages
- Drag-and-drop tasks effortlessly to update statuses and prioritize work with ease 🖱️
- Automate repetitive tasks with the AI assistance of ClickUp Brain to save time and reduce manual effort 🤖
- Track progress in real time with visual indicators and comprehensive analytics
Here is a curated list of Kanban board templates from ClickUp:
1. ClickUp Kanban Template
The ClickUp Kanban Template is a straightforward, easy-to-use option perfect for beginners. It allows you to set up your workflow with customizable columns, making it easy to organize tasks from start to finish.
This Kanban board spreadsheet template focuses on visual simplicity. It will help you quickly add tasks, set due dates, and monitor progress. Whether you’re managing daily tasks or larger projects, this template gets it all done without complicating project management activities.
Why you’ll love it:
- Manage complex projects with advanced features such as tagging and nested subtasks for comprehensive control and efficiency
- Customize task workflows with tailored statuses to precisely monitor each stage of your projects
- Effortlessly switch between multiple views to adapt to different project needs and workflows
- Organize tasks using Custom Fields and categories, enabling detailed attributes and enhanced visualization
Ideal for:
This template is perfect for individuals or small teams that need a basic visual workflow to manage tasks effectively
2. ClickUp Simple Sprints Kanban Board Template
The ClickUp Simple Sprints Template is designed for teams following Agile methodologies, specifically those using sprint planning to manage tasks. If your team often plans one or two-week sprint activities for your projects, this template is for you!
It divides tasks into customizable columns that align with different sprint stages, making it easy to visualize progress and ensure all tasks are completed on schedule.
Why you’ll love it:
- Use pre-configured columns to match Agile sprint cycles, making it ideal for tracking projects that leverage the Agile framework
- Get a clear visual overview of tasks in each sprint, ensuring no task is overlooked and facilitating smooth team collaboration
- Track sprint progress and identify bottlenecks using visualizations and dashboards
- Utilize built-in task status updates with drag-and-drop features to quickly move tasks between sprints
Ideal for:
This template is suitable for Agile teams needing a simple, efficient way to manage and visualize sprint activities in the Kanban format
3. ClickUp Kanban View Roadmap Template
The ClickUp Kanban View Roadmap Template offers a high-level view of projects, which is ideal for project managers who want a strategic view of each activity and task list in the organization.
With its customizable Kanban columns, this template allows you to organize tasks by milestones or phases, helping you manage projects easily. The visual roadmap feature lets team members see the big picture, improving project coordination and accountability.
Why you’ll love it:
- Customize tasks with eight different ClickUp Custom Fields—including Product Area, Duration, Team, and Feature Description—for detailed tracking and clear progress visualization
- Assign task cards to specific team members for better accountability
- Monitor your project effectively using Custom Statuses in ClickUp that provide increased visibility into each task’s progress
- Identify and manage dependencies between tasks to avoid delays and ensure that no project timeline is missed
Ideal for:
This template suits project managers seeking a comprehensive view of project timelines and task progression
4. ClickUp Kanban for Software Development Template
The ClickUp Kanban for Software Development Template is tailored for software development teams. It allows developers to manage tasks like code reviews, bug tracking, and feature requests, all within a streamlined Kanban framework.
The template simplifies tracking software development cycles and helps ensure projects stay on course. Integrating your software development tasks with Kanban allows you to easily track coding tasks, manage development sprints, and resolve bugs efficiently.
Why you’ll love it:
- Set a Work-In-Progress (WIP) limit to prevent bottlenecks and ensure team members are not overloaded
- Simplify request intake with an organized system that improves collaboration and keeps everyone on the same page
- Track cycle times with intuitive dashboards, providing real-time insights to help you monitor progress and optimize workflow
- Organize tasks by development stages like bug tracking, code review, and testing
Ideal for:
This template is for software development teams that want to organize their coding tasks, manage sprints, and track progress in Kanban-style
5. ClickUp Agile Sprint Planning Template
The ClickUp Agile Sprint Planning Template is crafted to assist teams with Agile sprints and ensure that every sprint cycle is well organized. Featuring customizable columns, the template allows you to visualize how your tasks move through different Agile sprint stages, clearly understanding your project’s progress.
Use it to define sprint goals, assign tasks, and monitor progress, providing a visual guide throughout the sprint. For more complex projects, the template has Custom Statuses to track the sprint’s progress accurately.
Why you’ll love it:
- Review discrepancies between estimated and actual hours during Sprint Retrospectives to enhance accuracy in future planning and boost team performance
- Improve efficiency by setting realistic expectations by considering your team’s capacity during sprint planning
- Use unique Custom Fields to capture vital task details and gain deeper insights into your sprints
- Access specialized views to monitor progress, optimizing collaboration and productivity
Ideal for:
This template is perfect for project managers, team leads, and Agile teams needing a visual overview of project milestones. It’s also great for teams or a project manager handling multiple ongoing projects or long-term initiatives
➡️ Read More: How to Implement Agile Transformation Strategies
6. ClickUp Getting Things Done Template
David Allen’s popular productivity methodology inspires the ClickUp Getting Things Done (GTD) Template. It is designed to help individuals and teams keep track of all tasks, categorize them efficiently, and prioritize what needs to be done.
This Kanban-style template breaks down tasks into actionable categories, making it easy to focus on the most pressing items. Categorizing tasks into actionable items and manageable subtasks allows for a structured, distraction-free approach to productivity.
Why you’ll love it:
- Get pre-defined columns for task categorization like To Do, In Progress, On Hold, Cancelled, and Completed
- Add specifics like task category, required energy level, or other details that make it ideal for personal use
- Use the drag-and-drop functionality for easy task updates and prioritization
- Learn more about the GTD methodology with the built-in Getting Started Guide
Ideal for:
This template is perfect for anyone seeking to enhance productivity and minimize distractions. It’s a valuable tool for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to achieve more with less stress
7. ClickUp Customer Onboarding Template
The ClickUp Customer Onboarding Template provides a detailed workflow for onboarding new clients or customers. It’s designed to help teams ensure that every onboarding process is tracked, documented, and completed efficiently.
With its structured approach, this template features steps that help you nurture client relationships from day one. Each stage represents a key part of the onboarding journey, making it easy to maintain progress and provide timely follow-ups for a seamless onboarding experience.
Why you’ll love it:
- Keep an eye on progress with step-by-step columns for tracking the customer onboarding journey
- Use pre-defined task templates for common onboarding activities
- Get reminders and notifications for timely follow-ups
- Assign information and value to 13 Custom Fields, including Customer Feedback, POC, and Subscription Value
Ideal for:
This template is valuable for customer success teams, sales representatives, or anyone responsible for integrating new clients into your service or product
8. ClickUp Hiring Selection Matrix Template
The ClickUp Hiring Selection Matrix Template offers a structured way to track candidates during the recruitment process. Since the process often involves multiple stages and stakeholders, this template is a great asset for teams looking for a visual representation to standardize and streamline it.
It also gives a visual overview of each stage of the hiring cycle, from initial application to final decision, helping HR teams manage recruitment efficiently.
Why you’ll love it:
- Get pre-defined columns for each stage of the recruitment process
- Collect and categorize team insights efficiently, with evaluation criteria to score and compare candidates
- Leverage collaboration features for team input during the selection process and identify patterns for continuous improvement
- Store all candidate information at a centralized place with the ClickUp Candidate Database View within the template
Ideal for:
This template is suitable for HR teams, hiring managers, and recruiters who want to simplify their hiring process to make data-driven decisions without bias
9. ClickUp Project Retrospective Template
While most Kanban board templates provide a framework to track and plan your project activities, this unique template helps you use a Kanban board to analyze your completed tasks. The ClickUp Project Retrospective Template is designed for teams that follow Agile and Scrum methodologies, allowing you to review and reflect on completed projects.
This Kanban-style template tracks what went well, what didn’t, and what can be improved for future projects, making it perfect for retrospective analysis. Documenting feedback systematically encourages a culture of continuous improvement and teamwork.
Why you’ll love it:
- Use columns for categorizing retrospective findings (What Went Well, What Didn’t Go Well, Lessons Learnt, and more)
- Get pre-built columns to add and track team feedback over time
- Access reporting features to track recurring issues and improvements
- Gain insights on improving project retrospective tracking with automations, AI, dependencies, and tagging
Ideal for:
This template is best for Agile and Scrum teams that want to systematically review project outcomes and integrate lessons learned into future projects
10. ClickUp IT Support Template
The ClickUp IT Support Template is tailored specifically for IT teams to manage tickets, incidents, and support requests. This is an excellent choice for smoothening IT operations and managing software development project timelines.
IT professionals use a Kanban board view integrated within the template to track every support case, from initial report to resolution, ensuring efficient technical issue management. Moreover, the template integrates with ClickUp Dashboards to generate reports that make you better understand customer support metrics.
Why you’ll love it:
- Handle all your ticketing requests in a single dashboard
- Get built-in and customizable columns for different support stages
- Organize and prioritize tickets based on urgency and type for better support management
- Improve response time through automated notifications for assigned tickets
Ideal for:
As the name suggests, this template should be used by IT support teams handling multiple issues and needing a clear, organized workflow to track and prioritize support requests effectively
💡 Pro Tip: No matter if you’re developing a small app or a large-scale system, project management tools are essential for confidently mastering any software development project that comes your way. 🛠️
11. ClickUp Business Expense Report Template
The ClickUp Business Expense Report Template is a structured tool for tracking and managing expenses. It utilizes a Kanban layout to move costs through different review and approval stages.
The reporting features also make it easy to analyze expenses, providing insights into budget usage and helping businesses make informed decisions.
As a manager, you can use this template to identify areas of cost-saving and overspending, ultimately leading to better control over cash flow.
Why you’ll love it:
- Get pre-defined columns for tracking expense statuses
- Track expenses for various categories and types to streamline data entry and reporting
- Approve and reject all the different expense requests at the right time with the Approval Board View
- Spot trends in your company’s expense habits by visualizing spending data
Ideal for:
This template is perfect for finance teams or business owners who need a structured system to manage and track business expenses throughout the approval process. This will allow them to keep a close eye on budgets and expenditures
12. ClickUp Blog Editorial Calendar
Thinking of using a Kanban board to chart out your blog’s editorial calendar?
The ClickUp Blog Editorial Calendar Template is perfect for content teams that need to plan, track, and manage their content creation process. Outlining the entire content workflow, from ideation to publication, on a Kanban board ensures that deadlines are met and content is consistently published.
With the added capability to integrate deadlines, assign authors, and manage tasks directly from the board, this template keeps everyone on track and organized.
Why you’ll love it:
- Track content from idea generation through to publication with columns like Drafting and Editing
- Add and edit task cards for each article with detailed information
- Brainstorm and collaborate in real time with team members on blog publications
- Integration with calendar and third-party blog planning tools for easily organizing blog updates
Ideal for:
This template is suitable for content marketers, bloggers, and anyone who needs to manage a content calendar
Summarize this article for me pleaseElevate Your Project Management with ClickUp’s Kanban Boards
Successful task management is essential, whether leading a team or organizing personal projects. While a free Kanban Board Excel template can help you get started, it often needs more flexibility and features for efficient visual project management.
Enter ClickUp—the all-in-one productivity platform that offers superior, free Kanban Board templates. ✅
The free Kanban templates on the platform also allow you to easily visualize your work, optimize complex processes, automate repetitive tasks, and create actionable plans. This saves you time and boosts team productivity and communication. ⚡
Ready to elevate your project management and leave outdated tools behind?
Sign up for ClickUp today and take the first step toward experiencing the true potential of Kanban boards! 🏆
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
