A key part of any project management strategy is staying up to date on the project status and progress at any time.
This is critical for project managers, stakeholders, and team members to address any bottlenecks, stay aligned on goals, and plan effectively. Your project type and requirements will inform which details are most helpful in each update.
Plus, there’s no one way to receive project updates! Consider your team’s preferences, current project management software, project timeline, and your most-used communication channels when creating a standardized project update process. But whether you’re a seasoned project manager or new to the role, we always suggest starting with a project update template.
Templates provide a flexible and ready-made foundation to develop your project update process. They not only help you save time with the ability to plug and play your project details as you go, but they can also reduce the risk of error. 🙌🏼
The sheer number of project update templates at your disposal can make the decision process lengthy and overwhelming. But we’re here to help you avoid that entirely! Use this article to guide your search for the best project update template for your team.
We’ll walk you through the benefits of using templates in any project, valuable features to look for, and break down 10 of our favorite project update templates for ClickUp and Word.
This Article Contains:
- What is a Project Update Template?
- What Makes a Good Project Update Template?
- 10 Project Updates Templates
- 1. Project Update Template by ClickUp
- 2. Project Update Report Template by ClickUp
- 3. Professional Services Project Update Template by ClickUp
- 4. Program Update Template by ClickUp
- 5. Executive Project Update Report Template by ClickUp
- 6. Monthly Project Update Report Template by ClickUp
- 7. Weekly Status Update Report Template by ClickUp
- 8. Multiple Project Update Report Template by ClickUp
- 9. Project Tracker Template by ClickUp
- 10. Project Update Template for Word
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is a Project Update Template?
A project update template is a pre-designed resource to help the project manager establish their project update process, view project milestone progress, and communicate them to stakeholders. These tools should also be collaborative, and give team members the power to view, edit, share, and chat with their peers and managers.
Project update templates come in many forms, like formatted documents, pre-built whiteboards, spreadsheets, and slide decks—but the right template for your team will come down to the complexity of your project and its specific requirements. Still, your project update template should include clear sections for some key information, no matter what kind of project you’re taking on. This information includes:
- Your project summary and goals
- The project timeline
- Key milestones
- Possible risks and challenges
And more! Having these elements laid out for you saves important time and ensures project managers are covering the right bases in each update every time. This reduces any room for errors by standardizing the frequency and process behind your project or program management updates. It also sets the expectation for each update and provides a consistency that project stakeholders can rely on.
Plus, the best project update templates are customizable. So if you need to add, edit, or eliminate any components, you can do so without losing the integrity of your template in the process
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Makes a Good Project Update Template?
Before you fully invest in the first project update template to auto-fill in your search bar, there are a few significant factors to consider. Not all templates include the same features, functionality, and complexity as the next, so it’s important to consider your unique requirements, project management tool, resources, and project needs before introducing just any template to the team.
Here are a few non-negotiables to look for in the best project update template for your team:
- Relevance to the type of projects your team is working on with the proper sections included
- Ease of use to navigate, properly use, and update the template quickly
- Detail-oriented with multiple views, sections, or tables to address project goals, progress, risks, project milestones, and more
- Highly visual to easily communicate project updates in multiple ways. This makes your updates more engaging to look at and clear when presenting high-level insights to stakeholders
- Customizable so your template can be tailored to the needs and requirements of your stakeholders—and saved to replicate the process for future projects
- Accessible to everyone involved. Whether the template integrates with your preferred analytics tool or project management software— or is built right into the platform, this ensures the template information stays reliable at all times
- Automations to eliminate the busywork involved in your project workflow and keep the team informed with the most recent data, plan, or task list
And more! Your personal must-have checklist could be even longer and more specific to include specific integrations, features, and functionality that are unique to your team or organization. That said, this list will act as the perfect springboard to launch your search if you’re a first-time template user!
Summarize this article for me please10 Project Updates Templates
These features can be packaged in a ton of different ways depending on the project management tool you use or even the template itself! These 10 project update templates are great examples of this—and there’s one for virtually any type of project! Browse through the breakdowns for each unique project update template to find the one that will serve your team best.
1. Project Update Template by ClickUp
If you’re looking for the quickest and most collaborative way to gather project updates, then look no further than dynamic digital whiteboard software! Starting with an actual blank canvas can feel intimidating, but with templates to overlay your whiteboard, you’ll know exactly where to begin and where you’re headed. The Project Update Template by ClickUp is the perfect tool to test the waters using ClickUp Whiteboards across any project.
Visualize the overall project status, address open action items, anticipate challenges, and invite key players to work alongside you—all from a single Whiteboard! This template gives you the structure to make quick notes on every significant update that stakeholders want to hear. And since it all lives on your Whiteboard, you also have the power to convert text directly into actionable tasks, perfect for acting on your next steps without skipping a beat. Check out our guide on all things ClickUp Whiteboards to take your projects further, faster!
2. Project Update Report Template by ClickUp
If you loved the Project Update Template by ClickUp and are ready to kick things up a notch, we’ve got you covered. The Project Status Report Template by ClickUp applies a more detailed structure to your Whiteboard to summarize the status of your project by organizing updates into six sections:
- General information
- Progress details
- Support and resources needed
- Highlights and key takeaways
- What needs improvement and what went well
- Next steps
An advantage to this Whiteboard template is that it can be customized to fit virtually any project, no matter the size or complexity. And with customizable privacy and permissions options, your Whiteboard can be edited, viewed, or shared by the entire team to keep members and stakeholders aligned at all times, even if you’re working asynchronously. Plus, ClickUp offers over 1,000 integrations and flexibility in embedding media, links, ClickUp Docs, and more, so stakeholders can see the big picture in each update without having to leave the project Whiteboard.
3. Professional Services Project Update Template by ClickUp
Roles and industries that require specific training, requirements, or licenses can make even routine project updates feel more complicated. The Professional Services Project Update Template by ClickUp helps project managers in this field simplify this process with a pre-built task to ensure you’re covering every key detail.
This task template can be applied to any List in your Workspace and tailored to fit any unique project your professional services team is taking on. The task description acts as a checklist for the high-level updates that stakeholders want to know about. Starting at the top, you’ll be taken through an executive summary to identify the key players, timeline, risks, and more of your project. From there, you can update the task description to convey which areas of your project are on track, at risk, or will not meet. These areas include:
- The overall project status
- The workflow status
- Risks identified with the implementation
- Consultant hours
And since this template is customizable, you can add subtasks, Checklists, attachments, and comments to keep your project updates organized and as thorough as needed. Our suggestion? Add this task template to each project and set a recurring deadline on a weekly or monthly basis to keep your updates consistent and reliable for stakeholders. 🤓
4. Program Update Template by ClickUp
Coming in hot with another task template! The Program Update Template by ClickUp is less tailored to professional services but just as helpful for writing and sending effective updates for virtually any program or project.
This task template includes six pre-made subtasks to guide you through the process of writing program update emails. Starting with the headline and breaking down each section through the closing statement, every subtask comes with a brief description to reference as you’re writing.
With a Getting Started Guide and multiple Help Docs linked in the parent task, this template is as much of a learning resource as it is a template! It aims to teach you how to customize your task template and apply it to future programs to streamline your work.
5. Executive Project Update Report Template by ClickUp
Once you’ve mastered your task templates, the Executive Project Status Report Template by ClickUp is ready to help you dig deeper into ClickUp’s rich set of project management features. This List template is a must-have tool for gathering executive project status reports and keeping stakeholders on the same page.
This template is loaded with four custom task statuses to communicate the progress of individual tasks and project Milestones. Plus, 11 Custom Fields to keep relevant information easily accessible within each task like:
- Project stage
- Planned and remaining budget
- Current expense
- Project lead
- Schedule
You’ll also find seven workflow views to manage different aspects of your project. Use ClickUp’s Board view to oversee project stages and departments, Table view to manage budgets, List view to visualize your action items and project statuses, and a Getting Started Guide to help you use this template to the fullest.
Especially if you’re managing multiple projects at a time, this template will help you keep track of your updates without breaking a sweat.
6. Monthly Project Update Report Template by ClickUp
The Monthly Project Status Report Template by ClickUp walks you through a project’s progress over the course of a month and can be compared against the project plan to determine whether the project is on track, falling behind, or ahead of schedule. More than your average project status report, this ClickUp Doc template is formatted with sections to add:
- Project details
- Monthly projections
- General updates
- Project elements
- Potential risks
- Acknowledgments
Within each section, you’ll find descriptions, customizable tables, checklists, and prompts to make this document both valuable and presentable for stakeholders at any time.
Pro tip: Create a report Doc for every project and add nested subpages each month using this template for an organized track record of your progress month over month!
7. Weekly Status Update Report Template by ClickUp
For complex or fast-tracked projects, a monthly update might not be enough. Plus, project updates are for more than just your key stakeholders—members may provide project managers with updates on the progress they’ve made on a weekly basis. That’s where the Weekly Status Report Template by ClickUp comes in handy!
Another beginner-friendly ClickUp Doc, this template comes with two pages—one to gather a weekly project status report, and another for tips on customizing your Doc from top to bottom.
In your Weekly Status Report Doc, you’ll find formatted sections for your project overview, major accomplishments, activity breakdowns, and next steps. This is an excellent resource for project managers and members to quickly align on weekly workloads, progress, and priorities.
8. Multiple Project Update Report Template by ClickUp
If you’re juggling multiple projects at a time, this Multiple Project Status Report Template by ClickUp gives you peace of mind. This template comes with five separate pages for four projects, but you can always duplicate or delete pages to match the number of projects on your plate at any given time.
In the primary project status report, you’ll see a formatted table to act as your project dashboard. From there you can determine the project health, priorities, project phase, cost, quality, and timeline of each project. And within each project page, you’ll have the ability to add even more information, plus, create tasks, manage your time, and calculate costs.
9. Project Tracker Template by ClickUp
A major part of delivering high-quality project updates is knowing whether your projects are on track. The Project Tracker Template by ClickUp can help you do exactly that. This template applies a pre-built List to your Workspace with multiple views to manage different aspects of your project including:
- A List to see which tasks are in preparation, in production, live, or in critical condition
- A customizable Gantt chart to oversee your project timeline and Milestones
- Two Kanban boards to visualize task progress and your team’s workload
Within each task and from your List view, you’ll also find four Custom Fields to add details like the project stage, duration, and date of completion.
Ready for more project-tracking resources? We’ve got you covered with 10 of our favorite project tracker templates!
10. Project Update Template for Word
For all our Microsoft 365 friends—we have a template for you too! This Project Update Report Template for Microsoft Word keeps things simple and is easily edited. With pre-formatted tables for details and metrics, helps managers and key stakeholders grasp the major takeaways quickly. Moving down the page, you’ll find several sections to cover your:
- Project summary
- Status summary
- Project overview
- Budget overview
- Risk and issue history
- Conclusion and recommendations
Another advantage of this template? The theming can be personalized to match your branding and can support images, videos, and transitions to make the template more engaging.
Summarize this article for me pleaseStay Up-to-Date on Projects with Project Update Templates
If you’ve reached this point, you get it—project update templates are a must-have! These resources were designed to make your project management process more efficient, error-free, and simple. Your stakeholders will thank you for it too. 😎
With so many types of free and effective templates at your fingertips, there’s no reason not to hit “download.” But if you’re stuck on the fence about which one to try first, we suggest starting with a customizable template by ClickUp!
ClickUp is the only productivity platform powerful enough to bring all of your work together across apps into one highly-visual workspace—which is key for delivering the best project updates, even at a moment’s notice!
Access all of the project update templates on this list and thousands of others in ClickUp’s vast Template Library. Plus, find hundreds of project management features, over 1,000 integrations, and more when you sign up for ClickUp today. 💜
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