Project Planner Template

A project planner template is a tool in the hands of Project Managers which helps them track a project's progress and make amendments. It also helps in managing any change. So, this template can also be a project tracker, which helps the project manager to keep track of every minute detail of a project.

An accounting director wants to keep track of monthly close activities. Therefore, they must prepare a list of items and their completion date, circulate it to every accounting team member, and then track all the activities and whether they complete them on time. Let's understand this by using the template.

In this template, an accounting manager has his task sorted by date and circulated to the team so that everyone knows when they are supposed to get their things done. This template shows the monthly close activity for December 2019. So, AP close on 30th December 2019 means that the accounts payable team must book all the invoices received by that date. Any invoice received after that date will be booked in the next accounting period.

Once the invoices are booked, the General Ledger team can start their analysis and various month-end activities. So, excel project planner template shows that the Sales, General, and Administration (SG&A) team must complete their activities by Thursday, 2nd January 2020. In the same way, the COR-Cost of Revenue team and Accounts receivable team must complete all of their activities by 6th January 2020.

Once respective teams have done their task, the group team works on consolidating reports and shows the revenue and operating expenses through high-level review to the CFO, as per the excel project planner template. Once the trial balance and all the reports go for review by the group team and CFO, the ledgers are closed till 8th January 2020. It opens on the 9th for any adjustments identified during the review.

By 10th January, all the adjustments must complete, and finalize the EBITDA. Once EBITDA is closed on 10th January, other activities like Depreciation, Intercompany loan interest, etc.

They are carried out, and all these should be completed by 14th January and sent to the Reporting director for review on 15th January 2020. Then, by the 16th of the month, the final books of accounts go to the CEO for review. Once it is final, the financial reports will be presented to the Board of Directors and investors on 20th January 2020.

Let us understand how to use free project planner template with the help of the below mentioned points.

• Now, this free project planner template can be used by any person working in the accounting field, or one can modify it. For example, one can change subjects, one could change dates to weeks or years, and the reporting authority.
• It is a very simple template for managing an accounting project. In the same way, the accounting team can prepare a project planner template for all the statutory reporting, tax filing, and payment of other government dues.
• This type of template is useful for an accounting person and can also be used by a software engineering Team Manager or a person working in a manufacturing organization.
• A software project manager can replace the accounting terms with various deadlines for site, application, or product development and track it by date.
• In the same way, a person from the manufacturing sector can set up a project planner template for making or assembling a new product and set a deadline for every team for the various parts they are responsible for.
• This simple project planner template helps the manager track the project's growth and helps in understanding any delay in any activity.
• Any project combines various activities completed by various teams simultaneously or one after another. Now, if that chain is broken or one department cannot complete any activity for any reason, one cannot complete the project on time.
• For understanding, let us assume that in the attached template revenue team could not complete all the accounts receivable activities by 8th January 2020, and they need one or two days extra to complete their tasks. In that case, all other activities are delayed by two days.
• It is a point where simple project planner template tests the project manager's decision-making skills. Either they can ask for an extension of two more days from senior management, or the teams must be requested to work extra hours. Whatever option is feasible and aligns with the mission and vision of the organization should be exercised by the project manager.

Let us understand the concept of yearly project planner template with the help of an example, as given below:

We assume that Nord has to handle a huge project related to the marketing and sales department of ASD Ltd, where is he works as a manager. The deal is that the company will have to assemble and deliver 3000 laptops to SDS Pharmaceuticals, which is into medicine manufacturing, within the next 6 months. There are various steps involved in the entire procedure. ASD Ltd has to bring the parts, do a thorough check of each for their quality assessment, assemble them within a limited time frame, install the required software which SDS will need immediately, do a detailed recheck whether the software are running properly to ensure that there is no risk involved and finally dispatch within the due date.

All the above will involve a number of steps and coordination of many works and processes. It is necessary for the manager to keep track of every step so that not a single thing is missed out and because one wrong decision will delay the entire process. In such cases, project planner templates help the managers plan out their daily activities and progress in a planned manner so that the work can be completed on time and the client too does not get any scope of complaining. Yearly project planner template also takes care of the cost and keep it within the budget.

It is a very useful tool for target setting and fulfilment of the same in a systematic manner.

So, we see that the project planner template shows progress and helps identify bottleneck activities in the organization. For example, suppose implemented carefully achievable targets assigned to all the teams, be it any area or field. In that case, a project planner template will help track, motivate, and complete the projects on time. Also, it helps identify average and extraordinary performers, which further helps a project manager in the appraisal, bonus distribution, and moving the personnel in future critical projects within the organization.