Project status report template in Excel
A free Excel template for a project status report: the overall status and the health of scope, schedule, budget and team are marked in colour, followed by work done, next steps, milestones, risks, decisions needed and the budget. The report fits one page wide, so it is easy to print or save as a PDF.
What’s inside
One sheet, Status report, with blocks from top to bottom in the order a manager reads them.
- Header
- Project, period, project manager and overall status.
- Health by area
- Scope, schedule, budget and team — each Green, Amber or Red from a drop-down list.
- Summary
- Two or three sentences: what matters this period.
- Done and next
- What was done this period and what is planned for the next one.
- Milestones
- A table: milestone, planned date, forecast and status.
- Risks and issues
- The risk or issue, its impact, the response and the owner.
- Decisions needed
- What management has to decide, and by when.
- Budget, €
- Plan, actual, forecast and variance — forecast minus plan.
What the file does by itself
- The overall status and the health by area turn green, amber or red as soon as you pick a value from the list.
- A formula calculates the budget variance: an overrun is highlighted in red, savings or zero in green.
- The sheet prints one page wide — and saves to PDF the same way.
- The example covers a two-week period, so you can see how much to write in each block.
How to use it
- Download and open the file.If Excel shows Protected View, enable editing — the budget variance then recalculates.
- Fill in the header.Project, reporting period, manager and overall status from the list.
- Rate the health by area.Scope, schedule, budget, team: green — on plan, amber — there is a deviation, red — action is needed.
- Add the summary and send it.Work done, next steps, milestones, risks and decisions — briefly. Save the sheet as a PDF and send it to management.
Questions and answers
How often should a status report be updated?
Usually once a week or every two weeks — the template’s example covers two weeks. Update it on the same day each time so that reports can be compared.
What do green, amber and red status mean?
Green — the project is on plan, amber — there is a deviation the team can still recover, red — the plan cannot be met without a management decision. In the template the colour is set automatically when you pick a value from the list.
Can a status report write itself?
In a spreadsheet, no — it is filled in by hand. In Syntra the AI assistant drafts the status report from live data — tasks, risks and meeting minutes — and a project status report exports to PDF or Word.
How is a status report different from a project plan?
A plan describes what has to be done and when; a status report shows how the work is going now: what is done, what is behind and which decisions are needed. For the plan there is a separate Gantt chart template in Excel.
Keep the plan alive in Syntra
A status report in a spreadsheet is put together by hand every time. In Syntra the project health light is calculated from scope, schedule and budget, and the assistant drafts the report for management with links to tasks and risks.
Try for free →Free for up to 3 people, no card needed. Syntra is in closed beta: the team reviews a new workspace before activating it.