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How to Write a Project Report In 5 Easy Steps (Template Included)

Last updated on 31st January 2023

In this article we’re going to teach you how to write a project report in 5 easy steps.

Did you know that only 64% of projects meet their goals ? That means 36% fall short. And when projects don’t meet their goals it can result in a lot of headaches for your company.

The reasons why projects fail are plentiful but it typically comes back to poor planning or a lack of organisation. 

A solid project report can eliminate these issues and ensure you stay on track to complete your goals.

So, let’s take a look at how to write a project report in 5 easy steps…

Article Contents

What is a project report?

A project report is a document that contains helpful information so that teams can ensure their project stays on track, runs successfully, and completes on time. 

There are different types of project reports that are used at different periods throughout a project’s lifespan, but they all contain similar data that covers things like progress, tasks, roadblocks, stakeholders, and financial information. 

Why is a project report important?

Project reports are important for many reasons. A project report gives your project a sense of direction that can help you maintain consistency throughout the project, even as it passes between different people and teams. Your project report will also be a great document to refer back to if things get difficult, so you can stay on track. 

Even in the first instance, before your project kicks off, a project report can help you to manage your budget, workload, and any foreseen risks. It can also give stakeholders insight into the specifics of the project to help manage expectations from the start. 

Types of project report

There are many different types of project reports that will help you manage different aspects of your project. For example, a resource report will help you to understand the resources you’ll need for the project, how much resource you have at your disposal, and will also help you to predict when your resources will need to be replenished. 

Other examples include: risk assessment reports (to identify potential risks), board reports (to update investors/board members on project progress), and cost-benefit analysis reports (to help you measure benefits against the costs associated with them). 

Now, let’s dive into 3 of the biggest, most important types of project reports.

1. General project report

This is your first project report. It should cover predictions and plans for how you expect the project to go, and give you a clear sense of direction when it comes to things like budget, timelines, and everything else you need to keep track of in order for your project to be considered a success. 

2. Progress report

A progress report – as you may have guessed – comes in the middle and helps you document your progress. It’s important to keep reassessing your project to see if you are where you expect to be and to help you make adjustments along the way. 

A progress report is also very useful for managing stakeholder expectations and keeping them informed on how the project’s going.

3. Project completion report

As you wrap up your project, a project completion report can be a great way to reflect on what went well and what went wrong. This can not only help you wrap up the current project neatly, it can also inform future projects and ensure you don’t make the same mistakes twice.

How to write a project report in only 5 steps

There are many different types of project reports. So, of course, the writing of each one will differ slightly depending on who they are aimed at and what the content of the project report is. 

However, there are still some core steps to follow for each. Let’s take a look at how to write a project report in 5 steps. 

1. Start with the basics

At the very top of your project report should be a simple table that includes all of the core information for the project. Here’s an example: 

Project report table

The table for your project will probably vary slightly to this, but hopefully this gives you an idea of the most important top-level information to include. 

Underneath this table you should have a short summary of the project. This can be just a couple of sentences that sum up the objectives and goals. Think of this kind of like an elevator pitch for the project. 

2. Cover your objectives

Now it’s time to go into more detail. List out each objective for the project, including what you need to do to achieve each one. 

For example, let’s pretend our project is to create a brand video. There are many objectives, such as: 

  • Write a script
  • Storyboard the video 
  • Record a voiceover
  • Shoot the video
  • Edit the video
  • Come up with a plan for promotion 

Each objective will need to be completed in order to go on to the next. And each objective requires different resources and skill sets. All of this should be recorded, in detail, in your project report. 

3. List your obstacles

Next, list any predicted obstacles or risks. This may feel like a waste of time because of course you’re going to be avoiding risks and obstacles as often as you can. However, it’s important to be aware of the potential roadblocks that might appear so that you are prepared to handle them without slowing down. 

Some example obstacles for the brand video project could be: 

  • Equipment breaks
  • Weather ruins a shoot
  • Editing takes longer than planned

Next to each obstacle, jot down a quick plan for how you would solve this issue if it happened. For example, for “weather ruins a shoot” your potential solution could be to “choose a backup location”.

4. Create a project timeline

With any project, it’s important to know how long everything’s going to take. This is the best way to estimate how much time, money, and resource is required. 

A project timeline will help plot a path forward. To create a project timeline all you need to do is break down each objective into tasks and add a deadline for each task. It also helps to add an owner to each task, so you know who the point of contact is for each section of the timeline. 

This can be tricky to manage but becomes so much easier with a project management tool, like Project.co . When you create a project on Project.co, all of your clients and team members can see everything that goes on with the project in one centralised place. This includes tasks that can be allocated to team members, assigned a date, and a status – so everyone involved in the project can see how it’s progressing: 

how to create a good project report

You can also add comments, attachments, priority tags, and more. 

Plus, it’s easy to keep track of several tasks at once by using the calendar view: 

how to create a good project report

Other views available are kanban, list, and scheduler. 

5. Cover project communication

Somewhere on your project report you should include a link to your communication guidelines . This will help everyone involved on the project to understand what’s expected of them when it comes to communication, for example what tools to use and how to communicate. 

This can help your project run more smoothly and create a better result for everyone. According to our Communication Statistics 2022 , 95% of people feel that the businesses they deal with could improve when it comes to communication and project management . 

Writing a project report: 7 top tips 

1. Be clear

The perfect project report is clear and concise. Try your best to leave no room for errors or misunderstandings, and write in short definitive sentences. 

Being clear is especially important when it comes to timelines and targets. It can be helpful to plot out your tasks in a visual way, like a kanban view . This will make your project timeline easy to scan and understand.  

2. Be thorough

While it’s important to be clear and concise, it’s equally important to be thorough. Try to include as much relevant information in your project reports as possible.

One of the main functions of project reports, particularly project status reports, is to inform stakeholders on the progress of the project. So the more thorough you can be, the better. 

3. Be appropriate

A project report is an internal document that’s likely going to be shared between many different departments or teams in your business, so it’s important to make sure your language is appropriate. 

Keep the culture of the business in mind when writing your report. Use the same kind of tone and language that you would in other internal communication documents. This is especially important when you consider more than a third (35%) of businesses have lost an employee because of poor internal communication . 

4. Be honest

Your project report is not the place to sugarcoat anything. You should be honest, and brutally so. This means giving accurate and realistic figures, deliverables and deadlines. 

A project report should be a factual account so that everyone has a clear understanding of the data and knows exactly what to expect from the project. 

5. Be quick

It may seem contradictory to tell you to be thorough and quick with your project reports, but this just means don’t overload people with unnecessary information. Be succinct and to-the-point with every aspect of the report, from points of contact to resources and any potential roadblocks. 

The idea is for your project reports to be as easy to digest as possible, especially if you’re supplying busy stakeholders with a steady stream of ongoing status reports. 

6. Be prepared

No project runs perfectly, so it can be helpful to be prepared for bumps in the road. You might want to leave an ‘other’ or ‘notes’ section at the bottom of your report where you can jot down anything that’s changed along the way. 

It can also help to leave room for slight adjustments in your timeline. Just a couple of buffer days here and there can really reduce stress for your teams, and also help ensure your deadlines are more realistic. 

7. Be proud

When you’re carefully documenting things like risks and problems, your project report can become pretty gloomy. So it’s important to even it out by also celebrating your team’s achievements. 

Every project has ups and downs, and by giving as much attention to the ‘ups’ as you do the ‘downs’ you can boost team morale and this can be reflected back on your project. 

Free project report template

As promised, here is your free project report template ! 

To use this document, make sure to hit File > Make a Copy to save it as your own. This way you can make edits and personalise it to perfectly fit your needs. 

Final thoughts

A solid project report can act almost like a map that clearly directs you towards your end goal, helping you to avoid risks along the way and take the best route to success.

In addition to a project report, a project management platform can also help you to maintain your focus and manage your project with ease, thanks to centralised communication and complete visibility of all your work. Click here to get started for free .

Create your FREE account

Status.net

How to Write a Project Report: Step-By-Step Guide [+ 4 Free Templates]

By archtc on December 26, 2017 — 21 minutes to read

  • How to Write a Project Report: Step-By-Step Guide Part 1
  • Project Report Templates: Free Download Part 2
  • Additional Resources Part 3
  • How to Dramatically Reduce Time You Spend Creating Reports Part 4

At some point during the implementation of a project, a project report has to be generated in order to paint a mental image of the whole project. Ultimately, a project report must maximize the insight gained with minimal effort from the reader. Apart from describing its results, it must also explain the implications of those results to the organization and its business operations.

How to Write a Project Status Report:

The most common type of project report, a project status report provides a general state of the project to its stakeholders. It quantifies work performed and completed in measurable terms. It compares this with an established baseline to see if the project is on track or; if adjustments have to be made if the project is behind its schedule. It keeps everyone on the same page and manages each other’s expectations.

Project status reports are accomplished to serve the following purposes;

  • to keep an updated flow of information in relation to the project’s progress
  • to immediately address issues and concerns that may come up at any point of the project’s implementation or duration
  • to document reasons for changes and adjustments made to the original plan for the project
  • to monitor fund utilization and to ensure that the project expenses are still within the budget
  • to serve as a basis for decision-making and addressing problems
  • to keep track of the team’s performance and individual contributions
  • to act as a uniform procedure for communicating project development to the stakeholders.

Status reports are most effective when they follow a standard form with predefined fields that need to be regularly updated. Doing so will save time and provide consistency and predictability of the information the stakeholders will receive about the status of the project.

WHAT TO INCLUDE

For a status report to be comprehensive, it must include the following elements:

Summary/overall health of the project, facts on the project progress, target vs. actual accomplishments, action(s) taken, risks and issues, keys to an effective project status report.

  • Submit the report on time . A status report is time sensitive and sending it late defeats the purpose of such a report.
  • Giving complete but inaccurate information is just as bad as giving accurate but incomplete information . Since stakeholders rely on the status report for a heads-up on the project, and its content is used as the basis for decision-making, it is critical that the report provides both complete and accurate information.
  • Do not cover up bad news or adverse reports as these are all part of the transparency of the status report . Keep in mind that being open with the stakeholders, whether the project is sailing smoothly or not, will benefit both the team and the client, since any problems there are will be immediately given attention and solved.
  • Be proud of the team’s accomplishments, after all, this is what the clients and the stakeholders will want to know about .
  • Anticipate questions from the clients or stakeholders and be prepared to answer them .
  • Be familiar with the culture of the organization and respect the information hierarchy they observe . There are instances when the CEO wants to be the first to know about the contents of these reports before cascading it to his downlines. On the other hand, middle managers will want a head start on these reports so they can also anticipate and prepare for any reaction from the top executives.
  • Craft the status report in such a way that there will be no information overload . It should contain necessary information that the stakeholders need to know. Lengthy reports will consume not only the writer’s time but also that of the reader. Too many details also give an impression of micro management.

Risk Registers

All projects, or any activities of business, face risks. It is just a matter of how an organization identifies, assesses, analyzes, and monitors these risks. With a Risk Register, an organization is equipped with a tool to better respond to problems that may arise because of these risks. It helps in the decision-making process and enables the stakeholders to take care of the threats in the best way possible.

A Risk Register, also called an Issue Log, is iterative because it will be updated periodically depending on how often the team identifies a potential risk. It may also be updated if the characteristics of the existing potential risks change as the project progresses. 

The Risk Register document contains information about the following:

Risk Identification

  • Risk Category:  Grouping these risks under different categories is helpful. Doing so will provide a way to make a plan of action that will address most, if not all of the risks falling under the same category, saving time, effort, and resources.
  • Risk Description:  Provide a brief explanation of the identified potential risk. The description can be done in a variety of ways depending on the level of detail. A general description can be difficult to address while giving too much detail about the risk may entail a significant amount of work. Three factors to consider when making a risk description are: the way these risks are going to be managed, who will handle them, and the reporting requirements of the person receiving the risk register.
  • Risk ID:  Assign a unique identification code to each risk identified to track it in the risk register easily. Create a system of coding in such a way that the category to which the said risk belongs is easily identifiable.

Risk Analysis

  • Project Impact: Indicate the potential effect of the assumed risk on different aspects of the project such as budget, timelines, quality, and performance.
  • Likelihood: Referring to the possibility of the risk occurring, the likelihood can be expressed qualitatively—high, medium, low—or quantitatively, if there is enough information available. Whatever criteria are to be used, assign a number—with the highest value corresponding to that which is most likely to occur.

Risk Evaluation

Using the table above, the identified risk can be ranked this way:

  • Risk Trigger: These are the potential risk events that will trigger the implementation of a contingency plan based on the risk management plan. This plan should have been prepared prior to the development of a risk register.

Risk Treatment

  • Prevention Plan: This enumerates the steps or action to be taken to prevent the risks from occurring.
  • Contingency Plan: On the other hand, the contingency plan determines the steps or action to be taken once the risk events have occurred. This program also contains the measures to be taken to reduce the impact of such risks to the project.
  • Risk Owner: The person responsible for managing risk, and the implementation of the prevention and contingency plans, it can be anyone among the stakeholders—members of the team, a project manager, or project sponsors.
  • Residual Risk: Sometimes, a risk cannot be entirely eliminated after treatment. Part of it may linger throughout the duration of the project, but once it has been treated, it can be considered as a low-level risk.

Keys to an Effective Risk Register

  • The first risk register must be created as soon as the project plan and the risk management plan has been approved . This initial risk register must be integrated into the project plan.
  • Active risks during a particular period must also be included in the project status report .
  • Risk management is an iterative process which is why the risk register must also be updated from time to time . Updates can be made when new risks are identified or there have been changes in the risks already in the register.
  • The numerical value assigned to the likelihood and severity levels must remain constant throughout the duration of the whole project .
  • Likewise, any terms used must be defined, and this definition must be utilized consistently .

Project Closure Report

As the end of a project, a Project Closure Report signals its culmination. Its submission officially concludes a project and implies that funds and resources will no longer be needed, and everything will go back to its status prior to the implementation of the project.

This process is critical as it will officially tie up all loose ends and prevent confusion among stakeholders.

This particular type of project report summarizes information on the project results, the criteria used to measure the effectiveness of the project delivery process, and the feedback from the stakeholders. Each performance metric includes an assessment and a narration of how the team performed on such metrics.

This performance metric describes how the team utilized the budget in carrying out the project effectively. Under this performance metric, the following aspects are measured:

Component Breakdown

Budget variance, explanations for key variances.

Describe how the team implemented the project within the expected time frame and schedule.

Overall Project Duration

Schedule variance, the explanations for key variances, change management.

This metric refers to the team’s ability to handle and manage changes throughout the project’s implementation effectively. It is measured through the following:

Total Number of Changes

The impact of the changes, the highlight of changes, quality management.

This particular metric refers to the team’s ability to observe and comply with quality standards during the project’s implementation.

Total Number of Defects Identified

The explanation for resolved defects, risk and issue management.

This metric deals with how risks and matters that occurred during project implementation were handled and resolved by the team. Key points to include are the following:

The impact of the Risks and Issues to the Project

Human resource management.

This refers to the team’s ability to carry out the project effectively.

Project Organization Structure

This metric looks at how the stakeholders participated in the project.

Decision-makers

Communication management.

Under this metric, communication throughout the duration of the project is assessed.

Communication Management Plan

  • Summarize essential feedback collected . Describe the method by which these comments were gathered and who was solicited for feedback. Also include how they responded to each question and briefly discuss which items received great responses from the participants and which ones got few answers.
  • Take note of common themes or trends of feedback gathered .
  • From the feedback gathered, also take note of any opportunities from this feedback and discuss how these opportunities can be applied to future projects, or in the organization itself .

Lesson Learned

  • Give a brief discussion of what the team learned when carrying out the project . Among these learnings, discuss which ones can be applied to future projects and how it will impact not only those future projects but also the whole organization.

Other Metrics

Other points of interest may not have been captured in the Project Status Report and may be included in the Project Closeout Report. Some of these factors include:

Duration and Effort by Project Phase

Benefits realized, benchmark comparisons, keys to an effective project closure report.

  • The closure report is mostly a summary of all efforts related to the project . It is important to ensure that all highlights of the project have been properly documented so that retrieval of these reports is easier and all efforts will be acknowledged.
  • Emphasize the high points the project delivered, how efficiently it was done, and what has been learned from the process.
  • If there are notable variances during the project implementation, make sure to provide a fact-based explanation on it . In addition, the impact of this difference must also be described.
  • A critical point in a project closure report is establishing the link between the project performance, the lessons learned, and the steps that will be taken by the organization for its continuous improvement . Aside from the project deliverables, another valuable output of a project is the learnings derived from the process and how it will be translated into concrete concepts applicable to the business processes of the organization.

Executive Summary

A little bit different from the types of project reports previously mentioned, an Executive Summary  is a distinct kind of report which uses different language. It is a high-level report which aims to provide a bigger and deeper understanding of the project—how it will benefit the organization and how it will fit into future business strategies. It is written with a busy executive in mind, someone who has a lot of important things to do and may find reading a lengthy piece of prose a waste of precious time. Factual and objective, this particular type of project report must be able to provide a realistic status of the project, as business executives understand that everything may not go according to the plan.

Some may confuse an executive summary with an abstract but, in reality, they are clearly distinct from one another and serve a different purpose.

An abstract is usually written for academic or scientific papers. It is written with a topic sentence which, generally, gives an overview of what the article is about. It is, then, supported by two or three supporting sentences which support the main idea of the topic sentence.

An executive summary, on the other hand, is composed of different sections discussing almost every significant aspect of an undertaking. It consists of sequentially arranged key points supported by conclusions and recommendations. Check our in-depth article on how to write an effective executive summary .

Things to Remember in Writing Project Reports

Here are some of the principles that need to be observed in writing an effective project report;

Write for the reader

The report should have a structure, ensure that the report is evidence-based and is supported by data, make it as objective as possible.

There is a clear distinction between facts and opinions . These should never be used together, especially if the report is dwelling on a failed project. The report becomes subjective if it reflects personal opinions of the writer. Make it objective by eliminating all parts which are not based on facts and real events. If it is really necessary to include a personal view or opinion, make sure to explicitly identify it as such. A separate section of the project report may be devoted to the writer’s personal opinion to keep the rest of the report unbiased.

There are a number of ways project reporting helps an organization, a team, and even the project itself and here are some of them:

It tracks the progress of the project

It helps identify risks, it helps manage project cost, it gives stakeholders an insight on how the project is performing, project report template: free download.

project status report

Click Here to Download Project Status Report XLSX

project update report

Click Here to Download Project Update Report DOC

project updated report 2

Click Here to Download Project Update Report 2 DOCX

general project report

Click Here to Download General Project Report DOCX

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Templates on ProsperForms:

project status report form template

Edit and use this template

monthly status report form template

Additional Sources

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  • Project Status Dashboard and Project Tracking
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How to write a project report: [templates + guide] 

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Writing a project report is an essential but often overlooked contributor to your project’s health.  However, without the use of automation and templates, it can be a little time-consuming to collect and organize the relevant data that the project generates.

In this post, we’ll explore the basics of project reporting. We’ve included some useful templates and tips to create clear and helpful project reports in less time.

If you want to start creating better project reports using monday.com, sign up today.

What is a project report?

A project report is a document where you share details about different areas of your project. Depending on the report type , your audience, and your intention, the details you showcase might differ.

Project reports can be broken down by time— daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly— or a number of other factors like risk, budget, and project management style. Bottom line? They simplify the process of gathering and disseminating information about key information on the project. For instance, a typical report might include:

  • Resources you’ve used so far
  • How project time is being spent
  • How you’re doing against key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Workload and team availability

What is the purpose of project reporting?

Reporting gives you, your team, and your stakeholders the ability to track project progress against the original plan. The main goal of a project report is to improve decision-making, to help you make sense of your project data, and decide what your next steps should be. This in turn can impact your budget, timeliness, and project success.

It also plays a vital role in your stakeholder engagement strategy, as it keeps everyone informed on the progress of projects they’re interested in. Those are just a few of the reasons why project reporting has become the most common activity among PMOs (Project Management Offices).

A graph representing the most popular activities undertaken by PMOs

( Image Source )

5 steps to create a useful project report

Project reports can be useful – or they can end up as a 20-page PDF that lives in a drawer somewhere. To put together a report that your project stakeholders can use to gain insights, make decisions and optimize processes, take the following systematic approach to writing your project reports:

1. Define the purpose and scope: Clearly establish the goals, objectives, target audience, and information needs of your project report. 2. Gather and organize data: Collect and organize all relevant data, ensuring its accuracy and reliability. 3. Structure and outline: Create a clear and logical structure for your report and outline the key points you want to cover. 4. Present information effectively: Use clear and concise language and visual aids like graphs or charts to present the information in an easily understandable, visually appealing manner. 5. Review and revise: Proofread your report for any errors or inconsistencies, ensure that it addresses the defined purpose and scope, and revise as necessary to improve clarity.

The different types of project management reports [with templates]

You can split project reports into different types and categories. Here are five different types of project mangement reports, with monday.com templates you can customize for your unique project and team set-up.

1. Project status report

Probably the most frequently used, a project status report offers a general overview of the current status of your projects. A project status report answers the question: “How likely is it that we’ll complete this project on time without overrunning costs?”

These reports analyze whether you’re meeting project goals and key performance indicators. With our single project template , creating a status report is easier than ever.

How to write a project report: [templates + guide] 

2. Resource workload report

Resource workload reports help you visualize what your team’s working on, when they’re working on it, and how much work is left. These also reports help you understand how your assets are being used and make sure your actions are aligned with the overall objective.

Our resource management template helps you organize all your assets, locations, and people into one place and track every action with accuracy. You can also manage your resource allocation initiatives and make sure you don’t assign the same resource twice in multiple tasks.

resource management screenshot in monday.com

3. Portfolio report

Portfolio reports take a look at all your projects and consolidate all the data into a single document. These reports capture high-level milestones, status, progress, and highlights of your portfolio strategy.

With our portfolio management template , you can track unlimited projects on a single board and get a quick snapshot of their health and profitability.

Portfolio management screenshot

4. Task list/Time-tracking report

Time-tracking reports, also known as timesheets, help you measure how your team is spending their time and spot potential bottlenecks.

With our team task list template , you can bring in your entire organization, assign tasks to peers, track time and measure the project progress at a glance.

monday.com's team task tracker screenshot

5. Expense report

A project might seem healthy – until everyone starts reporting expenses  at the end of the time period. With our expense tracking template , you can proactively manage your cash flow regardless of your accounting skills (or lack thereof!)

expense report in monday.com

Want to try out these templates – and much more? Check out monday.com today.

FAQs about Project Reports

What are the benefits of a project report.

A project report provides a comprehensive overview of a project’s objectives, progress, and outcomes, serving as a valuable documentation and communication tool. It allows stakeholders to assess your project’s effectiveness, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions based on reliable data.

What are the main types of project reports?

The most commonly used types of project reports include:

  • Progress reports
  • Resource management reports
  • Project portfolio reports
  • Time-tracking reports
  • Evaluation reports
  • Final reports

What are the main components of a project report?

This will depend on the project and the type of report you’re using, but project reports might include:

  • Project objective
  • Project scope
  • Project milestones
  • Project expenses or budget
  • Project schedule and timeline
  • Project progress
  • Resource management
  • Risk assessment
  • Stakeholder communication
  • Financial summary

How to create insightful project reports with monday.com

monday.com makes it easy to create effective project reports. Try it for yourself and see:

Business operations

Here’s why monday.com can make your project reporting better:

  • Track project data in a centralized location, so you have all the information you need to make useful reports.
  • Use monday.com’s customized visualization tools to visualize and summarize project data the way you want to see it.
  • Set up dashboards to see all of your projects at a glance.
  • Take advantage of monday.com’s reporting functionality . You can choose between built-in report templates or customized reports if you have more specific requirements.
  • Share your reports with project stakeholders , team members, or even clients directly from monday.com.
  • Our embedded communication tools let you collaborate on your reports in real-time, gather feedback, and address any questions or concerns.

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Table of Contents

What is a project report, 5 steps to create a project report from scratch, project report objectives, project report components, common project report types, project report use cases, project report examples, opening and viewing reports with microsoft , change data in your report , change the report format , make your report , share your report , choose the right program, train to become a project leader today, how to create a project report: objectives, components, and more.

How to Create a Project Report: Objectives, Components, Use Cases, and Examples

Managing a project is by no means an easy feat. Many moving parts can make it complicated to stay focused on the tasks and keep stakeholders up to date on the project status. This is why project reports are a useful tool for project managers .

These project reports can be used to provide direction for team members, offer status updates for partners or management teams, and successfully manage risk mitigation – to name just a few! 

Learn from experts who help you pass the examination post enrolling in Simplilearn's PMP training course. Sign-up today for PMP® Certification Training Course !

Let’s take a closer look at how to create a project report including its many objectives, components, and examples of project reports.

A project report is a comprehensive document that provides detailed information about a specific project. It typically outlines the project's objectives, scope, methodology, progress, findings, and outcomes. A project report often includes details about the project's goals, activities, timelines, resources used, challenges faced, and the results achieved. It serves as a formal record of the project's lifecycle, serving both as a documentation of the work done and as a communication tool to convey the project's status and outcomes to stakeholders, sponsors, or interested parties. Project reports are commonly used in various fields such as business, engineering, research, and academia to assess the effectiveness and success of a project.

Creating project reports is an integral part of evaluating project success. Documenting the lessons learned and sharing them with a larger team in an organized way can help with future projects. You can use different tools to put together your project report. Here are 7 basic steps involved in creating a project report - 

1. Know Your Objective 

Sit down, evaluate your objectives, and understand what you want to describe, explain, recommend, and prove with your report. Having set goals will not only help you proceed with your project report but also help readers understand your point of view. 

2. Recognize Your Audience

Your audience plays an essential role in making your project report a success. A formal annual report differs from a financial report: the language, representation of data, and analysis changes per your target audience . 

3. Data Collection 

The chances of you having a solid report is when data supports it. Data plays an essential role in making people believe in your derivations. Also, support your claims by citing sources such as case studies, surveys, interviews, etc. 

4. Structure the Report

A project report is further divided into certain sections. These 4 are the most common divisions of a project report:

  • Summary: The summary gives the reader a download of all covered in the project report. Even though a summary is placed at the beginning of a project report, you can only write it once your entire report is complete. 
  • Introduction: Mention the outline of the report, give context and mention the scope and methodologies used in the report. 
  • Body: This is the lengthy section of the report as it contains background details, analysis, data, and graphics. 
  • Conclusion: This section brings the entire project report together. 

5. Edit and Proofread 

Once your project report is ready, read it multiple times with some time gap. You can ask your co-workers to review it. 

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Every project report starts with a solid project report objective. Your objective should provide precise direction for the rest of the report. Consider what purpose you want your project report to serve. Are you describing new risks or explaining project delays? Or will your report focus on persuading management teams or stockholders to invest additional funds into the project? 

A thorough understanding of your objective will help guide you in writing the report and make the purpose of the report clear to all stakeholders.

Here are a few examples of project report objectives:

  • Requesting approval for a new project
  • Tracking the progress of the project
  • Identifying and managing risks
  • Managing costs and budgets
  • Requesting financial assistance

Your project report will be bursting with essential information about your project. Although the content of your report will differ depending on the type of report you’re creating, keeping your report organized will make it easy for the reader to follow along without missing any critical points. Organize your data and content into sections that allow all stakeholders to quickly reference.

Consider including some of the following project report components:

Executive Summary 

The first section of your report will likely include an executive summary. The brief overview should provide all the essential takeaways from the report, allowing the reader to understand the report's contents without having to read through all of the project details.

Project Progress

This component includes real metrics that track your project’s progress. It offers an overview of the project's status and budget while identifying risks or issues that may have emerged. Helping project management and other stakeholders reflect on the project schedule and make amendments as needed.

Risks and Risk Management

What risks have developed that may affect the quality, timeline, or budget of your project? How will you control these emerging elements? It’s inevitable that all projects will face risks, so it’s how you intend to manage those risks that’s important to the project team and stakeholders. Include a detailed analysis of the risk, your proposed solutions, and how these new elements will affect the project as a whole. 

Are your financials where they need to be for the current status of your project? Will more capital be required to reach your goals effectively? Provide a detailed overview of the allocation of your budget including materials, labor, and operating costs. 

Reflect on your project goals. Is the project behind, ahead, or on schedule? How will any changes to your timelines affect your budget or resources? Include an overview of tasks that have already been completed and a comprehensive schedule of remaining tasks.

Resources may include materials, machinery, or even funding required to complete your project. Provide a detailed summary of your current resource allocation. What are detrimental resources for your project running low? Are there any excess amounts?  

Team Performance

Is your team completing tasks efficiently? Are there any skill or knowledge gaps that need to be addressed? Compare your team’s performance to your initial goals to identify the group’s progress.

A project report is a simple and detailed description of the essence of the project and its aims and aspirations. The business management team and stakeholders are kept updated on every development regarding the project; based on that, they prepare their strategy. This vital information keeps the communication line open between the management team and the stakeholders, providing them with a complete picture of every action concerning the project. 

A project report includes the necessary recommendations for all types of businesses, established and start-ups. Moreover, organizations use project reports to procure financial help from institutions. Project reports can be of various types that help everyone complete a project successfully. Based on the report, your team can take up any activity that benefits the project. 

Status Reports

It talks about the progress going on with a project. It also states various significant activities associated with the project. This status report organizes the communication medium between the team and the stakeholders. It summarizes the finished tasks on the project at hand. It includes the budgetary details and the timeline of the project. It also helps identify the risks related to the project and measures to tackle them beforehand. The status report also keeps track of the events or actions or any activity taken in the past. Status reports are carried out weekly, daily, monthly, or quarterly. They help collect and distribute information about crucial activities in a project in a smooth manner. 

Progress Report

While executing a project, a progress report is inevitably carried out to update everything about the project. It usually includes things like if the project baseline is fulfilled. It indicates the initial plan you prepared along with your stakeholders about a project regarding the expectations, schedules, cost, deliverables , and scope of it. A progress report informs your stakeholders how much progress has been made in the above directions. 

You should prepare this status report in a specific manner by stating the project title, contact information, a summary of the status, and providing all the information about the budget, timeline, and expected completion date of the project. You can take the help of several such free templates available online to make the status report. 

Risk Reports

This type of report explains the risks associated with the project in a documented form. It covers details about risks that are managed already and the emerging ones. It includes the overall risk profile of the project. Risk reports identify and state potential risks that could alter the duration of the project and tips to manage them. 

Board Executive Reports

An executive report is a summary of the business plan of an organization for lending partners. It enables the team members to collect and combine the results of numerous research studies to help them decide on the project. It is the starting point of arranging a dialogue with the investors. It should be written in such a way that it creates the best impression in the minds of the lenders. It should be short and precise and comprehensively analyze the project. 

Cost Benefit Analysis Report

This kind of report helps organizations know if a particular project is possible or not. It will show you how much the project will benefit your organization against the investment. It will help you decide if a project is worth taking on for your organization and how much business profit it will get you at the end of the day. Alternatively, it will also help your organization better utilize its resources while progressing with the project. You can monitor your project expenses and spending to manage your funds better. 

Resource Reports

This report highlights the distribution of resources according to the project tasks. The team members and the investors get the necessary information by reading this report on how well the resources are distributed in the project. It will give detailed narration about which team is assigned to which task according to the date wise. This type of report is beneficial for an organization to know if there is over allocation of resources as this could harm the project. Overall allocation happens when there are insufficient resources to complete all the crucial activities of the project. 

Variance Reports

This report helps you compare your overall project plan with the project's end result. It uses metrics to inform you if your project is running according to the timeline, ahead of time, or running late. Moreover, it will streamline the data based on the comparisons you have made on the project. With the availability of various project management tools , preparing this kind of report has become easier now. It cuts down your hard work by creating the project activity report and conveying it to the stakeholders. 

Gap Analysis Report

This report will examine the project's current status in the context of schedule, cost, and labor and, subsequently, compare the targeted status. It discovers and examines the gap between these two aspects and prepares a strategy or action plan on how to do the needful to reach the targeted objectives. Every business, whether a budding one or an established one, will need this kind of gap analysis report to perform better in terms of projects. This report will tell you how to take the successful step to graduate to the next level of your business. This will tell you whether you are fulfilling your business objectives and using your resources carefully. 

There are several common use cases for project reports in project management. These include:

Project Status Report 

A project status report is used regularly throughout a project to communicate the project’s progress in conjunction with the original project plan. The status report of a project provides all stakeholders with updates on the project’s development and performance. Your status report may cover issues or risks that have emerged and include your amended project plan.

Project Tracking Report

A project tracking report offers real numbers, metrics, and other key indicators that measure the project’s overarching progress. This comprehensive report covers all aspects of the project, including project status, tasks, project team performance, and how much of the project has been completed.

Project Performance Report

Performance reports provide an overview of the project’s progress, a breakdown of resource allocation, and costs to date. Your performance report will help monitor the project’s current direction and forecast how well it will perform.  

Project Health Report

A health report offers an analysis of any problem areas or risks within your project. Completing a project health report can help identify any potential issues before they occur, saving you time, money, and resources.

Project Summary Report

A project summary report provides a quick snapshot of the project’s status. Along with tasks completed and a summary of financials, the brief report should include any key highlights or milestones and a glance at upcoming scheduled tasks. 

Project Time Tracking Report

Project time tracking reports help the team and all stakeholders better understand the time allocation for each task. It’s a useful tool for project managers to gauge their teams' efficiency and identify what areas need improvement. 

Not sure where to start with your next project report? Consulting the right project report example can help you gain the direction you need.

Click here for a status report example.

Using Project, one can easily create new reports or customize them for various types of project data without relying on any other application or software. MS Project offers dozens that you can use right away. You can also customize any report’s content and look or build a new one from scratch.

  • Click the Report tab and then click the View Reports group. 
  • Select the type of report you need.

For instance, if you have to open the Project Overview report, navigate Report > Dashboards > Project Overview.

Project_Report_1

Reports Dashboard Option

Reports are customizable. So, you choose the data that MS Project will show in any part of a report. Follow the steps below to change the data in your report:

  • Click the chart or table you would like to alter. 
  • Use the Field list pane present on the right side to select fields to filter and show data. 
  • Also, clicking a chart displays three pop-up buttons on the right-hand side of the chart. You can opt for the Chart Elements or Chart Filters button to select elements and filter chart data.

For instance, take the previous Project Overview report as an example. You can change the % Complete chart and display critical subtasks rather than top-level summary tasks using the below-mentioned steps:

  • Click anywhere in the % Complete chart.
  • Now, in the Field List pane, navigate to the Filter box. 
  • Select the Critical option.
  • Next, pick level 2 in the Outline Level box. Let’s suppose that this is the first level of the outline with subtasks rather than summary tasks.
  • The chart will reflect the change as you make your selections.

Project_Report_2.

Changes in the % Complete Chart

Using Project, you can go from monotonous black-white to vivid effects and colors. With the Split view, you will be able to view the real-time report changes while you make the changes. To change the report format, take the following steps:

  • Click the report (you can click anywhere).
  • Now click Report Tools and click the Design tab. It will display options for changing the look of the entire report. 
  • Using this tab, you can alter the color, font, or theme of the entire report. You can also include images, charts, shapes, or tables here.

Project_Report_3.

Report Tools Options

  • Clicking on individual elements such as tables, charts, and others of a report will display new tabs at the top of the screen for formatting that part. 

Project_Report_4

Table Styles

  • Use the Drawing Tools Format tab to change shapes. 
  • The Picture Tools Format tab will help you add picture effects.  
  • You can configure and tweak tables using the Table Tools Design and Table Tools Layout tabs. 
  • The Chart Tools Format and Chart Tools Design tabs help tweak charts. Also, clicking on a chart displays three buttons on the right side of the chart. You can use the Chart Styles button to modify the chart color or style. 

Suppose you plan to change the % Complete chart in the Project Overview report. Click anywhere in the chart and tap on the Chart Tools Design.

Project_Report_5

% Complete Chart

  • From the Chart Styles, pick a new style for your chart. The option selected in the following image adds shadows to the columns and removes the lines.

Project_Report_6

Chart Styles in Chart Tools Design

  • Next, you can click Chart Tools Design > Change Chart Type to add some depth.

Project_Report_7

  • You can change the columns by clicking Column > 3-D Stacked Column.

Project_Report_8.

  • To add a background color, click Chart Tools Format > Shape Fill. Now pick a new color. You can explore more color options by clicking on more fill colors.

Project_Report_9.

Color Options for Chart

  • Alter bar colors by selecting the bars and then click the Chart Tools Format > Shape Fill option. Pick the color you want. 
  • You can drag the numbers upwards to get them off the chart. 

The above-stated changes will be reflected as follows.

Project_Report_10

% Complete Chart on Making the Changes 

Take the following steps to create a new report. 

  • Click the Report tab and then click New Report.
  • Pick from the four options: 
  • Blank: Provides a blank canvas that you can use to add charts, text, tables, and images using the Report Tools Design tab.
  • Chart: It is suitable for comparing Actual Work, Work by default, and Remaining Work. Using the Field List pane, you can pick different fields for comparison or use the controls to alter the format and color of the chart.
  • Table: It displays tabular information. Using the Field List pane, you can select what fields are to be displayed in the table.  
  • Comparison: It gives you two charts side-by-side. Initially, they will have the same data. You can click on the chart and choose the information of your choice in the Field List pane. 

Project_Report_11

Types of New Report Styles

  • Name your report and start adding information to it. All charts are fully customizable. You can easily add or delete elements to meet your needs.
  • You can make your new report available for future projects by using the Organizer to copy this new report into the global template. 
  • Click anywhere in the report.
  • Navigate Report Tools Design > Copy Report.

Project_Report_12

Copy Report Option

  • Now paste the report into any program of your choice. You might have to resize or align the report when you paste it elsewhere. You can also opt for the printing option for sharing hard copies. 

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1. What is a project report and its significance?

A project report summarizes a project's key aspects, including its goals, timeline, budget, progress, and outcomes. It provides project managers with critical information to monitor and evaluate the project's performance, identify potential risks and challenges, and communicate progress to stakeholders.

2. What is the format of a project report?

A project report format is completely customizable depending on the project requirements and your choices. However, it should focus on the specific objectives of the project, its methodology,  major findings, and progress. 

3. How do you prepare a project report?

Preparing a project report is simple. Click Report > New Report and choose from the four options. Now, give a suitable name to the report and start adding information. 

4. What is a project report with an example?

A project report is a document providing detail on the project’s overall status or specific aspects of its performance. Irrespective of the report type, it contains project data based on economic, financial, technical, managerial or production aspects. For example, a Cost Overview report tells the current cost status of the project. It also reveals planned costs, remaining costs, cumulative costs, actual costs, and percentage of completion to help understand if the project is within budget.

5. How do you write a complete project report?

Writing a complete project report entails a proper start and closure, including

  • Labeling the document and writing the project overview 
  • Including a section for the project’s scope 
  • A well-formulated project performance analysis.
  • Highlighting the project’s accomplishments, results, and outcomes.

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Project Management Courses typically range from a few weeks to several months, with fees varying based on program and institution.

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How to prepare a project management report

A project management report is an essential project management tool.

It provides a summary overview of the project’s status that you can share with stakeholders, clients and team members. Ideally, the project report is just a page or two long. And it ensures everyone can quickly assess what’s on schedule, and what’s lagging behind or is overdue.

Good communication, management, and organization are central to effective  project management . Regular project management reports help to ensure your project stays on track. And you can also use project reports to manage risk, as well as monitor budgets, and timelines.

Furthermore, the project report can double up as a record-keeping tool for past decisions and actions.

The frequency of your project management report depends on the project’s size and complexity. Monthly reporting is a minimum requirement for most projects, and many produce weekly status reports.

It’s also good practice to produce project management reports throughout the entire lifecycle of the project.

What information needs to be included in a project management report?

The report’s purpose is to update all  project stakeholders  on progress and identify any major issues that might have arisen..

The detail may vary from project to project, but all project management reports should include the following information:

Project milestones

Latest project update

Current project health

The aim is to provide a high-level snapshot of where things are at. Project stakeholders want to be able to see at a glance the project’s status. Make sure your project report clearly identifies the following:

An assessment of the project’s progress against the project plan: Is the project ahead or behind schedule?

A rundown on tasks completed and what’s next in the pipeline: Is overall completion of tasks on track?

A summary of actual costs against budget: Is the budget over or underspent?

An overview of project risks and any issues identified: Has the project’s risk profile changed requiring action?

Plus, any action points or to-do items that need attention.

Tips on how to write a project management report

Keep it short and simple.  Project stakeholders don’t want to get bogged down in too much detail. The report should provide an accessible overview of the project’s status. A weekly 20-page document will simply go unread.

Be concise, and avoid technical jargon.  Not all stakeholders will be familiar with the project’s acronyms or technical terms. Make it an easy read for everyone by using everyday language.

Make it visual.  Charts, graphs, and diagrams will bring the data to life, making it much more accessible. In Teamwork.com, project management reports are color-coded to show the status of whether it’s completed, active or late. This makes it easier for project stakeholders to see at a glance where things are at.

Be honest about progress.  If the project is behind schedule or is over budget, it’s best to be upfront. After all, the sooner a problem is identified, then the sooner it can be resolved and the project can move forward.

Highlight any action points.  Make it easy for project stakeholders. If a client, team member or stakeholder needs to do something, then clearly identify what’s required, by who and when.

Project Management Reporting: Conclusion

A well-prepared project management report is an excellent tool for keeping everyone updated. Plus, it will help you to effectively manage the project and keep it on track.

For more information and advice on project management, check out our  project management workbook .

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Project Management Report: 6 Best Practices for Writing One

how to create a good project report

Table of contents

Creating a project management report that’s read cover to cover is easier said than done.

For starters, shortlisting project metrics to feature in the report can be confusing. Choosing a report layout doesn’t make things any easier. To top it all, you need to revise the report at least twice to ensure there’s no reporting error.

So where do you start? What metrics should you choose?

We’ve got answers to these questions and more – all sourced from 48 experts who run multiple projects at a time. Half of these contributors come from the B2C services/products industry. For the remaining half, 25% are from B2B services/projects businesses, and 25% work in agencies (digital, media, or marketing).

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

What is a Project Management Report?

What should be included in a project management report, how often should you report on projects, 6 best practices for writing a project management report, top tools for making project management reports.

how to create a good project report

A project management report is a short document sharing an overview of a project’s progress. It helps you:

  • Track project progress – see what’s covered, what’s in the pipeline, and so on.
  • Identify risks and schedule variances to manage them well on time.
  • Provide a documented record of how a project progressed for future decision-making.

According to our respondents, the most important metrics to add to a project management report are:

  • Cycle Time . The time you spend working on a project, including the wait stages that occur between tasks completion.
  • On-Time Completion Percentage . A quick, at-a-glance progress bar showing how much of the project is complete.
  • Time Spent . The time you’ve already spent on completing the project.
  • Budget Variance . A measure of how well the project is on track with its decided budget. If it’s not, by how much is it going under or over budget.

What Should Be Included in a Project Management Report?

While these are the top there (Time Spent and On-Time Completion Percentage tie at number 2), other essential information to add to a project management report include:

  • Planned Hours vs. Time Spent . An overview of how well the project is on track of the time dedicated to it.
  • Cost Performance Index (CPI). A measure of how the budgeted cost of work completed (calculate using Earned Value) compares with the actual cost of the work completed (measured using Actual Costs). CPI is calculated by dividing EV by AC.
  • Customer Satisfaction/Loyalty . How satisfied is your client/customer? A simple starred rating system can help monitor this.
  • Customer Complaints . Number and a brief description of the complaints your client/customer made.
  • Budget Creation (Or Revision) Cycle Time . The time spent on creating the new budget (after its variance).
  • Number of Change Requests . A quick look at the requests the client made.
  • Return On Investment (ROI). Depending on your project’s stage, this is the profit generated or profit expected to be generated. It’s usually calculated by taking the actual or estimated income and subtracting it from the actual or estimated costs.
  • Number of Adjustments to the Schedule . How many times changes were made to the planned project schedule?
  • Resource Capacity. Or how many in-house team members are available to take on the project tasks.
  • Number of Project Milestones Completed On Time . A quick look at how many of the project milestones you were able to hit as per the set schedule.
  • Planned Value . The cost allotted to the work you’ve scheduled.
  • Line Items in Budget. How planned budget divides into different categories such as the budget for supplies, budget for salaries, budget for fringe benefits, and more.
  • Number of Errors . Number and overview of mistakes made throughout the project lifecycle.
  • Number of Returns .
  • Training/Research Needed for Project . A brief look at the research or training given for completing the project including costs incurred and the time spent on it.
  • Number of Cancelled Projects . A number of projects dropped (either from your end or the client’s end).
  • Number of Budget Iterations . Or how many times you had to revise the budget due to the variances in the actual budget planned and budget spent.
  • Net Promoter Score . A numerical score estimate of how likely your client/customer is to recommend your services to others.
  • Resource Conflict YOY . A rundown of how many projects require the same resource (read: particular employees) for their completion.
  • Billable Utilization . A measure of how much of employees’ available time is spent on project-related activities.
  • Employee Churn Rate. Or the number of employees that leave your agency or business in a specified time (helpful so you can tell how the churn rate impacts ongoing projects)
  • FTE Days vs. Calendar Days. FTE refers to the number of hours worked by a single employee in a week. For example, 40 hours a week (1 FTE) i.e. 8 hours for 5 days are the standard working hours at most companies. So if you have 3 full-time employees and 2 part-time employees working 3 days a week, then the total FTE becomes (3 1) + (2 0.6)= 4.2.

That said, the exact metrics that you add to your project management report depend on:

  • The type of report you’re creating (project pipeline overview or specific project report)
  • Who you’re creating it for (teammates, stakeholders, or clients) and
  • Report complexity and frequency (weekly reports, for example, aren’t as in-depth as quarterly reports).

PRO TIP: Get a Live Overview of Your Most Important Projects In a Single Dashboard

Project management is all about juggling: resources, expectations, people, data, and much more. And as a project manager, you not only have to know where your projects are at any given moment, but you also have to be aware of where they’re going and where they need to be in the future. To do that using a project management system, you need an actionable dashboard that allows you to monitor metrics like:

  • Number of tasks completed by project. Get a live update on the total number of tasks that have been completed in a particular project and track how many tasks actually get completed on a daily basis. 
  • Total hours tracked. See how many hours are tracked on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. Split tracked time by project, client, tasks, and team.
  • Tasks overdue by project. At any time, see how many project tasks are overdue, and take appropriate action to get them back on track.
  • Tasks completed by project. At any time, see how many tasks have been completed in a project and how many tasks remain to be completed. 

Now you can benefit from the experience of our project managers, who have put together great plug-and-play Databox templates showing the most important KPIs for tracking your team’s performance. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in management reports, and best of all, it’s free!

asana-project-dashboard-template-preview

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your project management tool with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

This brings us to our next question: how often should you be creating a project management report? Let’s look at that next.

The answer to this depends on your project’s duration and reporting processes.

Our research tells us that the majority, 77.1% of our contributors, have projects running for about a year or less. Only 22.92% of respondents on average have projects that last longer than one year.

Average project duration

It’s why it makes sense to report either monthly or quarterly instead of daily. No wonder, more than half of our respondents share they typically report monthly on their projects.

Average project reporting frequency

That said, your reporting processes also play a role. For example, you could be having a monthly reporting process in place to keep clients updated on the project progress. Similarly, you could be creating internal project reports weekly or monthly.

Now that you know what to include in your project management report and how often to create it, let’s look at how you can improve your reports by writing them well.

Here are our expert-backed tips for you:

  • Use simple language
  • Create a simple report layout
  • Use videos or dashboard to report on projects
  • Make it easy to read
  • Visualize data
  • Use templates

1. Keep it simple

An effective way to improve project management reporting is to simplify everything – from the words you use to the metrics you add to the report.

To begin with, simple words make it easy to understand what you’re sharing. This is important because no one – neither your clients nor the stakeholders – have the time to decipher difficult vocabulary and technical jargon. Using simple language makes understanding quick and easy though.

Sonia Navarro from Navarro Paving agrees. “The most effective practice that has done wonders for my project management report would be being concise and straightforward.”

Navarro lays out how they ensure their project management reports follow this tactic: “Our reports move along the hierarchy chain and are seen by company stakeholders consisting of mostly C-level executives. Some of these individuals have technical knowledge while others don’t.”

“So, when creating a report, we assume that no one has the technical expertise,” Navarro outlines.

“This assumption allows us to use easy-to-understand terminology. This best practice allowed us to close the communication gap between managers and their respective team members. We avoid using jargon so that stakeholders can easily understand the report without having to read extensive texts.”

Related : Business Report: What is it & How to Write a Great One? (With Examples)

2. Create a simple report layout

Again, this helps with making your report easy to read by making it clutter-free. The key here is to identify the most important project management metrics to add to your report and how you’ll present them.

Related : Reporting Strategy for Multiple Audiences: 6 Tips for Getting Started

Take it from growth360’ s Sasha Matviienko who shares their project updates over three main areas only. These are:

  • “The Planned vs Actual numbers for the resources that we used
  • Progress that was achieved compared to the planned timeline
  • Team utilization.”

Says Matviienko: “When we shifted to this methodology, we were able to get a good understanding of the budget, timeline, and hours that our team has. So we always know what to focus on in order to improve project execution.”

Not only that but having a strong grip on your team availability and the free hours available helps you decide how many projects to take on in the future. This way, these important metrics help manage open projects as well as project pipeline better.

Like Matviienko, Adil Advani from WELLPCB also focuses on keeping their project management reports simple. The layout they follow? “The most effective approach I use is a short summary of my achievements followed by some specific recommendations on what could be improved.”

“This combination enabled people who were not in the know about my work to see how successful it has been without having to read an entire report or dig through details they didn’t need, while at the same time helping those who want more information find out exactly where it can be found quickly and easily (for example with headings),” Advani elaborates.

“Another benefit is that this format requires less energy because there are fewer words per sentence than when you write everything down chronologically; as such, if you have writer’s block or just feel tired after working hard on your projects then this practice helps put the finishing touches back into perspective.”

Not to mention, the layout combats reader fatigue too.

3. Use videos and dashboards to report on projects

If you aren’t a fan of writing reports, you can try any of the following two options – as suggested by Hannah Buchholz from ClearPivot :

  • Create project update videos
  • Use centralized dashboards

In Buchholz’s words: “Instead of writing reports, we either have monthly meetings or share videos with clients to update them on how the project is going. We use Databox which makes it very easy for the clients to visualize and understand how things are trending.”

Creating videos is a straightforward affair. Simply record your screen sharing your project management dashboard and walk viewers through updates. Screen recording software such as Loom, VEED, and Vimeo can help with this.

However, it’s important to bear in mind that you need to keep your videos short and to the point instead of going on and on. In short, remember to respect your viewers’ time.

Plus, even as you create a video, you need to add captions to it to make it more accessible. And, make sure to include bullet points in written text with the video for a quick overview of what’s in the video.

To some of you, this can be a lot of work. An alternative? Buchholz’s second recommendation. Databox.

Use it to create dashboards showing project progress . The interesting bit? project management metrics are automatically updated in real-time so you don’t have to do any manual work.

What’s more, if you like, you can pair the dashboard update with a quick video. However, you wouldn’t need to supplement this video with written text as the dashboard already features all the required info in a visually engaging manner.

4. Make it easy to read

Only Stitch’s Susan Melony recommends keeping the report’s format simple to improve its readability.

Sharing their experience, Melony writes, “It took a while for us to come up with the perfect reporting style that everybody agreed to. The components of the report were the same practice. We have always believed in keeping the format simple and easy to read because we believe in transparency between the organization.”

“Reports are to be submitted monthly as an amalgamation of the progress at the company, giving an overview of the activities, highlighting strengths and weaknesses to work on in the next month,” Melony explains.

“We switched to a cost-effective project management tool that helped data collection and storage, the most commonly used is Monday.com and ProofHub.”

“ Project management tools , no doubt have increased efficiency in the company as it has helped us plan a project, giving us valuable input depending on the inflow and outflow of cash and previous sales records,” Melony continues.  

“It is time-saving as compared to manually entering data, it is automated and chances of error are also minimized. Digitizing project management has helped us largely in allocating resources and controlling project risks in the future.”

The takeaway? Using the right project management tool can help you save time, reduce the risk of reporting errors, and create reports that are easy to read.

5. Visualize data

Instead of sharing hard numbers as plain text, present them as charts and graphs to make them easy to read and digest. Doing so also aids decision-making as Victoria Mendoza from MediaPeanut notes.

“As a project management expert and as CEO at MediaPeanut, I have prepared numerous reports in the past decade and I think the most important thing to do is to separate data and figures from your insights, opinion, and analysis [using data visualization],” Mendoza highlights.

Snorkel-Mart’s David Morgan also applauds using visuals in project management reports. “Adding visuals to my reports allowed every stakeholder in my organization to easily understand where they are struggling and how it is affecting the entire project.”

“The color code option in Teamwork also made it easier to judge the status of a project, if it is active, late, or completed,” adds Morgan. “It was also critical to make our reports easier to interpret, as executives received dozens of reports every week. So, making them visual, cut their work in half.”

Sharing their process, Mendoza writes: “Whenever I prepare my PM reports in the past, I usually come up with a good layout to distinguish what are the hard data and numbers that need to be considered in decision making.”

“In my experience with various clients, they usually go by the numbers and would value the figures rather than what the one making the report has to say,” observes Mendoza.

“While it is also a good backup information for the graphs and tables, most of our clients really want the figures to speak for themselves. Why we separate figures, numbers, and graphs from our observations and personal opinion in the reports is important as we don’t want to be subjective with our reporting.”

Related : How to Visualize Data: 6 Rules, Tips and Best Practices

And one good way to separate the two is by using subheadings carefully. For example, when adding your recommendations, add a subheading reading “next steps” or “suggestions.”

In a nutshell, using this layout for project management reporting helps you back your observations by data and evidence according to Mendoza.

6. Use templates

“The most effective way to write a project management report is to create a template ,” opines Austin Fain from Perfect Steel Solutions . “You can create a skeleton that works for any occasion.”

Says Fain: “After years of writing technical reports, I have realized this is the best way to save time and energy. This unfinished draft can be filled in by every individual involved in the project and I can edit it later. It has increased my efficiency as I work on more projects simultaneously.”

“I also realized that the analysis part can be changed for each report depending on the requirements,” Fain adds.

“So, I don’t need to think a lot each time. I believe we saved a lot of time and energy after creating a comprehensive report. This is because we have a pre-prepared template, so we don’t have to create a new draft for each report.

The time spent on developing reports is utilized elsewhere, as I just change the structure a little and show it to the higher-ups. They can add essential information, and I edit it later on. This has an overall positive impact on our productivity levels.”

And, finally, before we wrap this up, let’s look at the tools used for project management reporting. Did you know that project marketing tools are among the most frequently used tools for performance monitoring and reporting (source: Databox’s State of Business Reporting )?

According to our research, over half of our contributors use Trello, making it the most popular tool. Other widely used tools include Asana, a centralized dashboard such as Databox, and Monday.

Top Tools for Making Project Management Reports

When choosing from these tools for managing your projects though, make sure you select the one that has the lowest learning curve. This will make it easy for you to not only get started but also regularly use the tool.

Improve Project Management Reporting with Databox

In summary, effective project management reporting helps you track progress and performance. In turn, this helps you handle current and future projects better.

But you don’t have to put hours and hours of work into creating project management reports. Instead, use Databox to quickly create visually engaging dashboards that show all your essential project metrics on one screen.

Since the metrics are auto-updated, you don’t have to worry about reporting errors as well.

It’s easy, isn’t it? So take Databox for a drive for free today and instantly improve your project reporting game.

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How to write a Project Report - Guide & Templates

Table of contents, what is a project outline, what is a project report.

A project report is a document created for a team or company that ensures a project stays on track. The project report should describe progress, milestones, and roadblocks.

Why is a project report important?

Project Reports are a core part of any project management process. There are a few key documents necessary for successful project progress, and a project report is undoubtedly one of them.

Alongside a project plan, a project report holds significant weight in justifying budgets, team members, tools, and other resources. In this article, we'll explore one of the two types of project reports any project manager needs to be able to write.Report number one is an ongoing project status report ; this report will be needed on more than one occasion throughout a project's life span and explores the overall progress of the project.

Report number two is a project completion report ; this report comes at the end of the project and wraps everything up.

We've also provided a project report template that you can adapt to your project and project report type that you need.

2 types of project reports

A Complete Guide to Project Reports

Why write a project report in the first place.

This report is so crucial in keeping key players up to date - we'll explore who exactly you need to be writing for in the next point. A project status report is needed to give a summary of a project , significant changes, and to keep a record of the project's progress.

A project status report adds milestones and target reminders to the process. Without the report, many project teams will struggle to keep up the momentum on long term projects.

Who prepares project reports?

A project status report is typically prepared by insiders who are involved in its day-to-day workings. Usually this is the project management team, a body of project managers and department executives with general or specific knowledge of the project.

Who is a project status report for?

A project report will need to be written for different people; each stakeholder will require different information that's important to them - remember this when putting together the progress of the project. It's not a one size fits all situation.

You may be dealing with sensitive information that could damage relationships or even severe them if put in front of the wrong eyes. At the same time, you could be releasing information that isn't relevant to certain people; in receiving an onslaught of information someone may miss the data or info that is specifically important for their eyes.

Different people that need to see an ongoing project status report:  

  • Project Stakeholders need the status report to stay in the loop and aligned with other team members
  • Project Team need to know the project's progress across all departments and divisions
  • ‍ Project Sponsors use the project status report to provide necessary guidance and resources to the teams and managers
  • Leadership uses project status reports to stay apprised of the project's progress
  • ‍ Finance Team use the project status report to determine areas that need funding allocation and to avoid potential cost overruns
  • ‍ Contractors can see the project's priorities and timelines and allocate time and resources accordingly
  • ‍ Project Management uses the status report to produce project manager reports on their department's progress

When to write a project status report?

This largely depends on the timeline (or predicted timeline for that matter) outlined in your project manager reports . If your project is expected to run over a few years, it may be best to create quarterly project status reports. However, if your project is set to run around six months to a year, monthly is recommended.

For all of the help that project status reports provide, it's important to remember that they can be pretty time consuming to make. We've provided a sample project report in this article to make your job easier; however, it's still a process. This is why we recommend incorporating a project proposal template as well.

For all the time a project manager is putting into a status report, they're not putting the work into managing their team. Pick a regular period to deliver the report in and put it in the Gantt calendar. Be conscious of the time it consumes, and try to stick to the real-time delivery dates.

In doing this, you'll save a lot of time with unnecessary communication from different players. Questions like "What’s the status of XYZ?" "How's the budget looking for XYZ for the project?" can all wait for the regular report- leaving the team to focus on their job.

How to write a Project Report in 7 Steps

Step 1: define your objectives.

Clearly state the purpose of the report and explain why it is necessary. Defining your objectives and providing smart goal examples can help you stay focused while writing and keep those reading the report engaged and informed.

Step 2: Have Your Audience in Mind

When writing project reports, tailor the content and your tone of voice to the audience as much as possible. Use impactful graphics and important data to connect with the people who will be reading this report.

Step 3: Write the Outline

Before you start writing, first create a list of all the sections in your report. For more details, check "What to Include in a Project Status" below, or take a look at our status report templates .

Step 4: First Draft

After your outline and analysis, you can start a rough draft.  As the name suggests, it doesn't need to be perfect. If you are looking for a tool to help you put together project reports, try our document editor .

Step 5: Fine Tune Your Analysis

As time permits and new information comes in, fill in any data gaps or highlight any current or potential issues you find. Use the 'Findings' section to focus on the values, and make clear any limitations of the analysis.

Step 6: Recommend Next Steps

Once you have completed your data analysis, you will be able to propose actionable ideas towards the project's mutually desired outcome. The more solid your analysis and findings are, the more credible your project reports will be.

Step 7: Polish for Distribution

Before you send your report, proofread for grammar, spelling, and typos so that your final document looks as professional as possible. If you're sending the report in a group email, keep an eye on the file size.

What to include in a project status report?

Depending on who you're writing the report for, this will change. However, there are a few core elements to include for the project progress , despite who is reading the project report. ‍

Executive Summary

If you are wondering how to write a report about a project, start with an executive summary. Short overviews provide the reader with the essential takeaways from the report without having to read all the project details. Executive summaries are very helpful for those who need a quick glance at the project's general direction without wading through a lot of data.

Project Progress

In the project status report, the project's progress is tracked with real metrics. This provides an overview of the project's status and budget and also identifies potential risks and issues. This data-driven approach provides project management with feedback and enables them to make adjustments.

It's important to document all of the resources you had mapped out in your project plan . What do you have left still available? What have you used and found insufficient? Of what resources do you need more? This can include project management tools and physical resources like software or a PDF, but also human resources.

Timelines and targets

It's essential to give everyone an overview of your project timelines in these status reports, especially those that are outside of your project team and not using the project management software you're using.

At this point, be realistic with your timelines, not optimistic . Refer back to your Gantt calendar to help with this. Save your optimism for team meetings to spur your project team on in working more efficiently and hitting deadlines. In the reporting part, you need to be honest with your timelines and deliverables, both with the goals you have or have not hit and those you expect to be on time with or not.

Many players further down the line will be working on the information you provided in this section of the project reports, it therefore needs to be accurate so they can manage their workload and be available on the predicted date.

Notable changes

This can radically vary but needs to be anything notable that's happened and is no longer abiding by the initial project plan. If you're using editable report samples for projects rather than a PDF, you can go back and edit your project plan to accommodate changes.

However, it's not recommended. You can't guarantee that your team will continuously be referencing the initial project plan once they've got a clear scope of what they need to do for the entire project.

Funding & budgets

The project manager should use the time dedicated to a project status report to reflect his or her budget. Accounting skills are vital for a project manager's success, and being able to handle a large budget will come in handy when it comes to managing the overall funding of a project.

In this part of the report, give a clear overview of expenses, predicted expenses, and visually highlights where you were over or under budget in real-time. The team can learn from this, not only for future projects but even for next month's project management status report.

Team performance

Use goals and targets to quantitatively identify if the team is performing well. While doing this, it's essential to consider the hurdles they've had to jump along the way. Have they faced exceptional circumstances that were not planned? If so, how did they cope and react to these challenges?  

Risk management

This is the final part of the Project Status report and one of the most important skill sets for a successful project manager: Risk Management . A project manager needs to have a certain amount of hindsight at play in their everyday work and be able to give an executive summary of all risks.

In the project status report, give an overview of any predicted risks and try to display them tiered so that any reader has a clear overview of what the greatest risks are right through to very low-level risks, and what can be done to prevent them. Always have a Plan B and adapt it every time a project status report is created.

The risk management report is often best accompanied by a risk analysis meeting. Come out of your meeting with detailed meeting minutes and use your team's knowledge and perspective to give a comprehensive overview of all the risks at play.

Project status preview

Project Report Examples

There are several different types of project reports. Here are some project reporting examples of the most widely used types.

Project Status Report

A project status report is used to communicate the project’s progress and to ensure that all parties involved are kept in the loop. Project status report examples include updates to all stakeholders as the project progresses, amended project plans, and notifications of any issues or risks that have arisen.

Project Tracking Report

Project tracking reports provide real numbers, metrics, and other key indicators of the project's progress. Tracking project report examples include data concerning project status, tasks, team performance, completion rate and other metrics in a comprehensive report.

Project Performance Report

Project performance reports are a more specialized project status report. Examples include overviews of progress, resource allocation, and costs. Project performance reports help monitor the project's current direction and forecast its success. Using performance reports, the team can address issues that are holding the project back.

Project Health Report

Project health reports are an example of project management reports that help identify potential issues before they occur, saving the firm money, time, and resources. When project sponsors and supervisors are notified of risks, they can adjust strategy accordingly before problems manifest.

Project Summary Report

You are writing for busy people when you prepare a project management report. Examples of tasks completed and financials let them see important data quickly, then allocate their time to sections that directly concern them. A project summary report should highlight key milestones and point out upcoming tasks.

Project Time Tracking Report

Project time tracking reports can help project managers gauge their teams' efficiency and identify areas for improvement. For example, project reports can show which parts of the project are requiring more time to complete and reallocate resources from issues that are requiring less hours than expected.

‍ Best practices when writing a project report

Wondering how to write a report on a project effectively? Look no further, we've got you covered!There are a few things you need to remember when putting together a project report to help ensure it's efficient and supports the project's success.

Knowing how to write project reports successfully is largely dependent on honesty.

There is no use in hiding deliverables or viewing the truth through rose-tinted glasses. You're not creating a presentation to win someone over here; you're creating a factual report to make sure everyone has as clear an overview as possible.

Stay honest throughout your reporting, give accurate numbers (don't round up or down), and don't make excuses. Remain critical.

Give as much information as possible

This comes at your judgment, but the more relevant information, the better. A project manager will have a fantastic overview of a project and the current status. For that reason, they're the best person to put together a project status report.

However, a project manager shouldn't be afraid to let team members fill in parts of the report if they have a better overview of a particular task within the project. Assign different areas of the project report to different team members and then review everything before the report is submitted.

Write clearly

Clear and concise writing skills are so crucial in making sure your project report is understood. Don't view the project status report as something you just need to get done and delivered.

Review it, make sure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. You'll be surprised at what the power of a comma can, do. See? Make sure the read of your report is as smooth as your project management skills.

Celebrate success

For all of the faults, risks, and problems you report in your project status report, it's essential to document your successes. A project is a rollercoaster. There will be ups and downs and spirals and flips. Identify which of these are wins and celebrate them.

By celebrating success, you will lift the morale of the project team and remind the project manager of what has been achieved so far.

Write for aliens

A proper project manager report example will be accessible for a wide audience.You'll be writing a project plan for many people, many of whom will not have had direct exposure to your team, your company, or the task/s at hand. When we say write for aliens, we mean writing for someone who has no clue what's happening.

Even the simplest of abbreviations or presumptions can be interpreted as something entirely different by someone else. Leave no room for error or misunderstanding.

Don't be afraid to use visuals

Visual support is fantastic for getting your point across or displaying information more clearly in a project status report. Visual aids can break up the monotony of the report if there's a lot of copy, which will be a welcomed relief on the eyes of any reader.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and for a good reason, if you're struggling to get your point across, then look for an example of it online. Use visuals as a supporting example of what you're saying.  

Automate processes where you can

Despite each project having its own landscape, you can surprise yourself with the amount that you can automate in your reporting process. Learn how to make the most of excel spreadsheets and tool integrations to see how you can backfill or auto-populate data into your project report.

It's these small time-saving hacks that will make your project report more efficient and better looking in the future.

Ask by Slite - Strop searching, start asking.

A Project Report Template

Use this project report sample as a starting point for your project reports. Adapt it to your company and project needs and share it with the right people to ensure your project stays on track.

Project Report Template

Clément Rog is working in our Marketing team from Lyon, France. He loves geography, playing legos with his son, and sharing convictions about marketing or design.

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Project Report: What is it & How to Write it?

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We all know – the struggle of creating project reports is real! It is a complicated process that can either build or destroy your entire project.

No matter how extraordinary your project idea is, or how wonderfully one of your projects performed, creating a compelling project report isn’t easy.

The risk of analyzing the wrong data, taking the wrong path, or drawing up the wrong conclusion – it’s always, always lingering upon you.

So, if you’re standing on the edge, knowing you need to craft a project report, but also feeling a little uncertain about how to begin – you’re at the right place.

In this article, we will tell you what a project report is and the things that you need to include in it. We will also tell you about a tool that will help you write one in no time. Let’s roll!

What Exactly is a Project Report? (Definition)

A project report is a written document that encapsulates all the essential information related to a particular project – from goals and objectives to analysis and recommendations.

This report helps you transform a business idea or plan into a productive venture, without any confusion or chaos. Along with defining the strategies for project execution, it helps you implement them properly.

You should always create a well-detailed project report. Why? Because you can’t dive into starting a project without giving much thought to your goals, your plan of action, your strategies, and the big picture.

Still not convinced? Well, let’s explore a few more reasons why you need to spend your valuable time creating this one report.

Reasons Why You Should Create a Project Report

Yes, creating a project report is a crucial part of starting or managing a project, but not for the reasons you might think. Most people assume that a project report is meant to raise money for a particular project, or get a sponsor. It is true, but that’s not the only use of a project report!

In short, it’s not just about the funding. The process of writing a project report and putting it together is much more valuable. When you’re writing a project report, you discover and understand what it’s going to take to make your project successful. It gives you clarity about your ideas.

After all, before you can explain your ideas and strategies to your friends or investors, you should be able to explain the idea to yourself!

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Secondly, spending a little time on planning and creating a project report would drastically reduce the risk of losing money and making silly mistakes. Of course, you could jump right in and start the project without a plan, but you’d be more likely to waste time, money, and resources.

Lastly, creating a project report increases the chances of your project being successful. Over the years, several studies have proved that companies who plan are much more likely to be successful, get funding and achieve their goals – in comparison to the companies who don’t plan.

Excited to create project reports? We know you are! So, without further ado, let’s learn how to actually create an amazing project report.

Read more:  Project Timeline: What is it & How to Create it? (Step By Step)

How to Create a Good Project Report? Follow these Steps!

Step 1. set the objective.

First things first, you need to figure out why exactly why you’re writing the report and what’s your end goal. Do you want to describe something to your team or do you want to persuade the upper management?

Once you set a clear purpose and objective, it would be easier for you to stay focused while writing the project report. The result? You would be able to write a much better and more engaging report!

Step 2. Understand The Reader

A formal annual report would be very different from a status report, right? So, while writing your report, always keep the reader in mind. This way, the reader would become more receptive to your ideas.

Basically, tailor your language, data, and graphics according to your audience. Don’t forget to consider their communication style, for instance, how they write emails and structure their documents.

Step 3. Know The Format

Before you start writing the project report, don’t forget to check the format and type of the report. Is it a formal, informal, technical, annual, financial, or fact-finding report?

Also, confirm if any project report templates are available within your organization, or if there is a specific structure that you need to follow while writing the report. This would save you a lot of time in the long run!

Step 4.  Collect All The Facts & Data

By backing up your arguments with facts and data, you can solidify your project report. Moreover, you should also cite sources such as case studies, interviews, and articles.

Including data, facts, and figures in your project report is most crucial when you are writing it to persuade someone about the project, or when you’re giving a status report.

Step 5. Structure the Report

Once you are done with understanding the nitty-gritty of the report and collecting all the data, it is time to structure it. Generally, a report has four elements:

Executive Summary: Even though this is the first part of the report, it’s written once the report is finished. As the name suggests, this part comprises a brief about what’s written in the report.

Introduction: In this section, you need to provide a context for your report and the scope. In addition, you also need to outline the structure of the contents and mention all the methodologies you’ve used.

Body: In this part, you have to put your writing skills to work. This is undoubtedly the longest part of your report and it should include everything from data & analysis to recommendations.

Conclusion:  This is where you need to compile all the elements of the report in a clear and brief manner. You should also mention the next steps and actions that you want the readers to take after reading the report.

Step 6. Edit & Review

Spend some time formatting your report and making it enjoyable to read. No one likes to read long blocks of text, so use formatting, visuals, and lists to break them up.

Remember, the first draft of the report can’t be perfect! So, do not forget to edit and revise the content until you’re sure that it is error-free. You can also ask a colleague for a review!

So, now that you know the basics of what a project report is and how to create it, let’s check out some really cool use cases of project reports.

Read more:   Performance Report: What is it & How to Create it? (Steps Included)

A Few Use Cases of Project Reports

1. project health report.

A project health report outlines the problem areas or any other risk involved with your project. It helps you find out any problems before they happen – which ultimately saves you time and money.

2. Project Summary Report

As the name suggests, a project summary report gives you a quick peek at your project. It’s a concise report that covers all the key highlights of the project, including completed and upcoming tasks.

3. Project Status Report 

A project status report can be used to share the status of your project, in line with the original project plan. This report gives the stakeholders information about the project’s performance, updates, and developments.

4. Project Time Tracking Report

This report helps your team and all the stakeholders to understand the time allocated for each task in a more efficient manner. It’s a useful report to gauge your team’s efficiency and the areas that need improvement.

5. Project Tracking Report

This report gives you all the numbers, metrics, and other data that you can use to measure your project’s progress. It also covers your project’s status, team performance, and more.

6. Project Performance Report

A project performance encapsulates the progress of your project, the budget, and a breakdown of allocated resources. It helps you monitor the status of your project, and whether it’s headed in the right direction or not.

Phew! Creating project reports can be a complicated and cumbersome process. Luckily, we have something to make your life easier. Whether you need need to create basic project reports or super complicated ones, Bit.ai is just what you need.

Create Project Reports & All Other Documents On Bit.ai

Bit.ai is the easiest, most convenient way to create project reports and every other kind of document that exists on Earth. With Bit, you can create project reports in no time. Just focus on the content because Bit is going to handle every other aspect of your report – from designing to formatting.

Bit.ai: Project report creation tool

1. Stunning, Fully Responsive Templates: Whether you want to create a sales project report or an annual report – there’s a beautiful template for that on Bit. With over 90 pre-built and fully responsive templates , Bit has turned the painful task of creating reports a walk in the park.

2. Design Automation: Writing projects reports isn’t easy. It takes so much effort that you end up having no energy to make the report look appealing. Luckily, Bit solves that problem for you with its design automation feature. With just one click, you can change the look of your entire document, its layout, and color too!

3. Interactive Documents:  Bit lets you add PDFs, charts, videos, maps, surveys/polls, charts – basically all kinds of rich media in your documents. Right now, there are over 100 rich media embed integrations on Bit! So, why give someone a boring, static project report they’ll never open when you could turn it into something much more engaging?

4. Real-Time Collaboration : Project reports are important documents, and creating one on your own is a little difficult. That’s why this feature of Bit is the best. Using Bit, you and your team can collaborate on the reports in real-time, no matter where everyone is located. You can co-edit, make inline comments, access version history, chat via document chat, @mentions, and much more!

5. Smart Workspaces : Organizing and managing all your project reports can be a pain, but Bit is here to take the pain away. Bit lets you create as many workspaces as you want around different teams and departments, invite guests into the workspace, and manage everything much more efficiently!

6. Tables: It’s better to show all the data and figures in your project reports via tables. This way, everyone who reads your report would be able to grasp the complex figures in a quick glance. On Bit, you can create wonderfully designed and fully responsive tables with the click of a button. The colors of these tables automatically change according to the colors of your document’s theme!

Wrapping Up

Creating project reports is at the core of every business. It is essential for evaluating the feasibility of your ideas and plans, and for proving that your strategies are working.

Yes, we know you have a thousand other things to do when you are running a business, but creating project reports should always be one of those things.

Got anything to ask related to creating project reports or using Bit.ai? Just hit us up on Twitter @bit_docs. We would be happy to help you out. Cheers!

Further reads:

KPI Report: What it is & How to Create a Perfect One?

Weekly Report: What is it & How to Create it? (Steps & Structure)

Project Objectives: What are they & How to Write them Effectively?

Project Documentation: What is it & How to Manage it?

Project Summary: What is it & How to Write it!

Formal Report: What is it & How to Create it!

Consulting Report: What is it and How to Create it?

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The Ultimate Guide to Project Status Reports

By Kate Eby | May 18, 2017 (updated January 23, 2023)

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In this article, you’ll learn the elements that go into successful project status reports, depending on your audience. You’ll also hear from business leaders on what makes the most effective project status report. In addition, we will share examples of templates you can customize to create your own reports.

What Is a Project Status Report?

A project status report is a document that summarizes a project’s overall progress against the projected project plan. 

The goal of a project status report is to keep all stakeholders informed of progress, to mitigate issues before they arise, and to ensure that the project will land within the designated time frame.

A project status report helps to improve communication across an organization, as everyone is kept in the loop on how the project is progressing. It also helps to simplify the communication process with a single, formalized report that everyone can refer to to stay up to date. 

Additionally, a project status report improves the organizational support for your project by maintaining tight communication among team members to ensure all goals and objectives are met.

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The Purposes of Project Status Reports

One of the many benefits of using a project status report is that it forces an organization to agree to certain project milestones and measures of progress at the very beginning of that project. A project manager gathers those important criteria and creates a project status report that will prove useful to everyone who needs to see it.

Project status reports also facilitate the following:

  • Create and enable buy-in from stakeholders
  • Provide transparency into the progress toward milestones
  • Help identify issues and risks, so course correction can happen quickly
  • Pinpoint the progress of work done by individuals, teams, and resources, so you can rotate out and bring in staff in a timely manner. For example, UX designers start early in a web design project by mapping out the site architecture and wireframes. The work of copywriters and designers follows, and so on.
  • Provide a high-level gauge of project health
  • Prevent unpleasant surprises (to team members, clients, and stakeholders)
  • Furnish a method for keeping project members and leaders accountable
  • Provide a paper trail 
  • Prevent scope creep
  • Present the right information to the intended audience(s)

Chris Daniel has overseen projects for major corporations and the U.S. government and runs a training program for project managers to study for the PMP certification. He says that project status reports haven’t changed much in the past couple of decades, a fact illustrating that the basic elements of a status report remain relatively unchanged.

how to create a good project report

“The basics are critical to include in any project status report. It’s especially important to show how budget and scope are tracking, as well as any risks and roadblocks that may have come up.” - Chris Daniel, CEO of Regroup Consulting and project management trainer. He continues, “Starting with a template is fine, but of course the first thing a project manager is going to do is modify it to reflect the relevant details of that specific project.” 

Project Status Codes

Project status codes are streamlined codes or phrases that identify where a project is in its overall progression of the project. 

Project status codes can quickly help team members and stakeholders identify whether a project is active or dormant, as well as what stage of the project plan it is on.

Types of Project Status Reports: Know Your Audience

Project management experts recommend a weekly status report (WSR) for immediate team members and stakeholders, a monthly or bi-monthly status report for high-level managers and stakeholders, and a periodic, ultra high-level status report for CEOs, directors, and others who want to see highlights and top wins.

You can use any format, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Microsoft Project, and more. Next we’ll take a closer look at each type of project status report and its relevant audience.

The Weekly Project Status Report

In general, a project manager maintains this report at all times, even before it’s due for regular delivery, so if a manager wants to see it, the project manager can provide it within an hour.

The usual audiences for this report include the project team members, the project manager’s manager, a resource manager, and perhaps the main stakeholder. 

The weekly project status report should include as much pertinent detail as possible and contain more detail than reports delivered to other audiences. The goal of the weekly project status report is to give those most involved in the project a thorough view of how the project is progressing. The report tracks the budget, indicates milestones, enumerates risks, etc.

The Monthly Project Status Report

A monthly or bi-monthly project status report can help higher-level managers feel engaged and in control of projects that their project managers are running. This audience doesn’t require the same level of detail that a weekly report does (for instance, who is doing what or how long it takes). 

This audience wants the best high-level view of the project’s progress. Higher-level managers are interested in tracking the budget, the spend, the quality of deliverables, and the nature of risks or roadblocks. Note that if a project manager does have a significant risk, setback, or roadblock, they shouldn’t wait for the monthly report to communicate that problem to their manager. Nothing in these monthly reports should be hugely surprising to these executives, except possibly nice wins, efficiencies, and compliments from fellow stakeholders. These high-level executives need to feel informed, so if their managers ask them about their projects, they’ll be equipped with the top-level talking points. Being up to date also allows decision-makers to take action, if necessary.

The CEO-Level Project Status Report

While not every project or company may require this kind of project status report, many project management experts think the CEO-level report can be key to buy-in and visibility from the top echelons of a company’s management.

Chris Daniel mentions key elements to making this particular type of status report a success. “This audience is responsible for multiple projects, so they want to see only the truly top-level highlights,” Daniel notes. “For the impact you want, you’ve got to have the sizzle. That means you need to build a visually appealing deck (in PowerPoint or Prezi) that calls out data visually. You should also include accountability for action items — who is doing or will be doing what moving forward.

“Interpreting the data from your previous weekly or monthly reports is also critical for this audience. The CEO is looking to the project manager for guidance and recommendations,” Daniel continues. “This report should have a maximum of six or seven slides. Anything else can go into an appendix. And it’s critical to include a Frequently Asked Questions slide of about five questions, so a project manager can demonstrate he has already anticipated questions and provided succinct answers.”

The Monthly Team and Resources Status Report

If your company and teams are handling multiple ongoing and overlapping projects, it’s also useful to create a separate team and resources status report. The audience for this report includes resource managers, team directors, and others managing various types of resources. 

This report should capture the work of different resources. It should also indicate when resources are due to roll off or join the project. For example, after UX designers create wireframes, they may reduce the hours they’ve devoted to a web project, while developers begin to increase their hours, taking the information from the wireframes (and design and content) and beginning to build web structure and pages.

This report gives resource managers insight into when their staff members may be devoting more or less hours to your project, so they can allocate resources appropriately.

The Stoplight Project Health Status Report

This kind of project status report is gaining popularity as many companies realize that packing endless data points into weekly or monthly reports only burdens the project manager. A wide range of businesses are transitioning to a more simple project status report.

This newer report visually represents the health of a project by color-coding different elements with a traffic light image: green for on-budget and on-target; yellow for potential risks being posed; and red for true roadblocks, overspending, and the like.

how to create a good project report

Chad Sauter is the Director at Conway MacKenzie and has managed projects for many years. Sauter comments that his company used to require extremely detailed project management status reports but now finds  them unnecessary: “We try to stay away from complex reports now. This gives us more time to spend on actually working on the projects,” he says.

Sauter’s company uses a red/yellow/green status report for nearly all its projects. “We won’t waste any time talking about elements that are green or in good shape. The color-coding gives everyone a quick sense of what is and isn’t urgent to address,” he concludes.

Skot Carruth, CEO of Philosophie Software , agrees that simpler is better: “Successful projects require trust and close collaboration. When you start overloading project managers with reporting requirements, they become more like machines than creative problem solvers.

“When PMs know their goals and metrics,” Carruth continues, “they can simply tell us if they are on track or not. When they aren’t, we’re here to help them instead of punish them… Incorporating values such as trust and collaboration are more important to successful project management than any reporting tool.”

how to create a good project report

“When PMs know their goals and metrics, they can simply tell us if they are on track or not, and when they aren’t, we’re here to help them instead of punish them.” - SKot Carruth, CEO, Philosophie Software

Many executives believe that when detailed status reports are necessary, it’s vital to be able to capture dependencies. “These can be time-intensive to identify, but that level of insight is important for problem-solving. In recent years, budget, costs, and time/scheduling have become front-and-center in status reports,” Sauter remarks.

In summary, a weekly project status report captures the critical developments and activities of a project and is usually delivered to those closest to the project, i.e., team members, client stakeholders, managers of the team members, etc. Delivered with less frequency and detail, higher-level project status reports target those in the company who want to be kept apprised of a project’s health but not its minutiae. CEOs and other high-level executives want to see only highlights, especially with callouts on cost savings, stellar performance, and other positive elements.

How to Track Project Status

To track project status, follow these easy steps to ensure your project is completed on time:

  • Create a Project Plan or Project Outline: Before you officially start your project, create a rough outline of your project from start to finish, including all key details, resources, and time constraints.
  • Determine Specific Goals: Identify what you want to accomplish with this project, whether it be a new marketing campaign, a product deployment, etc.
  • Document Key Milestones: Determine key parts of your project timeline that you want to pay specific attention to — and that you need to hit on time.
  • Establish Clearly-Defined Deadlines: Ensure you and your team have a good sense of all the deadlines that must be met in order for your project to land on time.
  • Check on the Project Regularly: As your project kicks off, continue to check in on the progress regularly, referring to your project plan to check progress against projected timeline.

Get started with a free downloadable project status template .

Project Status Reports in Project Management

Project status reports are very commonly used in project management to track and manage a project as it moves through its timeline.

As a project manager, you may want to answer the following questions within your project status report:

  • What are the goals of the project, and will we be able to meet them?
  • Will the project be completed on time and on budget?
  • What successes should be highlighted?
  • What challenges could we potentially run into?
  • What learnings should we try to get from this project?

Challenges with Project Status Reports

Creating project status reports can be challenging and risky. Here are some of the risks to consider when creating project status reports and status report templates:

  • Forecasting Costs, Scheduling, and Estimating Are Guesswork: Project managers can still only make educated guesses about these components of a report.Risks Can Be Identified but Not Always Quantified: For example, a company might know that another project will be starting during the time frame of your existing project, but no one may know the exact timing or breadth of that second project. If it’s smaller, the risks it poses to your project in terms of staffing and other resources may be minimal. If it’s larger than expected, it could pose a significant risk.
  • Going Simpler Is a Strong but Risky Trend: There’s a greater chance of overlooking details that may be or become important.
  • You Might Leave a Key Person Out: Even under the most well-intentioned circumstances, not everyone who needs to may have buy-in or visibility.
  • You’re Relying on the Strength of Your Report: Any report is only as useful as the information that goes into it, as well as the actions taken as a result.

Elements of Project Status Reports

To make project status reports as useful and relevant as possible, there are key components that you should include. You may add more types of information, but these are the mission-critical elements that a project manager should be aware of:

  • Project Details:  List project name and project code, if applicable
  • Team: List project manager and other key team members
  • Status Date: Also include cadence (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.)
  • Schedule of Project: Have you met all of this period’s milestones?
  • Scope: Has the project stayed in scope during this period?
  • Budget: Is the project on, under-, or over-budget?
  • Quality: This may not be applicable to every report during every period, but it’s worth capturing if there are issues.
  • Dependencies: What factors are the team waiting on before being able to move forward?
  • Issues and Roadblocks: What roadblocks have come up during this period? Give a brief description of what they are, what you’re doing to remedy them, and who owns them.

These components may vary depending on the audience, but at the very least, the detailed weekly project status report should contain these elements. Moreover, the project manager should be able to speak about any of these factors if asked.

How to Create a Status Report

It’s critical to get clarity on project goals, budget, milestones, deliverables, and team members from the outset.

That way, a project manager can guarantee that weekly and monthly status reports are always rolling up to and supporting the mission and vision of the entire project, even as staff members need to accomplish detailed tasks on a weekly basis. 

It’s also crucial that the template establish explicit buy-in and measurement from the beginning. As a project progresses, small tweaks are to be expected, but the major cornerstones of monitoring should not change significantly. 

At the same time, you can set and reset expectations as needed, as unforeseen circumstances arise and require attention.

Lastly, a project status report should be sharable, but the project manager has final ownership.

Benefits of Project Status Report Templates

You can save a lot of time by using templates to create project status reports. Of course, all project reports require tweaking and editing to properly reflect the project’s individual ingredients, but a template can be a strong starting point. There are several benefits to using project status report templates:

  • Free: Many templates are available free online.
  • Printable: You can distribute reports for meetings, huddles, and those stakeholders who would like a printable copy.
  • Professional Appearance: Using a template that’s already been designed to look professional gives a project manager leverage.
  • Clean Design: As mentioned above, project status reports should be easy to scan and intuitive to interpret, even for those who are several places removed from the project.
  • Customizable: The most useful templates will allow a project manager to add and subtract fields and items as needed for each project.
  • Collaboration Features: Web-based templates can give all team members access to the status report, so they can see where things stand, as well as contribute updates, if desired.
  • All Tasks in One Place: A template can ensure that you’re hosting every piece of a project in one place.

Project Status Report Templates

While using templates to create project status reports can be a true time-saver for project managers, it’s important for PMs to plan ahead and customize the template to fit the needs of the whole project. This way, the status report template you created at the beginning of a project can remain relevant and useful throughout the course of that project.

Here are some project status report templates to help get you started:

Weekly Project Status Report Template - Excel

how to create a good project report

Download Weekly Project Status Report Template

Excel | Smartsheet

Project Management Dashboard Template - Excel

Project Management Dashboard Template

‌ Download Project Management Dashboard Template

For additional options, check out our collection of free project report templates.

Best Practices for Project Status Reports

To create the most effective project status report that keeps everyone up-to-date on the most relevant project information, take these tips into consideration:

  • Write a first draft — then correct it.
  • Edit your status report as needed.
  • Make everyone aware of the status report, along with any updates.
  • Ask for feedback on how to provide the best view of project status.
  • Use consistency across all project status reports.
  • Report on metrics that matter most to the project — and to key stakeholders.
  • Use visualization, like charts and graphics, when possible.
  • Avoid adding too much detail.
  • Make the status report accessible to everyone, at all times.

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The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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Project Management

Create an effective project status report: tips & examples.

Sarah Burner

ClickUp Contributor

July 18, 2023

As a project manager, you might feel like an unsung hero. Not only do you manage teams, tasks, budgets, and timelines, but you’re also in charge of presenting your progress to stakeholders.

No pressure, right? 

Instead of sweating bullets when it’s time to show the CEO what you’ve worked so hard for, generate a project status report. This report summarizes the work completed so far and the next steps—which is a real lifesaver for weekly PM meetings. 

In this guide, we’ll explain what a project status report is, what to include in it, and how to generate better reports. We’ll even throw in a few project management status report examples and templates to cut down on the time you spend generating status reports. 

Because at the end of the day, it’s about working smarter, not harder. 💪

What is a Project Status Report?

1. keep your stakeholders happy, 2. boost team collaboration, 3. speed up project timelines, 4. identify issues asap, 5. make better decisions, 6. improve communication, a detailed—but succinct—executive summary, visual progress of the project, the overall project schedule, insights into the project budget, common challenges and blockers, well-communicated next steps, all the project kpis and metrics, step 1: understand project stakeholder needs, step 2: schedule it regularly, step 3: start gathering data, step 4: start from a comprehensive project status report template, step 5: update as you go.

A project status report is a detailed document that gives key stakeholders an overview of an important project’s current status. Project managers usually prepare these reports on a regular basis and share them with team members, management, or clients. 

Instead of running through tasks at breakneck speed, creating project reports forces you to stop and think about how you’re completing projects. You look at projects retroactively and proactively, which streamlines the project lifecycle.

Project Management Status Report Template by ClickUp

It doesn’t hurt that a solid report will also keep stakeholders happy.

The goal here is to keep everyone informed about a project’s progress. If you’re doing client-facing work, project status reports assures clients that you’re hard at work.

And if you generate solid status reports for your weekly check-ins, don’t be surprised if your boss gives you a hearty slap on the back. 🤩

Benefits of Using a Project Status Report in Project Management

Sure, you could throw together a few talking points before your next check-in meeting. But that doesn’t look nearly as professional as a proper report on the project’s progress. 

With the right template or project view, it takes no time at all to generate a solid project management status report. In just a few clicks, you or your project managers generate a quality doc that comes with a host of benefits. 

Is your boss chomping at the bit for status updates? Do you have a client who’s desperate for results? 

Project status reports quell anxious clients’ worries and show your boss that you mean business. They’re a solid project management tool that updates everyone on project milestones and your overall progress.

Milestones in Gantt view

Plus, you can use a great project status report as a tool for performance tracking. This not only shows how the project is doing but also justifies the efforts of everyone on your team. 

Teamwork makes the dream work, but it’s complicated to manage a large group. Fortunately, project status reports get everyone on the same page and boost team collaboration . 

Instead of allowing project to-dos to float away into the ether, a status report gives everyone clear action items. It provides structure and accountability to motivate your project team to do their best work. 🙌

ClickUp Docs, Chat, and List view in ClickUp

Plus, regular reports can even boost team morale. Visualizing success and completed milestones puts the emphasis on your team’s accomplishments instead of focusing solely on upcoming tasks. And recent data shows that recognition improves employee well-being

Nobody likes project delays. While you can’t avoid all hiccups, regular project status reports keep your team accountable to the project schedule.

ClickUp Gantt Chart View Product Example

Status reports offer much-needed structure to the project management process, which cuts down on wasted time and effort. Keep tabs on your timeline with a project tracker .

From there, it’s as easy as exporting your data to give everyone an in-depth report in just a few clicks.

Risk identification keeps your project budget in line and tasks on time—provided you spot potential risks early enough. Project management status reports should include a section on challenges and roadblocks so you can discuss them with the project team.

This gives you a chance to gather at mission control and come up with a solution for at-risk tasks ASAP. ⚒️

Instead of scrambling to deal with unexpected side quests, anticipating issues keeps your team focused and productive. If you’re in a highly regulated industry, it can even help with risk management, which your legal department will love.

Sometimes project management requires going with your gut, but 9 times out of 10, you need to justify your decisions with data. Regular status reports provide enough project information to support data-driven decision-making. 

Project status reports include important metrics that tell you if it’s time to course-correct or if everything’s A-OK. Quantify project success with metrics like: 

  • On-time completion
  • Working dates
  • Percent completed
  • Client satisfaction

ClickUp Dashboard

Ideally, you should look at data from previous reporting periods to identify trends. For example, if you frequently go over budget on certain types of projects (or with, ahem, particular clients), you may need to increase your bid on the next project—or find some serious cost-saving opportunities. 

Whether you’re chatting with your boss, client, or team members, a project status report supports transparent communication. Not only does it format all project details in a digestible way with pretty colors, but it also encourages your team to communicate more frequently. 🌻

If your boss wants a clearer picture of the project’s health, a project management status report spells everything out in black and white to reduce the risk of misunderstandings.

What to Include in a Project Status Report

As you gear up to create your first project status report, you might wonder what you need to include in the report itself. You don’t want to overlook important information, but you also don’t want to overwhelm everyone with a 20-page novel.

Try to strike a balance between sharing information and keeping things short and sweet. Make sure your project management status report includes the following key elements. 🔑

The executive summary should offer high-level information with the report highlights. This is the “tl;dr” project summary that your CEO will look at 60 seconds before the status meeting, so don’t phone it in. 

Project status report: ClickUp Executive Summary Doc Template

Even though the summary comes first, you need the information in the rest of the report to write it. This is why you should always write the executive summary last. 

Your team will read the entire report if they want more details, so keep the summary brief—no more than six sentences. Get started with a well-documented guide by using the ClickUp Executive Project Status Template .

The progress section details your current status and completed milestones and deliverables. People have short memories, so reminding everyone of what you’ve accomplished so far is a great nod to your team’s stellar work. ✨

This is the section where you brag about your team’s accomplishments. Call them out with pretty Gantt charts and graphics visualizing your deliverables or project goals.

clickup goals feature

A progress bar, line graph, or checked boxes will definitely draw your boss’s eye to the right places. The progress section of a status report should pick up from the last report.

If you create project status reports on a quarterly basis, it’s easy to forget where you left off. Always compare your current report to previous reports so you don’t overlook anything.

ClickUp Calendar View

Projects live and die by deadlines. This area of the project status report should include the overall project timeline and provide updates on where you’re at right now. Note if you’re ahead of schedule, right on track, or (gulp) falling behind. 

Instead of listing the schedule with text, create a visual dashboard , Calendar view, or Gantt chart to make it easier for everyone to digest complex timeframes in less time.

After meeting deadlines, budget management is your biggest responsibility as a project manager. Whether it’s the client or upper management, your project status report should analyze the project’s financial performance. 

Again, try to visualize this as much as possible. For example, if you’re budgeting based on percentages, note how much of the project budget you’ve spent with a pie chart. Use this section of the report to also forecast how you think budget spend will look going forward.

What’s in your way right now? This is your chance to speak up.

Instead of letting problems quietly simmer in the background, call them out. For example, if the client didn’t give you the right information for the project, note it here. Or if your team doesn’t have access to the right tools to move forward, call it out. 📣

The entire team will gather to review the project status report, so this is your chance to look at roadblocks and project risks together.

Unless you’re 100% done with a project, you’ll need to spell out what comes next. In this section of the project status report, clarify the tasks and milestones you still need to complete. 

But don’t just list the tasks. Add a dash of accountability by assigning next steps to specific team members, along with due dates. This way, you have a very clear path moving forward—plus accountability—so no one has to wonder what they’re responsible for.

Finally, every project status report should include a section just for metrics. You’re free to weave these metrics throughout the report, but even then, some folks might want to see a high-level view of project performance in one place.

Listing your metrics in one section makes it possible to monitor them over time. Look at averages over the course of the project, plus how this report compares to past reports, to see if you’re on track. 

Every project is different, but it’s good to track metrics like: 

  • Cost performance
  • Time logged
  • Gross margins
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Productivity
  • Successful due date completion

The less you can make this look like a wall of boring numbers, the better. Use a project report template with pretty graphics to make your metrics pop.

How to Create a Project Status Report With Helpful Examples

At this point, you might have an idea of what to include within the project status report. But how do you put it all together? 

There’s no need to DIY your own project report. Just follow these steps—and follow proven examples and templates—to create project status reports in no time at all. ⏲️

There’s no need to add a deluge of data to your project status reports. All you need is the information that matters most to project stakeholders.

Know your target audience. What do they need to see? What do they actually care about? 👀

For example, if you’re a programmer but your stakeholders are non-technical managers, this isn’t the time to expound on the complexities of Javascript. Your project sponsor only cares about features and functions, so create a meaningful, jargon-free report that helps them make decisions more quickly. 

Project reports aren’t something you create when you feel like it. This needs to be a regular part of your workflow to understand the overall project health. Add it to your task management solution so you don’t forget. 

It’s also a good idea to set up a recurring calendar invite with all key stakeholders so you review the status report on a consistent basis.

Every project health report should be unique. Pull the most relevant data from your systems to update the report before you review it with the team. 

You could plug in project data manually, but we’re willing to bet you’re too busy for that. Create a custom dashboard to track everything so you don’t lose your mind juggling every task, project, and person.

You don’t have to do this alone either. Ask your team members to contribute their insights. Project management software doesn’t always tell the full story, especially with qualitative data. Invite your team to share insights by a certain date so you can include them in the report.

Some project managers build reports out of Excel spreadsheets or Google Docs, but that requires a lot of copying and pasting. Instead, generate a report from data in your project management system so it’s click-and-go. 

Of course, you need to use a project status report template based on the type of project you’re working on. Your organization will have its own quirks, but it’s good to account for the nuances of these project types:

  • Daily status reports: It takes a lot of effort to generate daily reports, so a template will save you a ton of time. Since it’s likely a quick turnaround, keep daily reports as short and relevant as possible. You’ll probably need to adjust this one in real-time so you don’t miss anything
  • Weekly status reports: Your team will probably pick the same day each week to chat about project progress. Weekly project status reports are common for intensive, client-facing projects, so pay a lot of attention to your schedule, budget, and next steps
  • Monthly status reports: These are common if you’re doing a marketing project where you need time in between status reports to track KPIs and metrics
  • Quarterly status reports: Keep quarterly reports very high level. It’s easy to get into the weeds when you have three months’ worth of data to look at, but focus only on the most important takeaways

The ClickUp Project Status Report Template

Project Status Report Template by ClickUp

Understanding the report’s frequency makes it much easier to choose a template. From here, it’s as easy as plugging your data into a template with sections, graphics, and gorgeous color coding that’s ready to rock and roll.

For example, the ClickUp Project Status Report Template is actually a Whiteboard that you convert into a status report in just a few clicks. 

Use the template to: 

  • Organize projects by certain labels, filters, or tasks
  • Automatically generate project health charts and graphs
  • Share tasks, due dates, and budget details with the team and key stakeholders

The project status report template even comes with customizable statuses, fields, and views so you can make it your own. Instead of jumping between your project management software and your status report document, you keep everything within the ClickUp platform to significantly speed up the time it takes to generate reports. 

That’s an all-around win, wouldn’t you say? 🏆

A project status report is a living document. The information within it should change regularly to reflect the current status of the project, but it’s OK to change your template. 

Gather feedback from all stakeholders to see if they find the updates helpful. If they don’t think the progress report is useful, you may need to add or trim sections.

But don’t take it personally: if these changes make the report more engaging, it’s worth adjusting the reporting process.

Create Project Status Updates in One Click

Successful project management is an art. It might look like everything is going smoothly to your boss, but a project status report shows just how much work you and your team put in to make this happen. 🎨

Keep your team on the same page, reassure stakeholders, and create more structured project plans with a project status report template. 

While templates are a good start, they still need data. ClickUp Dashboards speed up reports by linking your project mission control center to your reports, templates, chats, and a lot more.

Build your next status report in ClickUp: Create your own Dashboard right now— it’s Free Forever !

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Project Management Report: Examples and Writing Tips

  • 1.  Project Management Basics
  • 2.  Project Management Methodologies
  • 3.  Project Management Life Cycle
  • 4.  Project Management Software
  • 5.  Team Collaboration Tips
  • 6.  Agile Methodology Basics
  • 7.  Agile Project Management Tools & Techniques
  • 8.  Project Management Frameworks
  • 9.  Resources
  • 10.  Glossary
  • Advanced Terminology
  • Methodologies
  • PM Software Features
  • Basic Terminology
  • Professional Development
  • Agile Project Management

How to Write a Project Management Report

A project management report is a summary overview of the current status of a project. It is a formal record of the state of a project at a given time. The exact form and details may vary depending on your company and project management office requirements. Many businesses have their own project management report templates their project managers adhere to.

Depending on the size and complexity of your projects, a project management report may be required weekly or monthly. It is provided to all project stakeholders to help keep them up to date with the progress of the project and any pressing challenges it may be facing. 

Project management reports are useful for all sorts of different types of projects across a variety of industries. For example:

  • A marketing project manager could provide a regular project status report to the entire organization so they can keep tabs on how the company rebrand is progressing
  • A software development team might use resource reports to effectively plan a sprint and ensure they have the resources they need
  • An executive might present a project risk report to the company’s board of directors to get guidance and help navigating potential issues and roadblocks
  • A project manager could use a project performance report to monitor the project budget, schedule, and success metrics, and share that crucial information with leaders
  • A leadership team could use a time tracking report to understand how the team’s time is being used and how the team could become more efficient

That’s only the beginning. There are numerous types of project management reports that can be used for an assortment of project goals and scenarios. 

Most project management reports are single-pagers but may have appendices or links to more information for stakeholders who wish to delve into the details. However, project reporting can be much more in-depth in some companies and circumstances.

But regardless of the specific report, the point remains the same: Project management reports are intended to provide a clearer understanding of a project — whether it’s only getting started, in progress, or just wrapped up. 

Project management reports are as unique as projects themselves.  

Whether you’re creating a one-page report or a comprehensive one, Wrike is the must-have tool for project planning, monitoring, and reporting.  

What is included in a project management report?

As you figure out how to prepare a project report, you’re bound to have one big question: What should you include?

The information you include in your project management report will largely depend on the type of project, the scope of the project, your organizational processes, as well as your goal in generating a project report in the first place. 

Understanding and appropriately allocating project resources will likely require more detail and a far more comprehensive report than providing a straightforward status update. And in general, more complex projects typically require more complex project reports. 

With that said, there are some standard elements that apply to project reports across nearly every industry, organization, and type of project. Whether you need them all or only a few, here are some key characteristics to consider when creating your own project report. 

Identifying project information

Think of this as the “basics” of your project. While it might seem like overkill to include it in every single project report you create, doing so (ideally, near the top of your report) gives people the necessary context they need about the project before reviewing the report.

You’re essentially laying the groundwork for them, which is especially important for people who might not be privy to every single report or who only need to be kept updated at a high level. They aren’t as close to the project, so they likely require regular refreshers.

  • Project name: Give your project a name to quickly and easily identify it. Resist the urge to get too creative — instead, name your project something instantly recognizable and intuitive (for example, “CompanyXYZ Website Revamp”).
  • Project number (if it has one): If your company uses project numbers or any other identifying code, include that on each report as well.
  • Name of project manager: If and when people have questions after reviewing the report, this means they can quickly understand their best point of contact for more information. 
  • Project sponsor(s): Your project sponsor is the person (or people) at the senior leadership level that’s providing resources and overall support for the project. For many people, it’s easy to confuse this person with the project manager. So, listing the sponsor on each report provides clarity about those roles.
  • Start date of the project: Timing matters for projects. Including the project’s start date at the top of the report helps people instantly glean how long the project has been progressing and how much time has already been invested. 
  • Expected end date: Projects don’t stretch into eternity (at least, they shouldn’t). Including the project’s anticipated end date with the start date means people can understand the overall timeframe of the project.
  • Customer name and information: If you work in professional services or any industry where you’re doing work for customers, the customer’s name and other identifying details should be included on the project report. That helps ensure accuracy in reporting and also makes file management a little easier. 
  • Date the project report is released: Particularly for long projects, you could generate many reports throughout the process — maybe even dozens of them. Dating each project report means you can maintain a paper trail and ensure those reports are easy to refer back to and make sense of in the future. 

Key metrics of project success

Exactly what metrics you report on will depend on the intention of your overall report. For example, a project risk report will dedicate much more space and detail to potential threats to the project while a project status report will focus far more on the tasks that have been completed and what’s still left to do. 

It’s important to include some project success metrics in each report you generate. Much like the basic identifying project information, it’s helpful context for any team members or stakeholders who review the report. Think of it almost like the project’s highlight reel. It’s a quick rundown of project performance that should be included at the beginning of your report (after the identifying information) or at the very end, depending on your report formatting. 

  • Schedule progress against plan: Is the project ahead of or behind schedule? How far ahead or how far behind? This helps people understand a more realistic timeline as well as how much time is left for the project.
  • Current cost versus budget: Is the project under budget or over? How much over or under? It can also be helpful to include a few notes or bullet points about how the budget or project plan will be adjusted or managed moving forward, particularly if you’ve already experienced severe overages.
  • Current scope compared to plan: Has the project scope changed since the project began? If so, how? Understanding how the scope evolves throughout the project will make it easier for everyone to manage resources and expectations.
  • Planned versus actual resourcing: Are any resources missing or overallocated? How will you secure or reallocate resources moving forward?
  • Overview of risks: Are there any high risks that need to be managed?
  • Current quality findings: Has quality testing been done? Were there any issues?

Additional information to include

  • Project change management : This is usually an update of any pending and approved change requests for the project.
  • Actions taken: This provides a high-level summary of key actions taken and decisions made since the last project report. It can also include accomplishments, such as milestones recently met.
  • Decisions required: If there is a crucial decision that needs to be made, this is the right place to share it, whose decision it is, and when it’s due. An example could be sponsor approval for the project management plan .
  • Upcoming milestones: Deliverables due soon and milestones approaching are communicated here.
  • Task lists : This is a list of all the tasks to be completed to deliver the project successfully. Task lists should have the start and end dates of the included tasks.

Types of project management reports

Below is a list of the most important project management reports you may need to track and report on your project status.

Time tracking reports

Time tracking reports show what projects your team members are spending time on. This helps you improve project management and communicate adequately with stakeholders about a project ’ s progress. Time tracking reports provide useful data to improve scheduling and resource management and boost revenue, especially in professional services agencies and companies.

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Project status reports

Project status reports communicate how a project is progressing within a specific period. This helps to keep stakeholders updated on the project ’ s progress and any emerging issues with cost, scope, schedules, or risks. You can easily compare a project status report to the project baseline or project plan to assess how well it is doing. Project status reports typically include the work that ’ s been completed, a summary of the project’s costs and schedule, a plan for what is to follow, and any issues and risks.

Project health reports

Project health reports provide a snapshot of the status of a project. This helps to share how well or poorly a project is doing. Project health reports show what ’ s been done, what ’ s on schedule, and what ’ s overdue. They make it easy to communicate to team members and stakeholders about the overall health of a project. A project health report makes it obvious if you ’ ve stayed on track or deviated far from the project plan. It brings to the forefront the most important tasks to tackle to get a project back on the intended path. Different teams and companies may have unique ways of organizing their own project health reports.

Project risk reports

Project risk reports identify and categorize risks in a project based on their severity and likelihood of happening. This helps prioritize issues and eliminate harmful risks before they cause irreparable damage or project failure. Project risk reports communicate problems to stakeholders so they can take action. The goal of project risk reports is to catch and identify project risks before they occur.

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Variance reports

Variance reports show how a project has deviated from the project plan or baseline. This helps compare how a project is doing with the project plan and reduce any chances of project failure. With a variance report, project teams can monitor actual and planned performances and ensure they are on track with the project scope, costs, and schedules. This helps mitigate risks and implement change management procedures where necessary. Variance reports also aid in planning for future projects.

Resource reports

Resource reports are helpful for managing available resources and planning a successful project. You can use them to adjust workloads and make decisions to make the project workflow more efficient and effective. Resource reports take costs, schedule, and scope of work remaining into consideration to make the best resourcing decisions for the project and team. It’s easy to see how much team members have on their plate and redistribute work to achieve the desired results and complete the project.

How often should you report on projects as a manager?

There’s no set cadence for your project reports. However, when determining how often you should send a project report to the team or other stakeholders, here are a few important elements to think through: 

  • How long is the project’s timeline? For a project that spans many months, reporting daily would be overkill. But for a project that only spans a week or two, a quick daily report could be warranted. The duration of your overall project is one of your most important considerations when figuring out how often to create and share project reports. 
  • What are client or stakeholder expectations? Are you creating deliverables for clients that expect frequent communication? Or have stakeholders expressed that they’d like regular weekly updates? Keep in mind that being a project manager is ultimately a service position, so you’ll need to consider other people’s needs, expectations, and preferences in terms of reporting cadence.
  • How much has the project changed? Whether the project scope has ballooned, broader organizational goals have shifted substantially, or the team recently achieved a significant project milestone, major and consequential changes to the project almost always warrant a report and an update to stakeholders — even if it’s not your “regularly scheduled” time to send one. 

If you still feel unsure about how often to report on projects, have a conversation with the project team and any relevant stakeholders to get their insights on a cadence that would keep them informed without making them feel overwhelmed.

Tips for effective project reporting

When writing a project management report, it is essential to keep the following in mind:

  • Be concise and share results and outcomes: Don't focus on details your stakeholders don't need to know. Try to use bullet points, not paragraphs. If you create a 10-page document every week, no one is likely to read it. Plus, you won't have time to manage the actual project.
  • Understand your audience: Make sure the project report is not too technical and avoid jargon. Otherwise, your stakeholders won't be able to understand it.
  • Provide context: Don't just say a deliverable will be two weeks late. Share how it will impact the rest of the project and what actions are being taken to resolve it. Stakeholders need to know how significant the problem truly is.
  • Be clear about any asks: If you require your stakeholders to do something, make sure you explicitly mention who is responsible, what they are responsible for, and when it needs to be done.
  • Make it visual: Use project management software that offers project management report templates . This allows stakeholders to quickly identify which projects are struggling and what areas they are struggling with before reading further into the project report. Executives may receive dozens of project management reports (or more) every week, so making your project reports easy to read is crucial.

Project management report example

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How can Wrike help you with project management reports? 

Learning how to write a management report for your projects might seem daunting, but using the right software can make all the difference in the reporting process — whether you’re reporting on a small project or are tasked with enterprise project management . 

Wrike has all of the features you need to make every type of project a success, including reports . These reports are completely customizable and make it easy to gather all of the data you need from your tasks and projects and generate a helpful summary that you, your team, and all of your stakeholders can easily understand.

No more combing through spreadsheets or scrolling through endless email threads to find and compile the information you need. Wrike will gather your project-related information right from the source and save you all of the mundane and tedious work that’s usually synonymous with reporting. 

And if you’re tired of reports being lost, misfiled, or even hitting the recycling bin after a cursory glance, Wrike makes storage and management of your reports easy too. You can access and view all reports created by or shared with you by simply clicking “Reports.” It’s painless to find the information you need and you also have the peace of mind that you can always refer back to those reports in the future. 

Ready to jump in with project reporting that’s more helpful and less of a hassle? Get started with a two-week free trial of Wrike today and see how simple project management reports can be.

Further reading

7 Stakeholders to Consult Before Starting a New Project

Stop Projects From Derailing With Wrike’s New Report Templates

What It Means to Be a Digital Project Manager

How Successful Teams Use Project Management Software

Basic Project Management

  • Project Charter
  • Project Management Stakeholders
  • What is a Project?
  • Work Breakdown Structure
  • Project Objectives
  • Project Baseline
  • Project Management Scheduling
  • Project Management Work Packages
  • Project Management Scope
  • Scope Creep

Advanced Project Management

  • What is PERT?
  • Network Diagram
  • Risk Management
  • Cost Estimation
  • Feasibility Study
  • Monte Carlo Analysis
  • Project Integration
  • Cost Management
  • PMI Project Management
  • What To Do With Certification
  • Certification
  • Become Certified
  • PMP Certification
  • Best Certification

Software Features

  • Critical Success Factors
  • Capacity Planning
  • User Role Access Permissions
  • Time Tracking
  • Budget Tracking
  • Request Forms
  • Work Assignments
  • Version Control
  • Dependency Managements
  • Project management Milestones
  • Project Management Software
  • Project Management Tools
  • Project Management System
  • Gantt Charts
  • Project Management Metrics
  • Project Portfolio Management
  • Proof of Concept Templates
  • Punch List Templates
  • Requirements Traceability Matrix
  • Resource Scheduling
  • Roles and Responsibilities Template
  • Stakeholder Mapping
  • Team Charter
  • What is Project Baseline
  • Work Log Templates
  • Workback Schedule
  • Work Breakdown Structures
  • Cross-Functional Flowcharts
  • Creating Project Charters
  • Guide to Team Communication
  • Mastering RAID Logs
  • Overcoming Analysis Paralysis
  • Understanding RACI Model
  • Eisenhower Matrix Guide
  • Guide to Multi Project Management
  • Procure-to-Pay Best Practices
  • Procurement Management Plan Template to Boost Project Success
  • Project Execution and Change Management
  • Project Plan and Schedule Templates
  • Resource Planning Templates for Smooth Project Execution
  • Risk Management and Quality Management Plan Templates
  • Risk Management in Software Engineering
  • Stage Gate Process
  • Stakeholder Management Planning
  • Understanding the S-Curve
  • Visualizing Your To-Do List
  • 30-60-90 Day Plan
  • Work Plan Template
  • Weekly Planner Template
  • Task Analysis Examples
  • Cross-Functional Flowcharts for Planning
  • Inventory Management Tecniques
  • Inventory Templates
  • Six Sigma DMAIC Method
  • Visual Process Improvement
  • Value Stream Mapping
  • Creating a Workflow
  • Fibonacci Scale Template
  • Supply Chain Diagram
  • Kaizen Method
  • Procurement Process Flow Chart
  • UML Activity Diagrams
  • Class Diagrams & their Relationships
  • Visualize flowcharts for software
  • Wire-Frame Benefits
  • Applications of UML
  • Selecting UML Diagrams
  • Create Sequence Diagrams Online
  • Activity Diagram Tool
  • Archimate Tool
  • Class Diagram Tool
  • Graphic Organizers
  • Social Work Assessment Tools
  • Using KWL Charts to Boost Learning
  • Editable Timeline Templates
  • Guides & Best Practices
  • Graphic Organizers for Teachers & Students
  • Visual Documentation Techniques
  • Visual Tool for Visual Documentation
  • Visualizing a Dichotomous Key
  • 5 W's Chart
  • Circular Flow Diagram Maker
  • Cladogram Maker
  • Comic Strip Maker
  • Course Design Template
  • AI Buyer Persona
  • AI Data Visualization
  • AI Diagrams
  • AI Project Management
  • AI SWOT Analysis
  • Brainstorming AI
  • Pros & Cons of AI
  • AI for Business Strategy
  • Using AI for Business Plan
  • AI for HR Teams
  • BPMN Symbols
  • BPMN vs UML
  • Business Process Analysis
  • Business Process Modeling
  • Capacity Planning Guide
  • Case Management Process
  • How to Avoid Bottlenecks in Processes
  • Innovation Management Process
  • Project vs Process
  • Solve Customer Problems
  • Streamline Purchase Order Process
  • What is BPMN
  • Approval Process
  • Employee Exit Process
  • Iterative Process
  • Process Documentation
  • Process Improvement Ideas
  • Risk Assessment Process
  • Tiger Teams
  • Work Instruction Templates
  • Workflow Vs. Process
  • Process Mapping
  • Business Process Reengineering
  • Meddic Sales Process
  • SIPOC Diagram
  • What is Business Process Management
  • Process Mapping Software
  • Business Analysis Tool
  • Business Capability Map
  • Decision Making Tools and Techniques
  • Operating Model Canvas
  • Mobile App Planning
  • Product Development Guide
  • Product Roadmap
  • Timeline Diagrams
  • Visualize User Flow
  • Sequence Diagrams
  • Flowchart Maker
  • Online Class Diagram Tool
  • Organizational Chart Maker
  • Mind Map Maker
  • Retro Software
  • Agile Project Charter
  • Critical Path Software
  • Brainstorming Guide
  • Brainstorming Tools
  • Visual Tools for Brainstorming
  • Brainstorming Content Ideas
  • Brainstorming in Business
  • Brainstorming Questions
  • Brainstorming Rules
  • Brainstorming Techniques
  • Brainstorming Workshop
  • Design Thinking and Brainstorming
  • Divergent vs Convergent Thinking
  • Group Brainstorming Strategies
  • Group Creativity
  • How to Make Virtual Brainstorming Fun and Effective
  • Ideation Techniques
  • Improving Brainstorming
  • Marketing Brainstorming
  • Rapid Brainstorming
  • Reverse Brainstorming Challenges
  • Reverse vs. Traditional Brainstorming
  • What Comes After Brainstorming
  • 5 Whys Template
  • Assumption Grid Template
  • Brainstorming Templates
  • Brainwriting Template
  • Innovation Techniques
  • 50 Business Diagrams
  • Business Model Canvas
  • Change Control Process
  • Change Management Process
  • NOISE Analysis
  • Profit & Loss Templates
  • Scenario Planning
  • Winning Brand Strategy
  • Work Management Systems
  • Developing Action Plans
  • How to Write a Memo
  • Improve Productivity & Efficiency
  • Mastering Task Batching
  • Monthly Budget Templates
  • Top Down Vs. Bottom Up
  • Weekly Schedule Templates
  • Kaizen Principles
  • Opportunity Mapping
  • Strategic-Goals
  • Strategy Mapping
  • Business Continuity Plan
  • Developing Your MVP
  • Incident Management
  • Needs Assessment Process
  • Product Development From Ideation to Launch
  • Visualizing Competitive Landscape
  • Communication Plan
  • Graphic Organizer Creator
  • Fault Tree Software
  • Bowman's Strategy Clock Template
  • Decision Matrix Template
  • Communities of Practice
  • Goal Setting for 2024
  • Meeting Templates
  • Meetings Participation
  • Microsoft Teams Brainstorming
  • Retrospective Guide
  • Skip Level Meetings
  • Visual Documentation Guide
  • Weekly Meetings
  • Affinity Diagrams
  • Business Plan Presentation
  • Post-Mortem Meetings
  • Team Building Activities
  • WBS Templates
  • Online Whiteboard Tool
  • Communications Plan Template
  • Idea Board Online
  • Meeting Minutes Template
  • Genograms in Social Work Practice
  • How to Conduct a Genogram Interview
  • How to Make a Genogram
  • Genogram Questions
  • Genograms in Client Counseling
  • Understanding Ecomaps
  • Visual Research Data Analysis Methods
  • House of Quality Template
  • Customer Problem Statement Template
  • Competitive Analysis Template
  • Creating Operations Manual
  • Knowledge Base
  • Folder Structure Diagram
  • Online Checklist Maker
  • Lean Canvas Template
  • Instructional Design Examples
  • Genogram Maker
  • Work From Home Guide
  • Strategic Planning
  • Employee Engagement Action Plan
  • Huddle Board
  • One-on-One Meeting Template
  • Story Map Graphic Organizers
  • Introduction to Your Workspace
  • Managing Workspaces and Folders
  • Adding Text
  • Collaborative Content Management
  • Creating and Editing Tables
  • Adding Notes
  • Introduction to Diagramming
  • Using Shapes
  • Using Freehand Tool
  • Adding Images to the Canvas
  • Accessing the Contextual Toolbar
  • Using Connectors
  • Working with Tables
  • Working with Templates
  • Working with Frames
  • Using Notes
  • Access Controls
  • Exporting a Workspace
  • Real-Time Collaboration
  • Notifications
  • Meet Creately VIZ
  • Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Brainstorming
  • Uncovering the potential of Retros for all teams
  • Collaborative Apps in Microsoft Teams
  • Hiring a Great Fit for Your Team
  • Project Management Made Easy
  • Cross-Corporate Information Radiators
  • Creately 4.0 - Product Walkthrough
  • What's New

How to Write a Solid Progress Report for Project Success

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Progress reports are like project status updates that help everyone involved understand how things are going. Writing a solid progress report is crucial for keeping your project on track and ensuring its success. In this guide, we’ll break down the process of creating a great progress report, making it easy for you to communicate your project’s progress effectively. We have also included progress report templates for you to get started right away.

Progress Report Template

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What is a Progress Report

A progress report is a document that provides an overview of the status, advancements, and achievements of a project or task. It typically outlines what has been accomplished, what is currently in progress, and any challenges or obstacles encountered. Progress reports are commonly used in various settings, such as work, education, or personal projects, to keep stakeholders informed about the project’s developments and to ensure everyone is on the same page regarding the current state of affairs.

Progress Report Templates to Keep Track of Project Progress

Daily Progress Report Template

Project Status Report Template

Project Status Summary

Project Dashboard Template

Project Status Summary Template

Why You Need to Use a Progress Report

A progress report promotes a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement in project management. Here are several reasons why a progress report is important.

Clear communication: Keeps everyone on the same page by sharing what’s happening in a project.

Tracking achievements: Highlights what has been successfully completed, boosting team morale.

Problem-solving: Identifies and addresses challenges, helping to find solutions and stay on track.

Decision-making: Provides real-time information for informed decision-making during the project.

Accountability: Holds team members responsible for their tasks and deadlines.

Learning and improvement: Creates a record of progress, facilitating learning for future projects.

Efficiency: Keeps the team working efficiently by preventing confusion and misunderstandings.

Collaboration: Encourages collaboration and coordination among team members.

Key Components of a Progress Report

The following components of a progress report collectively provide a comprehensive view of the project’s progress, challenges, and future plans, enabling effective communication and decision-making.

  • Introduction : Brief overview of the project, including its purpose and objectives.
  • Work completed : Summary of tasks or milestones achieved since the last report.
  • Work in progress : Description of current activities, tasks underway, and their status.
  • Challenges and issues : Identification and discussion of any problems, roadblocks, or challenges faced.
  • Achievements : Recognition and celebration of significant accomplishments and milestones.
  • Upcoming tasks : Outline of the next steps, tasks, or milestones planned for the future.
  • Timeline and schedule : Review or adjustment of the project timeline or schedule, if necessary.
  • Budget overview : Overview of the project’s financial status, including spendings and any budget changes.
  • Recommendations : Suggestions for improvements or changes to improve project efficiency.
  • Conclusion : A brief summary and conclusion, often including an overall project status assessment.

Challenges of Creating and Using a Progress Report

While project reports are handy for keeping track of project progress, they can pose some challenges.

Time-consuming: Writing a progress report can take time away from actual project work.

Communication issues: Making sure that everyone understands the report may be challenging.

Data accuracy: Getting accurate information for the report can sometimes be difficult.

Overlooking details: Important details may be unintentionally left out.

Balancing detail and brevity: Finding the right level of detail without making the report too lengthy can be tricky.

Tracking complex projects: Managing and reporting progress for complex projects may pose a challenge.

Ensuring regular updates: Getting everyone to consistently update progress can be a hurdle, especially in dynamic work environments.

Best Practices for Creating an Effective Progress Report

Creating an effective progress report involves following some best practices:

  • Keep your report clear and straightforward, avoiding jargon or overly complex language.
  • Highlight the most important information, emphasizing achievements and addressing challenges.
  • Use a consistent format and structure for easy comprehension.
  • Submit reports on time to make sure that the information is relevant and up-to-date.
  • Provide enough detail to convey the message, but avoid unnecessary information that may overwhelm.
  • Use charts or diagrams to visually represent data and trends for better understanding.
  • Include potential solutions when discussing challenges, promoting a proactive approach.

Create Your Next Progress Report with Creately

Simplify the process of creating progress reports and streamline project management, communication, and improve overall project success with Creately ’s visual collaboration platform.

Task tracking and assignment

Use the built-in project management tools to create, assign, and track tasks right on the canvas. Assign responsibilities, set due dates, and monitor progress with Agile Kanban boards, Gantt charts, timelines and more. Create task cards containing detailed information, descriptions, due dates, and assigned responsibilities.

Notes and attachments

Record additional details and attach documents, files, and screenshots related to your tasks and projects with per item integrated notes panel and custom data fields. Or easily embed files and attachments right on the workspace to centralize project information. Work together on project documentation with teammates with full multiplayer text and visual collaboration.

Real-time collaboration

Get any number of participants on the same workspace and track their additions to the progress report in real-time. Collaborate with others in the project seamlessly with true multi-user collaboration features including synced previews and comments and discussion threads. Use Creately’s Microsoft Teams integration to brainstorm, plan, run projects during meetings.

Pre-made templates

Get a head start with ready-to-use progress report templates and other project documentation templates available right inside the app. Explore 1000s more templates and examples for various scenarios in the community.

Comprehensive shape libraries

Create any visual aid from flowcharts to timelines with comprehensive shape libraries for over 70 types of diagrams including icons. Illustrate or make annotations easily with freehand drawing and format text without leaving the keyboard with markdown shortcuts.

Progress reports are indispensable in project management. They foster communication, accountability, and a culture of continuous improvement. Make use of the progress report templates we have provided to track your progress and stay organized.

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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

how to create a good project report

Create a Project report

With Project, you can create and customize striking graphical reports of whatever project data you want, without having to rely on any other software. As you work on the project, the reports change to reflect the latest info — no manual updates required! See a list of all reports and how you can use them.

Click the Report tab.

In the View Reports group, click the type of report you want and then pick a specific report.

For example, to open the Project Overview report, click Report > Dashboards > Project Overview .

Dashboard menu on the Report tab.

The Project Overview report combines graphs and tables to show where each phase of the project stands, upcoming milestones, and tasks that are past their due dates.

Project Overview report

Project provides dozens of reports you can use right away, but you don’t have to let that limit your choices. You can customize the content and the look of any of the reports, or build a new one from scratch.

Work with your report

Change the data in a report, change how a report looks, make your own report, share a report, make a new report available for future projects, more ways to report project info.

You can choose the data that Project shows in any part of a report.

Click the table or chart you want to change.

Use the Field list pane on the right of the screen to pick fields to show and filter information.

how to create a good project report

In the Project Overview report, you could change the % Complete chart to show critical subtasks instead of top-level summary tasks:

Click anywhere in the % Complete chart.

In the Field List pane, go to the Filter box and pick Critical .

In the Outline Level box, pick Level 2 . For this example, this is the first level of the outline that has subtasks instead of summary tasks.

The chart changes as you make your selections.

Project Overview report with Chart Data pane open

With Project, you control the look of your reports, from no-nonsense black and white to explosions of colors and effects.

Tip:  You can make a report part of a split view so you can see the report change in real time as you work on project data. To learn more, see Split a view .

Click anywhere in the report and then click Report Tools Design to see the options for changing the look of the whole report. From this tab, you can change the font, color, or theme of the whole report. You can also add new images (including photos), shapes, charts, or tables here.

Report Tools Design tab

When you click individual elements (charts, tables, and so on) of a report, new tabs appear at the top of the screen with options for formatting that part.

Table Styles group on the Table Tools Design tab

Drawing Tools Format tab. Format shapes and text boxes .

Picture Tools Format tab. Add effects to pictures .

Table Tools Design and Table Tools Layout tabs. Configure and tweak tables, like you would in other Office programs .

Chart Tools Design and Chart Tools Format tabs. Configure and tweak charts.

Say you decide that the % Complete chart in the Project Overview report needs a facelift.

% Complete Chart on the Project Overview report

Click anywhere in the % Complete chart, and then click Chart Tools Design .

Pick a new style from the Chart Styles group. This style removes the lines and adds shadows to the columns.

Chart Styles group on the Chart Tools Design tab

Give the chart some depth. Click Chart Tools Design > Change Chart Type .

Change Chart Type button

Click Column > 3-D Stacked Column .

Change Chart Type dialog box

Add a background color. Click Chart Tools Format > Shape Fill , and pick a new color.

Shape Fill color options menu

Change the bar colors. Click the bars to select them, then click Chart Tools Format > Shape Fill , and pick a new color.

Move the numbers off the bars. Click the numbers to select them, and then drag them upward.

Just a few clicks make a big difference. And we only scratched the surface of the formatting options.

Formatted % Complete chart on the Project Overview report

Click Report > New Report .

Pick one of the four options, and then click Select .

Give your report a name and start adding information to it.

New Report menu on the Report tab

Blank     Creates a blank canvas. Use the Report Tools Design tab to add charts, tables, text, and images.

Chart     Project creates a chart comparing Actual Work, Remaining Work, and Work by default. Use the Field List pane to pick different fields to compare, and use the controls to change the color and format of the chart.

Table     Use the Field List pane to choose what fields to display in the table (Name, Start, Finish, and % Complete appear by default). The Outline level box lets you select how many levels in the project outline the table should show. You can change the look of the table on the Table Tools Design and Table Tools Layout tabs.

Comparison     Sets two charts side-by-side. The charts have the same data at first. Click one chart and pick the data you want in the Field List pane to begin differentiating them.

Any of the charts you create from scratch are fully customizable. You can add and delete elements and change the data to meet your needs.

Click anywhere in the report.

Click Report Tools Design > Copy Report .

Copy Report button on the Report Tools Design tab

Paste the report into any program that displays graphics.

Tip:  You might need to resize and line up the report when you paste it into its new home.

You can also print the report to share it the old-fashioned way.

Use the Organizer to copy a new report into the global template for use in future projects.

See a list of all reports and how you can use them.

Compare actual work against your estimates with burndown reports .

Create a timeline of key tasks and milestones.

Set the status date for project reporting.

Visual reports allow you to view Project information graphically using enhanced PivotTables in Excel 2010. Once Project information has been exported to Excel, you can customize the reports further with Excel 2010 enhanced PivotTable features, such as filter slicers, searching within PivotTables, sparklines within PivotTables to show trends instantly, and OLAP write-back improvements.

Available visual reports

The report templates in Project 2010 are divided into six categories in the Visual Reports - Create Report dialog box, which you can access by clicking Visual Reports in the Reports group of the Project tab. The following sections provide descriptions of the visual reports in each category.

You can also create your own custom reports. Custom reports will appear in the category for the type of data used.

Task Usage category

The following table describes the visual reports in the Task Usage category. These reports are based on timephased task data.

Note:  Timephased assignment data is available in reports in the Assignment Usage category.

Resource Usage category

The following table describes the visual reports in the Resource Usage category. These reports are based on the timephased resource data.

Assignment Usage category

The following table describes the visual reports in the Assignment Usage category. These reports are based on the timephased data, similar to the data found in the Task Usage and Resource Usage views.

Task, Resource, and Assignment Summary categories

The following table describes the visual reports in the Task Summary, Resource Summary, and Assignment Summary categories. Summary reports do not include timephased data.

Create a visual report by using a template

Reports group graphic

In the Visual Reports dialog box, on the All tab, click the report that you want to create.

If the report that you want to create is not listed, select the Include report templates from check box, and then click Modify to browse to the location that contains your report.

Tip:  If you know which category contains the report, you can click that category's tab to view a shorter list of reports. If you only want to list reports that open in either Excel or Visio, select or clear the Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Visio check box.

To change the level of usage data included in the report, select Years , Quarters , Months , Weeks , or Days from the Select level of usage data to include in the report list.

Note:  By default, Project sets the level of usage data to what it recommends for your project's size. For most projects, this will be weeks. If you choose to include data at a more detailed level, report performance may be decreased. For best performance, if you are viewing multiple reports for the same project at one time, refrain from changing the data level. If you change the data level, the temporary reporting database stored locally must be recreated. If you don't need to include usage data in your reports, set the data level to Years for best performance.

Click View to generate the report and open it in Excel or Visio.

Edit an existing visual report template

In the Visual Reports dialog box, on the All tab, click the report that you want to edit.

Tip:  If you know which category contains the report, you can click that category's tab to view a shorter list of reports. If you only want to list reports that open in either Excel or Visio, select or clear the Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Visio check boxes.

Click Edit Template .

On the Visual Reports - Field Picker dialog box, click the fields that you want to add or remove from the report, and then click Add , Remove , or Remove All to move fields between the Available Fields and Selected Fields boxes, or between the Available Custom Fields and Selected Custom Fields boxes.

Fields in the Selected Fields and Selected Custom Fields boxes are included in the report.

Click Edit Template to create the report with the modified list of fields.

On the Visual Reports - Field Picker dialog box, some fields are identified as dimensions. It is important to select fewer than six dimensions for your report. If you select more than six dimensions, report performance is significantly decreased.

Not all fields are available in all reports. Some fields are only available in Visio reports, but not in Excel reports.

If you are unable to locate the field you want to include on the Visual Reports - Field Picker dialog box, it may be stored in a different category of data. For example, many fields that you might think of as Task Summary fields are actually Assignment Summary fields.

Create a new visual report template

In the Visual Reports dialog box, click New Template .

In the Select Application section, click Excel to create an Excel template, or click Visio (Metric) to create a Visio template.

In the Select Data Type section, select the type of data that you want to use in the report.

To include timephased data, select Task Usage , Resource Usage , or Assignment Usage from the list in the Select Data Type section.

Click Field Picker .

On the Visual Reports - Field Picker dialog box, hold CTRL and click the default Project fields that you want to add to the report in the Available Fields box.

Click Add to move them to the Selected Fields box.

Hold CTRL and click the custom fields that you want to add to the report in the Available Custom Fields box.

Click Add to move them to the Selected Custom Fields box.

If you have the English version of Office Project 2007 installed, you have the option to create a Visio template that uses U.S. units.

To remove a field from the report, on the Visual Reports - Field Picker dialog box, click the field in the Selected Fields or Selected Custom Fields box, and then click Remove . To remove all default or custom fields from the report, click Remove All in the Select Fields or Select Custom Fields section.

Not all fields are available in all reports. Some fields are only available in Visio reports, and not in Excel reports.

When you have finished creating your visual report, you can choose to save it to the default template location (c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates) or to another location on your computer or your network. Templates saved in the default template location automatically appear on the Visual Reports - Create Report dialog box.

If you begin using a different language pack after saving a custom visual report template, the template remains available but is not populated. The original field names are not recognized in the new language and are not included in the report.

Export report data

You can select specific data to export within a category (OLAP cube), or you can export all project data as a reporting database.

Export data as an OLAP cube

In the Visual Reports dialog box, click Save Data .

In the Save Reporting Cube section, select the category that contains the type of data that you want to save.

Click Field Picker to modify the fields included in the list of data to export.

On the Visual Reports - Field Picker dialog box, click the fields that you want to add or remove from the list of data to export, and then click Add , Remove , or Remove All to move fields between the Available Fields and Selected Fields boxes, or between the Available Custom Fields and Selected Custom Fields boxes.

Fields in the Selected Fields and Selected Custom Fields boxes are included in the exported data.

Click OK on the Visual Reports - Field Picker dialog box, and then click Save Cube .

Browse to the location where you want to save the cube data, and then click Save .

Cube data is saved as a .cub file.

When accessing cube data with Visio, the .cub file cannot be stored on a network share.

Export data as a reporting database

Click Save Database .

Browse to the location where you want to save the database, and then click Save .

The data is saved as a Microsoft Office Access database (.mdb) file.

Project for the web offers two main options for reporting: Excel and Power BI Desktop. Excel reporting comes with Microsoft 365, while Power BI Desktop is licensed separately.

When managing a project in Project for the web, export your project to Excel allows you to:

Create reports and visuals

Send a file containing project details to external stakeholders

Archive copies of your project data for audit and compliance

Print copies of your project

Here's how to export your project:

Go to project.microsoft.com and open the project you want to export to Excel.

In the top right corner, select the three dots ( ... ), then select Export to Excel .

Screenshot of the menu in Project for the web showing the Export to Excel option

When you see the message " All done! We've exported [your project name]. " at the bottom of the screen, you can look for your new Excel file where you store your downloads.

When you open the Excel file containing your project, you'll see a worksheet named "Project tasks" that contains a summary of project-wide information at the top, including its name, project manager, and the start and finish dates, duration, and percent complete for the whole project. You'll also see what date it was exported. Under that, you'll see a table of all the information for your project.

More about Excel Report options

Import and analyze data

Create a PivotTable to analyze worksheet data

Ideas in Excel

Power BI Desktop

To get started,  connect to Project for the web data through Power BI Desktop , then open the Project Power BI template  and explore the reports it includes. 

Important:  You'll need a Power BI subscription (and a Project subscription in many cases) to use this reporting tool. See the following section for details.

To use Power BI reports on Project for the web data, you need to be a licensed user of Power BI Desktop or Power BI Pro. See Power BI Pricing for more information.

To build or customize Power BI reports on Project for the web data, you'll also need Project Plan 3 (formerly Project Online Professional) or Project Plan 5 (formerly Project Online Premium).

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How to Write a Project Proposal (Examples & Template Included)

ProjectManager

Table of Contents

What is a project proposal, types of project proposals, project proposal vs. project charter, project proposal vs. business case, project proposal vs. project plan, project proposal outline, how to write a project proposal, project proposal example, project proposal tips.

  • ProjectManager & Project Proposals

A project proposal is a project management document that’s used to define the objectives and requirements of a project. It helps organizations and external project stakeholders agree on an initial project planning framework.

The main purpose of a project proposal is to get buy-in from decision-makers. That’s why a project proposal outlines your project’s core value proposition; it sells value to both internal and external project stakeholders. The intent of the proposal is to grab the attention of stakeholders and project sponsors. Then, the next step is getting them excited about the project summary.

Getting into the heads of the audience for which you’re writing the project proposal is vital: you need to think like the project’s stakeholders to deliver a proposal that meets their needs.

We’ve created a free project proposal template for Word to help structure documents, so you don’t have to remember the process each time.

how to create a good project report

Get your free

Project Proposal Template

Use this free Project Proposal Template for Word to manage your projects better.

In terms of types of project proposals, you can have one that’s formally solicited, informally solicited or a combination. There can also be renewal and supplemental proposals. Here’s a brief description of each of them.

  • Solicited project proposal: This is sent as a response to a request for proposal (RFP) . Here, you’ll need to adhere to the RFP guidelines of the project owner.
  • Unsolicited project proposal: You can send project proposals without having received a request for a proposal. This can happen in open bids for construction projects , where a project owner receives unsolicited project proposals from many contractors.
  • Informal project proposal: This type of project proposal is created when a client asks for an informal proposal without an RFP.
  • Renewal project proposal: You can use a renewal project proposal when you’re reaching out to past customers. The advantage is that you can highlight past positive results and future benefits.
  • Continuation project proposal: A continuation project proposal is sent to investors and stakeholders to communicate project progress.
  • Supplemental project proposal: This proposal is sent to investors to ask for additional resources during the project execution phase.

A project proposal is a detailed project document that’s used to convince the project sponsor that the project being proposed is worth the time, money and effort to deliver it. This is done by showing how the project will address a business problem or opportunity. It also outlines the work that will be done and how it will be done.

A project charter can seem like the same thing as a project proposal as it also defines the project in a document. It identifies the project objectives, scope, goals, stakeholders and team. But it’s done after the project has been agreed upon by all stakeholders and the project has been accepted. The project charter authorizes the project and documents its requirements to meet stakeholders’ needs.

A business case is used to explain why the proposed project is justified. It shows that the project is worth the investment of time and money. It’s more commonly used in larger companies in the decision-making process when prioritizing one project over another.

The business case answers the questions: what is the project, why should it be taken up, who will be involved and how much will it cost? It’s therefore related to a project proposal, but the project proposal comes before the business case and is usually part of the larger proposal.

Again, the project proposal and the project plan in this case are very similar documents. It’s understandable that there would be some confusion between these two project terms. They both show how the project will be run and what the results will be. However, they’re not the same.

The project proposal is a document that aims to get a project approved and funded. It’s used to convince stakeholders of the viability of the project and their investment. The project plan, on the other hand, is made during the planning phase of the project, once it’s been approved. It’s a detailed outline of how the project will be implemented, including schedule, budget, resources and more.

All the elements in the above project proposal outline are present in our template. This free project proposal template for Word will provide you with everything you need to write an excellent project proposal. It will help you with the executive summary, project process, deliverables, costs—even terms and conditions. Download your free template today.

Project proposal tempalte for Word

There are several key operational and strategic questions to consider, including:

  • Executive summary: This is the elevator pitch that outlines the project being proposed and why it makes business sense. While it also touches on the information that’ll follow in the project proposal, the executive summary should be brief and to the point.
  • Project background: This is another short part of the proposal, usually only one page, which explains the problem you’ll solve or the opportunity you’re taking advantage of with the proposed project. Also, provide a short history of the business to put the company in context to the project and why it’s a good fit.
  • Project vision & success criteria: State the goal of the project and how it aligns with the goals of the company. Be specific. Also, note the metrics used to measure the success of the project.
  • Potential risks and mitigation strategies: There are always risks. Detail them here and what strategies you’ll employ to mitigate any negative impact as well as take advantage of any positive risk.
  • Project scope & deliverables: Define the project scope, which is all the work that has to be done and how it will be done. Also, detail the various deliverables that the project will have.
  • Set SMART goals: When setting goals, be SMART. That’s an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. All your goals would be defined by those five things.
  • Project approach: Define the approach you’ll use for the contract. There are several different types of contracts used in construction , for example, such as lump sum, cost plus, time and materials, etc. This is also a good place to describe the delivery method you’ll use.
  • Expected benefits: Outline the benefits that will come from the successful completion of the project.
  • Project resource requirements: List the resources, such as labor, materials, equipment, etc., that you’ll need to execute the project if approved.
  • Project costs & budget: Detail all the costs, including resources, that’ll be required to complete the project and set up a budget to show how those costs will be spent over the course of the project.
  • Project timeline: Lay out the project timeline , which shows the project from start to finish, including the duration of each phase and the tasks within it, milestones, etc.

In addition to these elements, it’s advisable to use a cover letter, which is a one-page document that helps you introduce your project proposal and grab the attention of potential clients and stakeholders.

To make the best proposal possible, you’ll want to be thorough and hit on all the points we’ve listed above. Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing a persuasive priority proposal.

1. Write an Executive Summary

The executive summary provides a quick overview of the main elements of your project proposal, such as your project background, project objectives and project deliverables, among other things. The goal is to capture the attention of your audience and get them excited about the project you’re proposing. It’s essentially the “elevator pitch” for the project life cycle. It should be short and to the point.

The executive summary should be descriptive and paint a picture of what project success looks like for the client. Most importantly, it should motivate the project client; after all, the goal is getting them to sign on the dotted line to get the project moving!

2. Provide a Project Background

The project background is a one-page section of your project proposal that explains the problem that your project will solve. You should explain when this issue started, its current state and how your project will be the ideal solution.

  • Historic data: The history section outlines previously successful projects and those that could have run more smoothly. By doing so, this section establishes precedents and how the next project can be more effective using information from previous projects.
  • Solution: The solution section addresses how your project will solve the client’s problem. Accordingly, this section includes any project management techniques , skills and procedures your team will use to work efficiently.

3. Establish a Project Vision & Success Criteria

You’ll need to define your project vision. This is best done with a vision statement, which acts as the north star for your project. It’s not specific as much as it’s a way to describe the impact your company plans to make with the project.

It’s also important to set up success criteria to show that the project is in fact doing what it’s proposed to do. Three obvious project success criteria are the triple constraint of cost, scope and time. But you’ll need to set up a way to measure these metrics and respond to them if they’re not meeting your plan.

4. Identify Potential Risks and Mitigation Strategies

To reduce the impact of risk in your project, you need to identify what those risks might be and develop a plan to mitigate them . List all the risks, prioritize them, describe what you’ll do to mitigate or take advantage of them and who on the team is responsible for keeping an eye out for them and resolving them.

5. Define Your Project Scope and Project Deliverables

The project scope refers to all the work that’ll be executed. It defines the work items, work packages and deliverables that’ll be delivered during the execution phase of your project life cycle. It’s important to use a work breakdown structure (WBS) to define your tasks and subtasks and prioritize them.

6. Set SMART Goals for Your Project Proposal

The best mindset when developing goals and objectives for your project proposal is to use the SMART system :

  • Specific – Make sure your goals and objectives are clear, concise and specific to the task at hand.
  • Measurable – Ensure your goals and objectives are measurable so it’s obvious to see when things are on track and going well, and conversely, when things are off track and issues need to be addressed. Measurable goals make it easy to develop the milestones you’ll use to track the progress of the project and identify a reasonable date for completion and/or closure.
  • Attainable – It’s important every project has a “reach” goal. Hitting this goal would mean an outstanding project that extends above and beyond expectations. However, it’s important that the project’s core goal is attainable, so morale stays high and the job gets done with time and resources to spare.
  • Relevant – Make sure all of your goals are directly relevant to the project and address the scope within which you’re working.
  • Time-Based – Timelines and specific dates should be at the core of all goals and objectives. This helps keep the project on track and ensures all project team members can manage the work that’s ahead of them.

7. Explain What’s Your Project Approach

Your project approach defines the project management methodology , tools and governance for your project. In simple terms, it allows project managers to explain to stakeholders how the project will be planned, executed and controlled successfully.

8. Outline The Expected Benefits of Your Project Proposal

If you want to convince internal stakeholders and external investors, you’ll need to show them the financial benefits that your project could bring to their organization. You can use cost-benefit analysis and projected financial statements to demonstrate why your project is profitable.

9. Identify Project Resource Requirements

Project resources are critical for the execution of your project. The project proposal briefly describes what resources are needed and how they’ll be used. Later, during the planning phase, you’ll need to create a resource management plan that’ll be an important element of your project plan. Project requirements are the items, materials and resources needed for the project. This section should cover both internal and external needs.

10. Estimate Project Costs and Project Budget

All the resources that you’ll need for your project have a price tag. That’s why you need to estimate those costs and create a project budget . The project budget needs to cover all your project expenses, and as a project manager, you’ll need to make sure that you adhere to the budget.

11. Define a Project Timeline

Once you’ve defined your project scope, you’ll need to estimate the duration of each task to create a project timeline. Later during the project planning phase , you’ll need to create a schedule baseline, which estimates the total length of your project. Once the project starts, you’ll compare your actual project schedule to the schedule baseline to monitor progress.

Now let’s explore some project proposal examples to get a better understanding of how a project proposal would work in the real world. For this example, let’s imagine a city that’s about to build a rapid transit system. The city government has the funds to invest but lacks the technical expertise and resources that are needed to build it, so it issues a request for proposal (RFP) document and sends it to potential builders.

Then, the construction companies that are interested in executing this rapid transit project will prepare a project proposal for the city government. Here are some of the key elements they should include.

  • Project background: The construction firm will provide an explanation of the challenges that the project presents from a technical perspective, along with historical data from similar projects that have been completed successfully by the company.
  • Project vision & success criteria: Write a vision statement and explain how you’ll track the triple constraint to ensure the successful delivery of the project.
  • Potential risks and mitigation strategies: List all risks and how they’ll be mitigated, and be sure to prioritize them.
  • Project scope & deliverables: The work that’ll be done is outlined in the scope, including all the deliverables that’ll be completed over the life cycle of the project.
  • Set SMART goals: Use the SMART technique to define your project goals by whether they’re specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
  • Project approach: Define the methodology that the project manager will employ to manage the project. Also, figure out what type of contract will be used to define the project.
  • Expected benefits: Show how the project will deliver advantages to the company and define what these benefits are in a quantifiable way.
  • Project resource requirements: List all the resources, such as labor, materials, equipment, etc., needed to execute the project.
  • Project costs & budget: Estimate the cost of the project and lay that out in a project budget that covers everything from start to finish.
  • Project timeline: Outline the project schedule, including phases, milestones and task duration on a visual timeline.

Whatever project proposal you’re working on, there are a few tips that apply as best practices for all. While above we suggested a project proposal template that would have a table of contents, meaning it would be many pages long, the best-case scenario is keeping the proposal to one or two pages max. Remember, you’re trying to win over stakeholders, not bore them.

Speaking of project stakeholders , do the research. You want to address the right ones. There’s no point in doing all the work necessary to write a great proposal only to have it directed to the wrong target audience. Whoever is going to read it, though, should be able to comprehend the proposal. Keep the language simple and direct.

When it comes to writing, get a professional. Even a business document like a project proposal, business case or executive summary will suffer if it’s poorly constructed or has typos. If you don’t want to hire a professional business writer, make sure you get someone on your project team to copy, edit and proof the document. The more eyes on it, the less likely mistakes will make it to the final edition.

While you want to keep the proposal short and sweet, it helps to sweeten the pot by adding customer testimonials to the attachments. Nothing sells a project plan better than a customer base looking for your product or service.

ProjectManager & Project Proposals

ProjectManager allows you to plan proposals within our software. You can update tasks for the project proposal to signify where things stand and what’s left to be done. The columns allow you to organize your proposal by section, creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) of sorts.

When building a project proposal, it’s vital to remember your target audience. Your audience includes those who are excited about the project, and see completion as a gain for their organization. Conversely, others in your audience will see the project as a pain and something to which they aren’t looking forward. To keep both parties satisfied, it’s essential to keep language factual and concise.

Our online kanban boards help you think through that language and collaborate on it effectively with other team members, if necessary. Each card shows the percentage completed so everyone in the project management team is aware of the work done and what’s left to be done.

Example Project Proposal Kanban Board

As you can see from the kanban board above, work has begun on tasks such as product documentation and design. Tasks regarding stakeholder feedback, ideation, market research and more have been completed, and there’s a good start on the engineering drawings, 3D rendering, supply chain sourcing and translation services.

A PDF is then attached to the card, and everyone added to the task receives an email notifying them of the change. This same process can be used throughout the life-cycle of the project to keep the team updated, collaborating, and producing a first-class project proposal. In addition to kanban boards, you can also use other project management tools such as Gantt charts , project dashboards, task lists and project calendars to plan, schedule and track your projects.

Project proposals are just the first step in the project planning process. Once your project is approved, you’ll have to solidify the plan, allocate and manage resources, monitor the project, and finally hand in your deliverables. This process requires a flexible, dynamic and robust project management software package. ProjectManager is online project management software that helps all your team members collaborate and manage this process in real-time. Try our award-winning software with this free 30-day trial .

Click here to browse ProjectManager's free templates

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  • Project planning |

3 elements every project charter needs

Julia Martins contributor headshot

Getting started on a new project or initiative can be an exciting feeling. But what about the step right before that, when you need to get your project approved?

The project pitching and approval process can feel like a black box if you’ve never done it before. From gathering the right information to presenting it in a way that works for your project stakeholders, you want to make sure you have the materials you need to succeed. One way to do that is with a project charter.

What is a project charter?

A project charter is an elevator pitch of your project objectives, project scope, and project responsibilities in order to get approval from key project stakeholders. In the charter, you should provide a short, succinct explanation of the main elements of your project before you get started. By creating a project charter before getting started on other, more in-depth project planning documents, you can get approval or course-correct if necessary.

A project charter is one of many project planning materials you can create. Here’s how it compares to other project planning elements:

Project charters vs. project plans

A project charter should only include three elements: your project objectives, scope, and responsibilities. Once your charter has been approved, you should then create a project plan. Your project plan builds on your project charter to provide a more in-depth blueprint of the key elements of your project.

There are seven key elements in a project plan:

Success metrics

Stakeholders and roles

Scope and budget

Milestones and deliverables

Timeline and schedule

Project charters vs. project briefs

A  project brief  is a short document that you should create after your project has been officially approved. The brief is a condensed version of your project plan that your project team and stakeholders can refer back to frequently. Your brief, like the charter, provides context about why this project is a good idea, in addition to what you’ll be doing during the project.

A project brief has four parts:

Background information

Project objectives and success criteria

Project timeline

Target audience

Project charter vs. business case

A project charter and  business case  have the same fundamentals: these are both tools to pitch a project to the appropriate stakeholders. The main difference between a project charter and a business case is scope.

A business case is a formal document that explains the benefits and risks of a significant business investment. For example, if you’re pitching a large-scale investment with an external agency, a significant increase in current business practices, or a new product line or service, you’d want to create a business case. Alternatively, if your project needs approval but it’s smaller in scope—for example, a campaign that’s similar to past campaigns or a product launch that fits within your current go-to-market strategy—create a project charter instead.

Do you need a project charter?

There are a variety of project planning tools, and a project charter isn’t always the best one for the job. Here’s when to create one—and when you might be better off creating something else.

Create a project charter  to pitch and get approval for a project. A project charter gives stakeholders a clear sense of your project objectives, scope, and responsibilities. Key stakeholders can use the project charter to approve a project or suggest changes.

Create a business case  if your project represents a significant business investment. A business case includes additional information and documentation, including the project’s return on investment and any  relevant project risks .

Create a project plan  if your project has been approved. A project plan will build on your project charter to provide additional information, like the project timeline or  key project milestones .

Create a project brief  if you want to create a document that summarizes the key high-level details of your project plan.

Create an  executive summary  if you want to provide a summary of your document to executive stakeholders.

Create a  project roadmap  if you want to view a high-level timeline of your project in a  Gantt chart .

How to create a project charter

In a project charter, you’ll share project details with key stakeholders in order to get approval to kick off your project. There are three main project charter elements:

To begin your project charter, share your  project objectives  and project purpose. In this section, you should outline why this project is important and what the key objectives are for the end of the project. Make sure your project purpose clearly explains why it’s important to work on this project and how this project will support your company goals.

In addition to your project purpose, you should also clarify your project objectives. These are the things you plan to achieve by the end of the project, like deliverables or assets. To create good project objectives, follow the  SMART method . Make sure your objectives are:

The second key element in your project charter is the project scope. Your project scope statement defines exactly what is and isn’t part of the project. When you draft a project scope, you’re setting boundaries and, more importantly, outlining what you won’t do during the project timeline.

As you create your project charter, the most important part of explaining scope is outlining the ideal project budget. Remember, you will use your project charter document to pitch this project to stakeholders—so you need to clearly show what the budget is and where that money will go.

In the final section of your project charter, you should explain who will be working on the project. This includes any key project stakeholders, executive stakeholders, project sponsors , and the general project team. If you haven’t already, draft up a brief resource management plan to illustrate how various resources will be allocated during the project.

Project charter examples

[Product UI] Marketing campaign project charter (Project Brief)

Project charter template

When you’re ready to get started, follow this easy-to-use template to create your next project charter.

Project name

Name your project. Make sure this is descriptive enough that most people will understand what you’re working on.

Project manager

Who is the point of contact for this project?

Last revision date

Your project charter is a living document. Including the last revision date can be helpful for team members who are frequently checking back on the charter.

Project purpose

Why are you working on this project?

Project objectives

What deliverables and assets do you plan to achieve by the end of the project?

Project scope

What are the boundaries of your project deliverables? Which initiatives are not included in the project?

Project team and resources

Who is working on this project? Which resources (e.g. people, tools, and budget) are available for this work.

Stakeholders and approvers

Who are the project stakeholders? Who needs to approve the project charter or any project deliverables?

From project charter to project success

Once your project charter has been approved, you can move forward with project planning. As you create additional project planning documents and get started with project management, make sure you are storing all of your project details in a centralized tool that everyone can access.

Naturally, we think Asana is the best tool for the job. With Asana, you can manage team projects and tasks to stay in sync and hit your deadlines. Learn more about the  benefits of project management .

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$7 Million for 30 Seconds? To Advertisers, the Super Bowl Is Worth It.

In a time of fragmentation, advertising during the game’s broadcast is still a reliable way to boost company revenue and familiarize viewers with a brand.

A cat wearing a bow tie.

By Santul Nerkar

A cat meowing for Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Peyton Manning chucking Bud Light beers to patrons in a bar and Kris Jenner stacking Oreo cookies. They all have one thing in common: Those companies paid seven figures to get their products in front of viewers during this year’s Super Bowl.

For the second consecutive year, the average cost of a 30-second ad spot during the Super Bowl was $7 million. Even as many businesses are being more disciplined with the money they have for marketing, and with spending on advertising slowing in recent years, the cost of a Super Bowl ad continues to go up.

The reason is simple: There is no opportunity guaranteed to reach more people than the Super Bowl, and the slice of every other pie keeps shrinking.

“It’s a throwback in terms of reaching everyone all at once,” said Charles Taylor, a professor of marketing at the Villanova School of Business.

In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, the number of opportunities for companies to reach a mass audience through advertising on network television has dwindled. Popular shows have increasingly moved to streaming platforms, along with audiences. More and more, networks find themselves relying on live events, like award shows and sports, to draw viewers.

“Live events are still huge for advertisers, and those are the ones that draw the highest attention,” said Frank Maguire, a vice president at Sharethrough, an advertising integration platform.

Not all live events are created equal, though. A record-low audience watched the Emmy Awards in January . Leagues like the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League have struggled to retain and increase viewership, and ratings for the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball final have fallen in recent years.

But the National Football League has continued its strong upward march , both in terms of viewership and media deals. In 2021, television networks committed $110 billion for the rights to broadcast the league for a decade, and the N.F.L. has continued to set record viewership numbers. More than 115 million people watched last year’s championship game.

The Super Bowl stands alone as a mass-marketing opportunity on television. A decade ago, the average cost of a 30-second spot was $4 million; a decade before that, it was $2.4 million. Analysts say the rise is a result of supply and demand: With a fixed amount of time and advertising spots for each Super Bowl broadcast, the competition is fierce. CBS, which will broadcast Sunday’s game, sold out its ad spots in a matter of weeks in November. Paramount, which owns CBS, will reportedly run nearly a dozen spots to promote its films.

“In this era of fragmentation, the Super Bowl is what television used to be,” said Brad Adgate, a veteran media analyst.

For many years, Super Bowl ads were kept closely guarded until the day of the game. Now, companies employ marketing campaigns that often start in mid-January.

“It’s about building a long-running narrative,” said Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, the chief marketing officer at DoorDash, whose Super Bowl ad this year is pushing a promotional deal.

Many viewers now turn on the Super Bowl broadcast with an idea of what to expect for the ads. A January preview of a Pringles ad, for instance, featured the mustache of an unknown man, prompting many fans to guess it belonged to the Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. (In fact, it belonged to the actor Chris Pratt.)

“You’re not just paying for that 30-second spot; it is a four- to six-week buzz that you’re creating,” said Mary Scott, a professor of strategic communications at Montclair State University and a former president at United Entertainment Group, a sports and entertainment marketing agency.

The rise in female viewership for N.F.L. games this season, made even more prominent by Taylor Swift’s relationship with Mr. Kelce, is another potential marketing opportunity for companies.

The news that Kansas City made the Super Bowl was welcomed by health-and-beauty companies, which disproportionately target young women. That demographic has tuned into more football games this season, thanks in large part to Ms. Swift’s appearances at Kansas City games.

NYX Makeup, a subsidiary of L’Oreal, has bought its first Super Bowl ad spot, while Dove is returning with an ad spot for the first time since 2015. E.L.F. cosmetics is advertising for the second straight year.

Kory Marchisotto, E.L.F.’s chief marketing officer, acknowledged that Kansas City’s playing in the Super Bowl was good for business. Ms. Marchisotto said her company kept different versions of ads in the days leading up to the game, a departure from how Super Bowl ads used to be prepared. Companies want to stay as nimble as possible, staying responsive to the specific interests of the audience watching the game.

“It was way easier when you would create a spot, spend a year on it, put it in market, and sit back and let it fly,” she said.

At the same time, companies are investing more heavily into making sure they’re getting the most for their $7 million. More ads this year are expected to feature interactive components like QR codes, which help companies track engagement with their brands in real time.

The technology debuted at the Super Bowl in 2022 with a floating code for Coinbase, a cryptocurrency company. The concept was used in more ads in last year’s Super Bowl — including one for avocados from Mexico and one for a public service announcement from a religious organization. The strategy also featured prominently during the N.F.L.’s first Black Friday broadcast in November.

Together, the Super Bowl’s ads are an annual snapshot of the economic and social moment in the country, said Ethan Heftman, a vice president of agency sales at Ampersand, an ad consortium owned by Comcast, Charter and Cox.

“As long as you have new industries — auto, cellular, tech companies,” Mr. Heftman said, “there’ll always be brands seeking that broad awareness.”

Santul Nerkar is a reporter covering business and sports. More about Santul Nerkar

Inside the World of Sports

Dive deeper into the people, issues and trends shaping professional, collegiate and amateur athletics..

Stadiums in Africa: This year’s Africa Cup of Nations, like several previous editions, played out in Chinese-built arenas. It will end with familiar questions about their legacy .

Discovered at a Pickup Game: Arthur Dukes Jr. had made three false starts at college before becoming the star player  for LaGuardia Community College’s scrappy new team.

Embracing Politics: Come for the draft analysis, stay for the anti-Biden rant. A growing class of commentators is blending sports and conservative politics .

Caitlin Clark Is Different: Her fiery competitiveness, no-look passes and 3-point bombs have made her the biggest star in college basketball. What happens when she leaves Iowa ?

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