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Free Project Planner Template
Project Planner Template is a tool in the hands of Project Managers which helps them in tracking the progress of a project, making amendments and also helps in managing any change. So, this template can also be termed as project tracker which helps the Project manager to keep the track of every minute details of a project.
Let’s say an accounting director wants to keep track of monthly close activities. He or She has to prepare a list of items and their completion date and circulate it to every member of the accounting team and then keep track of all the activities if they are being completed on time or not. Let’s understand this by using the below template –
About Project Planner Template
- In this template, an accounting manager has his task sorted by date and circulated to the team so that everyone knows when they are supposed to get their things done. This template shows the monthly close activity for December 2019. So, AP close on 30th December 2019 means that the accounts payable team must book all the invoices received by that date. Any invoice received after that date will be booked in the next accounting period.
- Once the invoices are book, the General Ledger team can start their analysis and their various month-end activities. So, it shows that the Sales, General, and Administration (SG&A) team has to get their activities completed by Thursday 2nd January 2020. Same way COR-Cost of Revenue team and Accounts receivable team has to complete all of their activities by 6th January 2020.
- Once respective teams have done their task, the group team works on the consolidation of reports and shows the revenue and operating expenses high-level review to CFO. Once the trial balance and all the reports go for review to the group team and CFO, the ledgers are kept closed till 8th January 2020, and it only opens on 9th for any adjustments identified during the review.
- By 10th January, all the adjustments must be completed, and EBITDA is finalized. Once EBITDA is closed on 10the January, other activities like Depreciation, Intercompany loan interest, etc.
- They are carried out, and all these should be completed by 14th January and sent to the Reporting director for review on 15th January 2020. By the 16th of the month, the final books of accounts go to CEO for review, and once it is final, the details financial reports are presented to the Board of Directors and Investors on 20th January 2020.
How to use This Template?
- Now this template can be used by any person working in the accounting field, or it can be modified, subjects can be changed, dates can be changed to weeks or years, and the reporting authority could be changed.
- It is a very simple template for managing an accounting project. In the same way, the accounting team can prepare a project planner template for all the statutory reporting, Tax filing, and payment of other government dues.
- Now, this type of template is not only useful for an accounting person, but it can also be used by a Software engineering Team Manager or a person working in the manufacturing organization.
- A software project manager can replace the accounting terms with various deadlines relating to any site or application or product development and track it by date.
- In the same way, the person from the manufacturing sector can set up a project planner template for making or assembling a new product and set a deadline for every team for various parts they are responsible for.
- This template not only helps the manager in tracking the growth of the project but also helps in understating if there is any delay in any activity.
- Any project is a combination of various activities completed by various teams simultaneously or one after another. Now, if that chain is broken or one department cannot complete any activity for any reason, then the project cannot be completed on time.
- For understanding, let us assume that in the attached template Revenue team could not complete all the accounts receivable activities by 8th January 2020, and they need one or two days extra to complete their tasks. In that case, all the further activities are delayed by two days.
- It is a point where the decision-making skill of the project manager is tested. Either he/she can ask for an extension of two more days from senior management, or the teams have to be requested to work extra hours. Whatever option is feasible and aligns with the mission and vision of the organization should be exercised by the project manager.
Conclusion
So, we see that the Project planner template not shows the progress but also helps in the identification of bottleneck activities in the organization. If implemented carefully and feasible targets are assigned to all the teams, be it any area or field, a project planner template will help in tracking, motivating, and completing the projects on time. Also, it helps in the identification of average and extraordinary performers, which further helps a project manager in the appraisal, bonus distribution, and moving the personnel in future critical projects within the organization.
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