In the world of project management, chaos is the enemy. Juggling deadlines, tracking tasks, managing resources, and keeping stakeholders informed can often feel like a frantic scramble. Important updates get lost in email chains, spreadsheets become outdated the moment they're shared, and a clear view of your project's health can seem impossible to find. What if you could bring all these scattered pieces together into one clear, visual, and always-up-to-date command center?
This is where a project tracking dashboard template comes in. It's more than just a tool; it's your single source of truth, designed to bring clarity, alignment, and efficiency to your team's workflow. Whether you're leading a small team or overseeing a complex program, a well-designed project status dashboard can be the difference between hitting your goals and getting lost in the weeds.
In this guide, we'll explore everything you need to know about these powerful templates. We'll cover what they are, their essential features, and how you can leverage them to transform your project management process from reactive to proactive.
What is a project tracking dashboard template?
At its core, a project tracking dashboard template is a pre-built, visual interface that consolidates and displays the most critical information about a project in one place. Think of it as the cockpit of an airplane, giving you at-a-glance access to key metrics, statuses, and progress indicators. It transforms complex data from various sources into easy-to-understand charts, graphs, and summaries.
Unlike starting with a blank project management dashboard excel sheet, a template provides a structured foundation. It’s designed with project management best practices in mind, offering a ready-to-use framework for monitoring everything from task completion rates and budget adherence to team workload and upcoming milestones. A good project plan dashboard gives you a high-level overview for quick stakeholder updates while also allowing you to drill down into the specifics when needed. It answers crucial questions instantly: Are we on schedule? Is the budget on track? Who is responsible for the next critical task?
By using a template, you bypass the time-consuming process of building a project dashboard from scratch. Instead, you can focus on what truly matters: managing your project and leading your team to success. A powerful platform can elevate this concept beyond a simple visual aid. For example, Lark Base turns a standard template into a dynamic, interactive database, ensuring your project tracking dashboard is always live and seamlessly integrated with your team's chats and documents.
Key features of project tracking dashboard templates
Not all project tracking dashboard templates are created equal. To be truly effective, a template should offer a comprehensive set of features that provide a 360-degree view of your project. When evaluating different project dashboard examples, here are the key components you should look for:
Task and milestone tracking: This is the foundation of any project tracking dashboard. It should allow you to list all project tasks, assign owners, set due dates, and monitor their status (e.g., Not Started, In Progress, Completed). A great template will also feature a milestone tracker to highlight key project achievements.
Timeline visualization (Gantt charts): A visual representation of your project schedule is essential. Gantt charts are a popular feature that displays tasks over time, showing dependencies and helping you identify potential bottlenecks before they become major problems.
Resource management: This feature helps you track and allocate your team’s time and resources effectively. It provides visibility into who is working on what, helping you prevent burnout and ensure a balanced workload across the team.
KPI and metrics monitoring: To measure success, you need data. A project metrics dashboard should display key performance indicators (KPIs) like budget vs. actual spend, tasks completed on time, and overall project progress percentage. Many pmo dashboard examples excel at this by showing portfolio-level health.
Customizable reporting: Every project is unique, and so are its reporting needs. The ability to customize your dashboard is crucial. An editable template allows you to add or remove widgets, change chart types, and filter data to create a project reporting dashboard that is perfectly tailored to your stakeholders.
Centralized document and communication access: The most advanced templates integrate directly with your team's files and conversations, ensuring that the dashboard is not just a reporting tool but a central hub for all project-related activities.
An all-in-one workspace like Lark offers these features natively, allowing you to build a powerful program management dashboard that is deeply connected to your team’s tasks, calendars, and real-time conversations.
6 free Lark templates to boost project tracking for your team
While a theoretical understanding is great, nothing beats seeing practical project dashboard examples. The best templates are more than just static files; they are dynamic, living tools that adapt to your workflow. At Lark, we've built a library of free templates within our all-in-one platform to give you a running start. These aren't just a project management dashboard excel template free download; they are interactive solutions built on Lark Base and Lark Sheets, designed to integrate seamlessly with your team's daily work.
Here are six powerful templates you can use today to create a robust project tracking dashboard.
Multi-Project Tracker
For managers juggling several initiatives at once, this template is a game-changer. It’s designed to be the ultimate program management dashboard, providing a consolidated view of all your projects in one place. You can coordinate tasks, generate reports, and manage team members across different projects without switching contexts. Key features include a Gantt chart for visualizing timelines across your portfolio, customizable fields, and powerful sorting and filtering by project, priority, or status. This allows you to quickly identify what needs immediate attention across the board. It’s perfect for creating a high-level pmo dashboard that gives executives a clear overview while allowing project managers to drill down into the specifics of any single project. 👉Use this template
Project Gantt Chart
The Gantt chart is a classic for a reason, and this Lark Sheets template gives it a modern, collaborative overhaul. It’s the perfect tool for creating a detailed project plan dashboard, mapping out every task, its duration, and its dependencies in a clean visual format. You can easily track progress against your original timeline, identify the critical path, and adjust schedules on the fly. Because it's a cloud-based, collaborative sheet, your entire team can view and update it in real-time, eliminating the version control chaos common with a standalone project dashboard template xls. Everyone is always looking at the single source of truth, ensuring perfect alignment on deadlines and milestones. 👉Use this template
Kanban board (with AI)
If your team operates with an agile methodology, this Kanban board template is your new best friend. It offers a clear, visual way to manage workflow, moving tasks through stages like "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done." What makes this Lark Base template unique is its built-in AI capabilities, which can automate repetitive tasks—like moving a card when its status is updated—and provide intelligent suggestions to improve efficiency. This makes it an excellent foundation for a project tracking dashboard that focuses on optimizing flow, ensuring continuous delivery, and proactively identifying bottlenecks before they derail a sprint. It fosters transparency and keeps the entire team focused on what’s next. 👉Use this template
Business Analysis (with Dashboard)
A successful project isn't just about finishing on time; it's also about meeting business objectives. This template comes with a pre-built project metrics dashboard that helps you track not only project status but also key business metrics like project profit and customer information. It’s a fantastic sample project management dashboard for teams that need to connect project execution directly with financial outcomes. The integrated dashboard allows you to visualize data through various charts and graphs, giving stakeholders and executives at-a-glance insights into your project portfolio's overall health and profitability. It helps answer the crucial question: "Is this project providing real value?" 👉Use this template
Project Problem Tracker
Every project encounters obstacles. The difference between success and failure often lies in how you manage them. This template provides a structured system for identifying, documenting, assigning, and resolving issues with clear accountability, thanks to fields for specified handlers and approvers. While it functions as a problem log, it’s a critical data source for your main project status dashboard. By tracking problems systematically, you can create dashboard widgets that highlight open issues, average resolution times, and recurring challenges. This transforms your approach from reactive firefighting to proactive risk management, allowing you to address root causes and improve processes for future projects. 👉Use this template
Team Weekly Report (OKR)
To ensure your projects are driving real impact, you need to connect daily tasks with overarching goals. This Team Weekly Report template, built on the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework, helps you do just that. Teams can track their weekly progress against specific, measurable key results, documenting their work and achievements. This granular data then feeds directly into a higher-level project tracking dashboard. This allows leaders to visualize how tactical, week-to-week execution is contributing to strategic company objectives over a quarter or year, providing a powerful layer of accountability and ensuring everyone is pulling in the same direction. 👉Use this template
Why you should consider Lark Base
These templates showcase the power of building your project tracking dashboard on a platform like Lark Base. Unlike a static project dashboard template xls, Lark Base provides a no-code, interactive database. You get:
Diverse views: Instantly switch between Grid, Gantt, Kanban, and Calendar views of the same data without creating new files.
Custom dashboards: Build a project reporting dashboard with a wide variety of charts and widgets that pull live data directly from your tables, ensuring your KPIs are always up-to-date.
Powerful automations: Set up automated workflows to handle repetitive tasks, send reminders, or update statuses when certain conditions are met, saving your team valuable time.
Seamless integration: Because it’s part of Lark, your dashboard is connected to everything else. Get notifications in Lark Messenger, link tasks in Lark Docs, and schedule meetings from your calendar, all in one place.
Other project tracking dashboard templates to look for
While Lark offers a comprehensive, all-in-one solution, it's always helpful to understand the landscape. Many great tools in the market offer robust templates that might fit specific needs. Here are a few notable project dashboard examples from other platforms.
Smartsheet's project dashboard template
Smartsheet excels with its powerful, spreadsheet-like interface. Its project dashboard template is ideal for teams that love the structure of Excel but need more advanced project management features like real-time data visualization, automated alerts, and detailed reporting capabilities. It's a strong choice for creating a data-heavy project management dashboard excel alternative.
Image source: smartsheet.com
Monday.com's project portfolio dashboard
Known for its vibrant and highly visual interface, Monday.com offers a portfolio dashboard template that is excellent for managing multiple projects. It allows for deep customization of columns, views, and automations. This template is great for creative agencies or PMOs that need a visually engaging program management dashboard to track the health of various initiatives at once.
Image source: monday.com
Asana's project status dashboard template
Asana is a leader in work and task management, and its project status dashboard template reflects this focus. It provides a clean, clear overview of task progress, workload distribution, and upcoming milestones. This template is perfect for teams who need a project status dashboard that emphasizes clarity on who is doing what by when, keeping everyone accountable and in sync.
Image source: asana.com
How to choose the right project tracking dashboard template: A step-by-step guide
With so many options available, from a simple project management dashboard excel template to a fully integrated system, choosing the right one can feel daunting. Following a structured approach will help you select a template that not only looks good but truly serves your team's needs.
Step 1: Define your project's scope and goals
Before you even look at a template, you need to know what you want to track. A dashboard is only as useful as the information it displays. Ask yourself and your team:
What are the primary objectives of this project?
What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will define success?
Who are the main stakeholders, and what information do they need to see?
Is the focus on budget, timeline, task completion, or all of the above?
Step 2: Identify your team's workflow and methodology
How your team works will heavily influence the type of dashboard you need. A software development team using an Agile framework will benefit most from a Kanban or sprint-based dashboard. A construction team following a Waterfall model will need a robust Gantt chart to manage sequential dependencies. Consider your team's size, technical comfort, and preferred communication style.
Step 3: List the essential features you need
Based on your goals and workflow, create a checklist of must-have features. This will help you narrow down the options. Your list might include:
Gantt charts for timeline visualization
Task dependencies
Resource management and workload views
Budget vs. actual cost tracking
Customizable KPI widgets
Integration with communication and file-sharing tools
Step 4: Evaluate template flexibility and customization
A template is a starting point, not a rigid box. The best project tracking dashboard template is an editable template. Can you easily add custom fields to track specific data? Can you change the types of charts to better visualize your metrics? A template that you can't tailor to your unique project will quickly become more of a hindrance than a help.
Step 5: Consider the platform and integration capabilities
This is perhaps the most critical step. A template’s true power lies in the platform it lives on. A standalone spreadsheet requires constant manual updates and is disconnected from your team's actual work. An integrated dashboard, on the other hand, can pull live data from multiple sources. Ask: Does the platform connect with our chat, email, and document tools? Can it automate updates?
Lark Base excels here, letting you customize any template and connect it seamlessly to chats, documents, and calendars, creating a truly unified command center for your entire project workflow.
Final thoughts on project tracking dashboard templates
In the complex landscape of modern projects, clarity is currency. A well-chosen project tracking dashboard template is your most powerful tool for achieving that clarity, transforming scattered data points into a cohesive, actionable command center. It moves your team from being reactive to proactive, providing the visibility needed to spot bottlenecks, manage resources, and keep every stakeholder aligned. It’s the key to making data-driven decisions that steer your project toward success.
However, a template is just the beginning. Its true potential is unlocked when it lives within a dynamic and integrated environment where data is always live and collaboration happens seamlessly. This is where you move beyond the limitations of static spreadsheets and into the realm of a truly connected workspace.
This is precisely where a unified platform makes all the difference. By bringing your dashboards, tasks, documents, and conversations into one place, you create a true project nerve center. Ready to transform your project management? Discover the power of an all-in-one solution and see what your team can build with Lark.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a project dashboard and a project report?
A dashboard is a real-time, interactive, and visual tool for monitoring current project status at a glance. In contrast, a report is a static document that summarizes project performance over a specific period (e.g., weekly or monthly) and is used for formal communication and record-keeping.
Who is typically responsible for maintaining the project dashboard?
The project manager usually owns the dashboard’s overall structure and integrity. However, its maintenance is a collaborative effort. Team members are responsible for updating their individual task statuses, and this live data should automatically feed into the dashboard, ensuring it remains accurate and up-to-date.
How often should a project tracking dashboard be updated?
Ideally, your dashboard should reflect real-time data. With integrated platforms like Lark, updates are reflected instantly as team members complete tasks. If manual updates are necessary, they should be performed at least daily for active projects to ensure all decisions are based on the most current information.
Can a single dashboard be used for multiple projects?
Absolutely. This is often called a program management dashboard or a portfolio dashboard. These are designed to aggregate key metrics from several projects into one high-level view, helping leaders understand overall portfolio health, allocate resources effectively, and identify cross-project trends or risks.
How can I share a dashboard with external stakeholders securely?
Modern project management platforms provide granular sharing permissions. You can typically generate a secure, view-only link or invite external guests with limited access. This ensures stakeholders see the high-level progress they need without being able to alter sensitive project data, maintaining both transparency and security.
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