Project schedule spreadsheet – MS Excel is powerful yet insufficient for complete project management

Project schedule spreadsheet is widely used in planning and managing projects because this tool allows easily calculating project costs and working hours and creating a single document giving a big picture view of project costs and time. One of the most popular software solutions to create project schedule spreadsheets is Microsoft Excel. You can find a lot of Excel project schedule spreadsheets in Internet.

MS Excel is a powerful solution for calculating data. To create a project schedule using Excel, you have a lot of tools, such as diagrams and formula constructor. If you do not know how to create a calendar in Excel or you have some difficulties with managing your agenda in Excel template, you can easily find an answer in Internet. Everything in MS Excel seems to be great for planning and scheduling projects. However, MS Excel software will not allow you to do other tasks of project management, such as delegation, supervision, control, reporting, sharing, etc.

Probably, it is not reasonable to look for how to make a schedule in Excel in the web search if you need not only to create schedules and spreadsheets but also to do the rest tasks of complete project management. Therefore, it is better to look for original project management software that allows driving your project throughout the whole project lifecycle, from initiation & planning to completion & maintenance.

Original project management software is a computer application that combines tools and options to initiate, plan, execute, control, monitor, and close projects. It also helps manage projects during the post-implementation & maintenance phase. Such software allows you to use built-in tools to manage your project. If for some reason, you need to use Excel sheets in your job plan, you can use project management software to associate xls files with tasks and assignments of your project.

An example of powerful project management software is VIP Task Manager. In this software you can use Attachments panel to associate xls sheets with tasks. Actually, the panel lets attach any types of files, including Word files, PDF files, HTML pages and PowerPoint files. The software lets you benefit from making your agenda more specific and documented.

VIP Task Manager features built-in tools that allow managing your projects during the entire project lifecycle. Task Tree and Calendar will help you plan projects by phases and design project timelines and schedules. In Task Tree, you can use templates and checklists to quickly create new projects and add tasks. In Calendar, you can switch between Daily view and Weekly view to display tasks on different schedules.