Project Status Report Template

What is a project status report?

The term project status report is pretty self-explanatory; it's a document that serves as a status update or progress report for a given project. Project status reports are essential parts of project reporting and are used frequently in the project management world.

It's difficult to accurately convey the utility of a well-written project status report until you experience it yourself. It might seem like just another document, but done well, they save project managers and project teams tons of time. Say goodbye to all the emails enquiring about project status clogging up your inbox.

The ideal frequency of project status reports varies depending on the progress of your project among other variables, but they usually include the following elements:

• Project basics like project name, project manager, key team members, key stakeholders and current date.
• An indicator showing the status of your project.

Pro Tip: There are many ways to do this, but they all indicate whether a project is on-track, at risk or off-track. Think green, yellow & red or walking, running & standstill. 🚦

• A top level summary: This provides a concise overview of an overall project's current status. It often includes action items, next steps and other immediately relevant information.
• Roadblocks, risks & anticipated problems.
• Notes and/or comments about significant changes or general project updates.

There's also often a section on various project components, depending on your project plan's specific needs, such as:

• A rough schedule that outlines project milestones.
• Project budget & resources.
• Project team performance & self-evaluation.
• Comments on project timeline, deliverables and other key success metrics.

Pro Tip: A Gantt chart is sometimes used for this purpose.

What can a project status report template do for me?

As you can see, project status report templates provide an essential structure to send out informative, well-organized to all your project's key players. Doing so is incredibly beneficial because they:

• Keep everyone up-to-date regarding project progress: The first benefit is self-explanatory; project status reports keep people informed and often answer their questions before they have to ask them. They also make for excellent reference documents!
• Are easily editable & can be updated in real-time: This hasn't always been the case, but it certainly is now. If you use the right kind of template (like ours below), your project status report will be a dynamic document that's a breeze to update and edit.
• Increase status reporting efficiency: Once you have a project status report template set up, project management becomes that much easier and more efficient. You won't be wasting time writing emails to different teams members and stakeholders; your template will provide a solid base to work off of and refer back to.
• Facilitate proactivity: Sending out regular project status reports makes problems obvious more quickly and allows them to be addressed proactively.

Slite's free project status report template

Many project managers are aware of the utility of project status report templates, but simply don't have time to put them together on Microsoft or Excel. Never fear, Slite is here to streamline your project management process with our free template.

We're passionate about making it easy for teams to work together collaboratively. Do so by using our free project status report template for your next project. It's easy to customize, intuitive to use and looks great across different devices.

Ready to start customizing?

How can I get started?

In order to start putting together your project status report template, take the following key steps:

Determine Key Players

Project status reports are normally high-level documents that are sent out to the top key players working on a given project. The people who receive project status reports should have some level of authority in their respective departments. Identify them from the get-go as the eventual recipients of your project status reports will determine how they're written.

Decide How Often To Report

Some projects only require monthly or bi-yearly status reports, whereas others call for weekly updates. This largely depends on the length of the project, as well as its evolution and progress. It's important to determine the approximate frequency of project status reports at the beginning of your template development process, as it will surely affect your template style.

Keep It Concise

Last but not least, avoid making your project status report templates too long. Don't try and include every project detail. Only include space for the essentials, as well as any key information and updates.

...there you have it! You're ready to get going on the development of a killer project status report template for your next big undertaking.