Have a complex project? This spreadsheet is designed to help construction project managers organize tasks, people, and items. In this single workbook, a project manager can create a list of tasks and connect the necessary personnel, material, and equipment needed to complete each task — and make a schedule for it all to get done.
Related rows are used to keep track of the relationships between different components of the project such as tasks, people, materials, and equipment. All worksheets are thus interlinked via their related rows. The Tasks worksheet includes a Gantt view to help more easily visualize project progress and dependencies.
A construction project management plan is a single document that stores all of the information related to your project. It contains everything you need to know in order to properly manage and carry out a successful construction project. Because let's face it: Construction projects are complex. As children, we build things with blocks and think construction is easy. But you grow up and find yourself wrangling five different subcontractors, three expert consultants, a dozen rented machines, and sourcing ten different materials from seven different warehouses. Not so easy.
And especially not easy to keep track of it in your head, let alone convey all of that information to anyone else. That's the benefit of a construction project plan, where all of the detailed information on resources and requirements is gathered in one place. This allows project managers to list all relevant tasks, identify the necessary resources, and allocate them appropriately. And then figure out the most efficient way to schedule the whole thing to make sure the right people have the right resources to get each step done on time.
A construction project plan is your overview of all the moving parts of your project, ensuring that there is a plan in place to tell everyone what work needs to be done in what order — and what resources need to be available for that to happen. It's a document that you can refer to in order to make sure everyone knows what needs to happen next. And then use it to track what's happening now. In short, it's your guide to making sure your project proceeds as planned and is completed successfully.
3 out of 4 construction projects blow their deadlines by more than 10%. Which means that if you had a construction project plan that kept you mostly on deadline, you'd already be better than 75% of your competition.
A successful construction project requires organizing multiple workers and various resources to handle a wide variety of tasks and avoid making mistakes. This is why many people prefer an easier job where mistakes are expected, such as weatherman.
When sharing construction stories with friends who do not work in construction, it is important to choose your stories carefully. If you just talk about drilling holes in the ground, they may find it boring, but if you talk about how you fasten steel structures together, they will probably find it riveting.
This spreadsheet has been constructed to let you easily manage your complex construction projects, and contains five worksheets:
Tasks
The main worksheet lets you break down your job into stages, including pre-construction activities and post-construction project closeout. For each stage, give each task its own row with a Start Date, End Date, and Duration. Track the progress of each task by entering a Status tag and a % Completed. Each task is assigned an Owner, and may be tagged with a Predecessor if it relies on another task being done first, or a linked Subcontractor/Vendor if it will require one.
Use the left-hand view options to sort tasks by Status, by User, or to get a Project Plan view that shows a full timeline as well as arrows connecting tasks that depend on another task being complete.
Subcontractors & Rentals
Any Subcontractor, Vendor, or Consultant can be listed here, and any Task (or Task category) which refers to them on the Task sheet will be automatically linked via related rows. Each company should be tagged by Type, with optional Photo. Add a Point of Contact with Phone and Email for each company. For rental companies, equipment On Loan should be added with links to the Rental Equipment sheet. Use the left-hand view options to group or stack by Type.
Materials
A simple worksheet where you list each material (with an optional reference image), the Quantity you have on hand, and the Warehouse where it is stored. Warehouses are linked to the Warehouse sheet via Related Rows.
Rental Equipment & Machinery
Enter a separate row for each piece of equipment or machinery, even if they are of the same type. Track the Estimated and Actual Arrival Dates, Date Needed, and Date Returned. The Rentor selected will be linked to the Subcontractors & Rentals sheet via Related Rows.
Warehouses
List each Warehouse, and select the Materials it contains via Related Rows from the Materials sheet. Add Location, Size, and Capacity information for each warehouse, along with the Warehouse Manager and a Phone and Email to reach them.
They say when you fail to plan your construction, you construct a plan to fail. Or maybe they don't say that, but it's true anyway. Construction projects are very complex, and without a construction project management plan to keep everything organized, problems can easily arise: Running out of materials, equipment not being available when it needs to be, things not being done on schedule because the tasks they relied on were also not done on schedule, and meteor strikes.
A construction project plan can't do much about meteor strikes, but it can help you avoid the rest of those potential issues by serving as a reference sheet. By organizing all of your resource and staffing needs, as well as their scheduling, all in one place, you'll have a guiding document that will make sure everything is on track — and which you can show to stakeholders eager to see that the project is meeting progress benchmarks.
You, from having all the relevant information organized in one place.
Your team and all your subcontractors, who now have a construction project plan to refer to when they want to know the next steps.
Clients, who want to see that you have a plan and be assured that work is continuing on schedule.
