Project dashboard template — milestones, budget, load

Project delivery

Milestones, budget burn and who is overloaded.

Project tools track tasks well and money badly. Finance tracks money well and progress not at all. This template sits across both — the project tracker for milestones and hours, the ledger or invoicing system for budget and revenue — so a delivery lead can see burn against completion for every project on one page rather than in twelve status reports.

It is built for agencies, consultancies and engineering firms running client work, and works just as well for internal programmes, construction phases or grant-funded projects. Each project manager sees their own projects; partners and the operations director see the portfolio, ranked by risk.

Team load is the panel people did not know they needed: hours booked per person for the next four weeks against capacity, which turns “we are stretched” into a name and a number. Trackers like Airtable and Notion connect directly; timesheets usually arrive as a spreadsheet.

Delivery leads and PMO managers who run a Monday portfolio review across many projects.
Partners and agency owners who want margin per project before the final invoice, not after.
Project managers who want their own projects, budget and team load on one page without building it.

The metrics

What a project delivery dashboard should show.

Each figure below is on the template from the first minute — rename, redefine or remove any of them.

Projects by status

Count and value of projects on track, at risk and late, using one status rule applied to every project rather than each manager’s judgement.

Milestone hit rate

Milestones delivered on or before the planned date ÷ milestones due, rolling 90 days, by project and by team.

Budget burn vs completion

Percentage of budget spent against percentage of scope delivered. A project 70% spent and 40% done is the one to look at today.

Hours vs estimate

Hours logged ÷ hours estimated, by project and by phase. Catches scope creep while it is still billable.

Utilisation

Billable hours ÷ available hours per person and team, this month. Both under- and over-utilisation are shown.

Project margin

Revenue recognised minus cost of hours and expenses, ÷ revenue, per project. The number that tells you which clients are worth keeping.

Overdue tasks

Open tasks past their due date, by owner and project, with days overdue.

Change requests

Scope changes raised and approved per project, with value. Unbilled change is where margin goes missing.

The panels

The charts on the page, and the decision each one supports.

Portfolio status board

One row per project: status, owner, client, next milestone, budget burn, completion and margin. Sorted so the riskiest project is at the top of the Monday meeting.

Milestones this quarter

A timeline of milestones by project with today marked and slipped ones highlighted. Shows the collisions before two projects need the same people in the same week.

Budget vs actual by project

Paired bars of budget and spend with completion as a marker. Decides which projects need a conversation with the client now.

Team load, next 4 weeks

Hours booked per person against capacity, week by week, colour-coded. The panel that stops overloading the same three people.

Overdue tasks by owner

Open, overdue tasks per person and project, ranked. Turns a vague sense of slippage into a short list.

Project margin table

Revenue, cost, margin and hours variance per project and client, sortable. The basis for pricing the next proposal properly.

Where the numbers come from

Connect the systems you already run.

The template expects data like this. Connect it live or import it, relate the tables once, and every panel fills in.

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AiAirtableNoNotionGoGoogle SheetsMiMicrosoft ExcelPoPostgreSQLQuQuickBooksXeXeroREREST APIs

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Operations KPIs

Throughput, delays and capacity on one wall.

HR & people

Headcount, attrition, hiring and absence.

Finance snapshot

Cash, costs and margins, always current.

FAQ

Project delivery template questions.

Something else on your mind? Ask us directly — a person answers.

What should a project dashboard include?

Status by project using one rule, milestone hit rate, budget burn against completion, hours against estimate, team load for the coming weeks, overdue tasks and margin per project. Burn versus completion is the one figure most status reports leave out.

Can project managers see only their own projects?

Yes. A row-level rule on the project owner or client column gives each manager their own projects on the same dashboard, while partners see the whole portfolio. Client-facing versions can show one client only.

How often does the project data update?

Project trackers refresh on the schedule you choose — hourly is typical. Timesheets and budgets from a spreadsheet update whenever the sheet does; a live-connected database is current.

Can we start from this template and change it?

Yes. Add a client-facing page with milestones only, a phase breakdown or an invoicing schedule, and remove what you do not track. It becomes an ordinary dashboard as soon as you edit it.

Every project’s status, budget and who is overloaded next week.