There will be that time when you have to report the progress of your project. Craft a picture of how everything is developing and moving throughout a certain period. Whether it is a month or a week, you need to have ready a template to capture all the information and present it to your superior.

We come up with solutions to ease such trouble, and we'll go through this guide on every step you have to take in making a project progress report template. Let’s check all the functions that it must comply, how it is done, and we’ll even provide some free examples to guide your way.

It is a timely update on the overall progress of a project. The document will answer questions before anyone asks them. It should be concisely written and offer high-level information regarding the project.

A business progress report helps project managers keep the investors and stakeholders in the loop on how everything is progressing. It puts you ahead of time with project management. These reports show you are on track, making you feel more confident with the stakeholders and your project team.

Otherwise, when the project deviates from the proper path, or there are delays, a progress report will inform others why such issues are happening. It will demonstrate your proactive approach, ensuring things will get back on track.

Usually, a progress report shares information about the amount of work lined up for the project, in the current queue, and already completed. It needs to have the right elements to help relay this data in your report. It will allow the report to serve a clear purpose and deliver the right impact. 

The elements that we talked about are the following:

• Introduction: This includes the report's description and the project's description. It is a brief summary, and it makes audiences understand the content.
• Scope of Work: You should list here the goals, direction, vision, mission, and limitations of the project. Also, you will find the project's challenges here. Any delay or any sort of issue should be stated in the report.
• Task to be Completed: All the tasks that need to be done, and the monthly or weekly goals you are about to achieve. You should update whenever team members complete tasks, or certain goals are achieved.
• Project Dates: An organized list of dates whenever you attend a project.
• Conclusion: At last, the progress report should contain an outline of all information discussed in the report. It should highlight solutions and compliments.

Sometimes, it could seem redundant to write progress reports over and over. But don’t let that thought deviate from the truth, as using a monthly or weekly progress report template correctly would be useful for a number of reasons:

• Each person receives a copy of the progress report, ensuring that everyone is on the same page and preventing confusion on what should be done and what was already finished.
• It prevents the risk of redundancy, as everyone knows what everyone is doing. It also helps teams to find areas where they can provide assistance, promoting collaboration.
• It promotes accountability and transparency. In case someone accuses you of failing to complete a task, you can present the progress report as proof of what you did. On the other hand, validators can request documents to explain how you accomplished such a project, and your proof will serve in the form of a sample progress report.
• The progress report can serve as documentation for future projects and use to evaluate what is correct, what is wrong, and how to improve. Previous reports could shed light on issues, systemic loopholes, and other causes of delays or failures that they must resolve or avoid.

Overall, one can interpret the progress report as an executive summary of the progress a team or a person has accomplished on a project over a certain period of time. You can describe the work you have covered, the unexpected problems your project has encountered, the resources used, the estimated time of completion, and any other detail related to the project.

One of the main purposes is to give an overview of the overall project's progress status. It allows for assessing your performance and requests some revisions if necessary. 

Writing a progress report might not be that easy, but it is an essential document that will give you a chance to communicate with everyone else on the project. These are some of the steps one should follow:

• Determine the purpose of your progress report. It will serve as a guide on how you will write it.
• Write a header containing your name, the name of the project, the submission date, your job title, and any other relevant information.
• Make an introduction or a brief description of the report.
• Follow it with the body that will contain the data of what tasks you have completed, the issues encountered, and all the actions you have taken to solve them.
• Add some details about the project status and its future. Describe the tasks you plan to do, and the time you need to complete those. You may include a forecast of potential problems you could face.
• Lastly, come up with a summary of the report containing the key points you have discussed.
• When the report is done, review it and modify any point needed. Proofread to ensure that there aren’t any errors.

Project progress reports should be handled carefully. Some may consider them a form of micro-management (when introduced in the wrong way), especially if your team doesn't usually report on specifics. 

You should use some of the next recommendations to improve your progress report template and avoid misunderstandings between you and any team member.

Measure Progress Using Data

Without the correct data, you won’t have a clear look into the weaknesses and strengths of the project. But when you do have it, you must interpret it correctly, as bad assumptions could lead the project into trouble.

Ensure that the data you are sharing is relevant. Also, focus on information that will help to communicate your accomplishments of project goals. And lastly, make information visually appealing (include charts, graphs, widgets, maps, etc.).

Highlight Problems and Generate Solutions

A project progress report will allow you to address issues from the start. You will be able to discuss them with your client, why they can cause setbacks, and how to prepare against them. 

Once a problem is identified, you need to generate solutions and help eliminate the problem from the root. Use problem-solving methods to point out definite ways to solve such issues and take advice from clients who encountered the same problems. 

Keep a Constant Communication With the Team

Opening lines of communication will leave at least two vital things: It acknowledges if the data holds truth and encourages to follow up on other vital details about the data. 

Use a clear tone and avoid vagueness in your report. Always use simple language which everyone can easily understand. Then, review analytics and see who viewed and completed the report. And lastly, get everyone on the same page, especially if you are working on large projects that involve multiple departments.

Designed as an employee status report, it is a simple way to track completed activities, ongoing tasks, and plans for the following days. Add or remove sections on this simple template to create a customized daily progress report for your business.

You can download it as an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document from Smartsheet.com.

With this template, work toward improving students' behavior or as an academic progress report to check attendance. Set daily goals for the student to achieve, and you can rate their performance at each item.

You can download it from Smartsheet.com as a Word document.

It is a very complete and simple template, where everything is already indicated, and you can fill in the blanks with the necessary information to fit your goals.

You can download the template from Project Manager as a Word file.

Following a similar path as the last template, this one is clearly divided into different sections to address each key component of progress reporting. 

You can download it for Microsoft Word from Templatearchive.com.

It starts with a summary of the day’s progress, including change recommendations and delays. This template itemizes materials and equipment, workers, subcontractors, and hours. 

You can download it as an Excel spreadsheet from Smartsheet.com.

This template gives you the necessary sections that you need to craft a presentable progress report, with a better presentation at first glance. You can replace the example logo with one of your organization, and you will be good to go.

You can download the template as a Word document from Templatearchive.com.

This template comes with pre-established example data to show what a completed report looks like. Set the tax rate and choose a quantity sold for each item. Then the template will calculate totals and subtotals, including the tax for each.

You can download the template as an Excel spreadsheet from Smartsheet.com.