Automated project highlight report & timeline view – free templates!

Overview

Are you managing projects in Excel then spending hours converting that information to present or send to stakeholders? Not only is it time-consuming and repetitive; more often than not, the data you end up with will be up out of date anyway.

So how do you break the cycle of copying and pasting?

This project report template bundle will allow you to automate the report and give stakeholders the information they need in a fraction of the time. With these files, you’ll be able to send them a link and they can access the report whenever they want.

This is the kind of automated reporting that’s included with Sharktower (though our built-in reporting is even better, of course!). But until your company gets a Sharktower license, this is the next best thing.

What’s included?

There are two files as part of this bundle:

• Excel Spreadsheet – this follows the typical ‘Project on a Spreadsheet’ view
• PowerBI Template – pre-built visualisations showing key information and a sleek roadmap view including drill-down.

Below we have outlined the steps to take to hook the data up with your PowerBI dashboard. The video also includes some tips about embedding to SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.

What you’ll need

• A PowerBI Pro License (Pro license is only needed to share to SharePoint or PowerBI online) – https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/ 
• PowerBI Desktop – https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/
• Microsoft Excel

Step-by-step guide

If you get stuck at any point in the process, drop us a message through live chat and we’ll jump in to help (just hit the live chat box on the right of this page).

1. Download the two files and save them to your computer or OneDrive

2. Open the spreadsheet and populate with your project data.

3. Open the PowerBI Template file with PowerBI Desktop and you will be prompt to enter a data source, this is the spreadsheet you’ve just downloaded.

4. Enter the location, if you need to copy the path you can open Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder, select the file and click Copy Path.

5. Once you have done this the PowerBI Dashboard will refresh, and you’ll see your data.

6. When you want to refresh the data simply open your PowerBI file and click Refresh.

That’s it! Your project reports are finally automated!

How to embed your reports into Sharepoint and Microsoft Teams

Here, Sharktower’s Implementation Lead Neil Greenhorn talks you through how to embed and share your automated reports.

Get a demo of real-time reporting in Sharktower!

Want to see how much easier project reporting can be when it’s built into your project delivery software?

Request a demo today.

Happy reporting!