You want to save money: Good software is expensive, costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month.

With Excel, you just punch in your task list, materials orders, man-hours, or whatever else you want to track right in the spreadsheet.

You just want something easy: Even the easiest-to-use project management software platforms have a learning curve.

You’re a one-man band: If you’re, say, a small contractor firm consisting of just yourself or a couple of others, you don’t need a platform that's loaded with features and geared toward large enterprise firms.

Here are a few reasons to eschew those solutions for Excel: Just because you can purchase fancy project management software platforms out there doesn’t mean you should open up your wallet. It's a tough question - on one hand, you risk being stuck in the middle of a project with a tool that lacks the advanced features needed to properly execute daily tasks, while on the other hand, you may spend thousands of dollars on software that's more powerful than you need it to be. Should you stick with Excel, or spring for project management software? When should you use Excel for project management?

Excel isn’t marketed as a project planner, but when it comes to project tracking, the platform is more powerful than most people realize.īut will an Excel project tracker be powerful enough for you, or do you need a platform designed specifically for project management? Here's what you need to know about Excel project management before you make that decision.

It's enough to make one contemplate just using some Excel templates to do the work - and that’s actually not a bad idea. These software platforms are expensive, costing potentially thousands of dollars each year. If you've ever shopped for project management software, you've probably experienced sticker shock once or twice.

How to use microsoft excel effectively