Project Portfolio Template for Excel

A project portfolio template is a centralized tool used to organize, track and evaluate multiple projects within an organization. It typically includes details such as project names, statuses, budgets, timelines and priority levels, giving stakeholders a high-level overview of how initiatives align with strategic goals. This template helps decision-makers allocate resources effectively, monitor performance across projects and ensure that the entire portfolio remains balanced, aligned, and on target.

Project portfolio template from ProjectManager

ProjectManager’s free project portfolio template for Excel

Why Use a Project Portfolio Template?

Using a project portfolio template helps organizations manage multiple projects in one centralized view, ensuring better visibility, coordination and alignment with business objectives. It provides a structured format to track each project’s scope, status, budget and timeline, allowing stakeholders to quickly assess which initiatives are on track and which may need attention. By standardizing how information is recorded and presented, the template makes it easier to compare projects, prioritize efforts and allocate resources more strategically.

Beyond tracking performance, a portfolio template supports better decision-making by surfacing dependencies, risks and opportunities across the full range of projects. It allows leadership to identify redundant efforts, balance workloads and shift investments as priorities evolve. For teams, it offers clarity on how their projects fit into the bigger picture, helping to maintain focus and accountability at every level.

While templates are useful for static tracking, ProjectManager, award-winning project and portfolio management software, has a roadmap view that takes portfolio management further by offering a dynamic, real-time visualization of project timelines and milestones across all active initiatives. Unlike a spreadsheet, the roadmap automatically updates as project data changes, highlights dependencies and allows for easy drag-and-drop scheduling. This live, interactive view makes it easier to adjust plans quickly, coordinate teams across projects and ensure strategic alignment without duplicating work or relying on manual updates. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

ProjectManager's roadmap to help track project portfolios — ProjectManager’s roadmap is better than a project portfolio template. Learn more

When to Use This Project Portfolio Template

A project portfolio template should be used when managing multiple projects simultaneously and there’s a need to align them with broader organizational goals. It’s especially useful during strategic planning, resource allocation and performance review phases, where decision-makers must evaluate progress, prioritize initiatives and ensure optimal use of time and budget. Whether launching a new set of projects or reassessing an existing portfolio, this template provides the structure needed to maintain visibility, balance workloads, and drive results across the entire project landscape.

Who Should Use This Project Portfolio Template?

Project management offices (PMOs), program managers, executive leadership and portfolio managers responsible for overseeing multiple projects across a team, department or organization should use this project portfolio template. It’s also valuable for project managers and team leads who need visibility into how their projects contribute to broader strategic goals. By using this template, stakeholders at all levels can make more informed decisions, coordinate resources effectively and ensure alignment across initiatives.

How to Use This Project Portfolio Template for Excel

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use the project portfolio template in Excel.

Step 1: Review the Structure

Familiarize yourself with the columns in the template:

Project Details: Project Name, Sponsor, Manager, Stakeholders, Program
Status & Priority: Priority Level, Project Status, Current Phase, Percent Completion
Scheduling: Planned & Actual Start/Finish Dates
Budget: Approved Project Budget

This layout gives a comprehensive snapshot of all active, planned and completed projects in a single, at-a-glance view.

Step 2: Enter Project Information

Start by entering each new project as a row:

Project Name: Enter the title of the project
Project Sponsor/Manager: Assign leadership roles
Key Stakeholders: List key departments or individuals involved
Program: Identify the strategic program the project supports (e.g., Digital Transformation)

Project portfolio template, project name, sponsor, project manager and key stakeholders

Step 3: Prioritize and Categorize

Set the Priority Level (High, Medium, Low) based on business impact
Update the Project Status (Initiation, Planning, In Progress, Completed)
Add the Current Phase and Percent Completion to reflect progress

Project portfolio template project priority, project status and current project phase

This helps leadership assess which projects are critical and which are lagging.

Step 4: Track Budget and Timeline

Input the Approved Project Budget for financial oversight.
Record Planned Start/Finish Dates from the initial schedule.
Update the Actual Start/Finish Dates as the project progresses.

Project portfolio template approved project budget, planned start data, actual start date, planned finish date, actual finish date

This makes it easy to monitor variances between the plan and reality.

Step 5: Maintain and Monitor

Update the Percentage of Completion weekly or biweekly
Revise Status, Phase and Dates as projects advance or encounter delays
Add conditional formatting (optional) to highlight overdue projects or budget overruns

Project portfolio template current project phase and percentage of completion

Step 6: Share and Use for Reporting

Share the template with stakeholders during reviews or portfolio meetings
Filter by status, program, or priority to support decision-making
Use the data to populate dashboards, charts or summary reports

Using this free project portfolio template helps you stay organized, align projects with strategic goals and manage resources more effectively across your portfolio.

Related Project Portfolio Templates

The project portfolio template is one of over 100 free project management templates for Excel and Word that can be immediately downloaded from our site. These templates address every aspect of managing a project across multiple industries. Here are just a few that work with portfolio management.

Project Plan Template

Download this free project plan template that outlines how a single project will be executed, including its scope, timeline and resources. In portfolio management, it helps standardize planning across multiple projects, making it easier to compare progress, align goals and allocate resources effectively. By using consistent formats, leaders can quickly assess how each project fits into the broader strategy and spot potential risks or delays.

Project Execution Plan Template

Use this free project execution plan template to define how a project will be carried out, covering responsibilities, deliverables and processes. In portfolio management, it ensures that each project follows a structured approach that aligns with organizational standards and objectives. This consistency makes it easier to track performance, manage dependencies and evaluate project outcomes across the entire portfolio.

Project Dashboard Template

This free project dashboard template is a visual tool that displays key metrics such as progress, budget and timelines in a single view. In portfolio management, it helps decision-makers quickly assess the health of individual projects and the portfolio as a whole. By centralizing real-time data, it supports better prioritization, resource allocation and risk identification across multiple initiatives.

ProjectManager Is Ideal for Portfolio Management

ProjectManager is powerful project portfolio software because it offers dynamic tools that far surpass what static templates can deliver. With multiple real-time project views including Gantt charts, task lists, kanban boards and calendar views, teams can plan, execute and monitor projects in the way that best suits their workflow.

These views are fully integrated—updating one reflects across all, so teams stay in sync without the need for duplicate entries or disconnected files. For portfolio managers, this means being able to see high-level timelines alongside granular task data, which simplifies coordination across initiatives and ensures consistent visibility into every project’s status.

Allocate Resources Across Multiple Projects

Beyond visibility, our software offers robust resource management features that make it easy to allocate people and workloads across the entire portfolio. The team page allows you to view every team member’s availability in real time and assign tasks based on capacity rather than guesswork.

The color-coded workload chart visually highlights over- and under-allocations so managers can rebalance workloads on the fly. By centralizing availability and assignments across projects, ProjectManager ensures that no resource is stretched too thin or left underused, helping projects stay staffed appropriately and on schedule.

Track Portfolio Metrics in Real Time

For tracking and reporting, use real-time portfolio dashboards, customizable reports and secure online timesheets. The dashboard gives a live overview of key metrics across all projects—such as completion rates, budget usage and overdue tasks—so portfolio managers can spot risks early.

Reports can be tailored by project, team or metric to suit different stakeholder needs, and timesheets log actual hours worked to keep labor costs accurate and transparent. These tools give executives and project leaders the clarity they need to monitor progress, report on performance and make informed decisions without hunting through separate spreadsheets or disconnected updates

Project Portfolio Template