# Turn my project plan into an Excel task tracker with owners and dependencies

Breaks a project or plan into a task tracker with owners, dates, dependencies, and status columns you can paste into Excel.

- Topic: Projects & Operations
- Framework: RTF
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Data & Analytics, Analyze, Plan, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/turn-my-project-plan-into-an-excel-task-tracker-with-owners-and

## Prompt

```text
Turn my project into a task tracker I can paste into Excel, Smartsheet, or a planning tool.

**Project plan or description:** [PASTE THE PLAN, scope, or requirements]
**Team and roles:** [NAMES or roles available - e.g. "2 analysts, 1 designer, IT lead"]
**Key dates:** [START DATE, deadlines, fixed milestones]
**Working constraints:** [holidays, part-time people, approval lead times]

Steps:
1. Break the work into tasks small enough to finish in 1-10 working days. Group them under phases or workstreams.
2. For each task, name the deliverable, so "done" is clear.
3. Link each task to the tasks it depends on (finish-to-start unless I say otherwise).
4. Assign one owner per task. If a role is missing from my team list, write [UNASSIGNED - needs owner] rather than guessing a name.
5. Set start and due dates working back from the fixed milestones. Flag any task whose dates don't fit.

Return:
1. A table with columns: ID | Phase | Task | Deliverable | Owner | Depends on (IDs) | Start | Due | Effort (days) | Status | Notes. Status starts as "Not started".
2. A short list of tasks with no clear owner, missing information, or unrealistic dates.
3. Suggested Excel setup: conditional formatting for overdue tasks, a filter view per owner, and a formula that flags tasks whose predecessors are not done.

Use only the facts I gave. Mark durations you estimated with [EST] so I can check them with the owners.
```

## What to fill in

- PASTE THE PLAN, scope, or requirements
- START DATE, deadlines, fixed milestones
- holidays, part-time people, approval lead times
- UNASSIGNED - needs owner
- EST

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.