Have you ever worked on a project which has a plan? What is your experience like?
Let me tell you what my experience is like:
The project plan was changed dozens of times. Delivery dates, shipping dates, testing dates or any other important milestones were constantly revised, sometimes until the last week. Uncertainty seemed to be the biggest problem project managers spent their time on. My managers worked hard to avoid unpleasant surprises.
And this is where the ubiquitous gantt charts often fail.
- A gantt chart based project plan assumes that there is only one possible end date for each activity.
In real world, the end date for each project activity depends on various factors like productivity, progress of other tasks, extra work, employee mood etc.. Thus, the end dates are best expressed in a format like {best case, realistic case, worst case} instead of just one date.
So I am boldly proposing a new type of project plan, henceforth to be called as,
…wait for it…
Gantt Box Chart
Think of Gantt Box Chart as a holy matrimony between Gantt Chart with Box Plot. The Gantt Box Chart shows uncertainty in project activity end dates by clearly showing 3 end-dates instead of one in the familiar box plot format. The end dates (best case, realistic or plan and worst case) are encoded as a box while the start date is shown as a dot.
Here is how a Gantt Box Chart looks like:
Despite the ugly name, I think the chart is very useful because,
- It shows the uncertainty in plan, very clearly
- It is as easy to read since we follow the Box Plot protocol
- It lets manager focus on the most uncertain portions of project, quickly
- It is new, so the chances of it getting neglected by everyone in boardroom are less 😀
I have summarized few additional observations you can get from a Gantt Box Chart here:
How to make a Gantt Box Chart in Excel?
I will be showing a way to create the gantt box charts in excel on Monday (12th July). Meanwhile, feel free to discuss this new chart and share what you think.
What do you think about Gantt Box Chart?
Would you use Gantt Box Chart for your next project or is this a little too much? What do you think about my proposal? Please share using comments.
Related: Project Management using Excel – an extensive collection of resources, templates, tutorials and ideas for project managers using excel.
19 Responses to “Free Invoice Template using Excel – Download”
Nice post! Invoicing for the small biz or solo entrepreneur is something I see a lot of interest in. Also there are great templates from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates
This is awesome.
I would need a little more. e.g. say I generate a Inv. # 1 with all the details. Once done I can click a button all the relevant details gets stored in some table. Further, when i generate a new invoice those details gets stored in same table but just below the previous invoice.
Is their a way to do this?
I did create a solution you are looking for, however its wrapped in a larger 'Medical Scheduler' and it uses VBA, But you can Save, Update, Lookup, Email, Print & Apply Payments to the Invoice.
You are welcome to download it here:https://www.dropbox.com/s/2yvo0o2tgq9quhe/Medical_Massage_and_Salon_Application-Free.xlsm
The Invoice Items are created from the Appt. Types & Service Items table.
I would love all feedback from this
Thank you for sharing. I will definitely have a look at it.
Daily dose of Excel held a competition in 2005 for this same topic
It obtained 9 solutions which are shown:
http://dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2005/10/27/invoice-app-the-results/
[…] http://chandoo.org/wp/2014/03/19/free-invoice-template/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&a… […]
How can i removed Dollar Sign, As want to use this in india.
Please reply.
Also if possible then can i use Indian Rupee Sign and how?
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for sharing this invoice template, Let me tell you this template will definitely help me since I got a process to handle where this invoice piece comes. Just a small doubt, can we store all the invoice details in PRODUCT & SERVICES sheet. So that whenever I select an invoice number from invoice sheet I can take print out and I can share it as well. Can we do that?? Since I will be dealing with this on monthly basis.
It would be great if you can help me with this.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Regards,
Gaurang Mhatre
Hi Chandoo,
I was thinking learning excel is quite tuff task but your blog proved me wrong. You made it very interesting. Thank you. Also the template you have provided for Invoice is very helpful to us.
Thanks thanks thanks.. Very helpful. 🙂
Hi i love the speadsheet but would like to ask how do i get it to add the description into the invoice as well
Hi Randy, I tried to download one of your link "https://www.dropbox.com/s/2yvo0o2tgq9quhe/Medical_Massage_and_Salon_Application-Free.xlsm" However, i found the link unavailable. Can you please help me get the new link or can you please send this VBA file on my Email-ID.
Hello Anuj,
Thanks for alerting me to the broken link. This one should work:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gz89gshex1ad0ex/Medical_Massage_and_Salon_Application-Free.xlsm?dl=0
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Randy
Thank you so much Buddy. will check and revert you soon.
Hi, is there any chance that this can work with the "Products & Service" sheet outside of the Invoice sheet. I create multiple invoice files for the numerous clients. Updating the product sheet for each of them maybe a task. Hence, I want to create a MASTER FILE from which data can be picked up without having to insert new data in each of the invoice files.
Possible? Or am I asking for the moon 😉
Thank you so much for tutorial.
This example can be reviewed for the example of the advanced invoice that made with excel userform :https://youtu.be/Qr-4of-38DI
Good Day
i love this template may i ask if it could be modified to have the following
when you lookup a item code in the next column to the right it brings up the description then the quantity, unit cost, discount and then total otherwise i love the template
Item Code Description Quantity Unit Cost Discount Total
When creating an Invoice template in Excel are you able to utilize the auto row height and wrap feature when the cell is a merged cell? I need to have a number of cells merged together to allow for enough space to type in the description of work performed (lets say cells A-D are merged in each row) however it seems that I am unable to utilize the auto format feature. To work around this I have to manually increase the row height after each entry. Is there a better solution for this? Thank you!