Project tracker: Tools, software, and templates for project tracking

At the start of any project, managers set clear intentions: to stay on top of budgets, timelines, task dependencies, and every critical detail along the way.

But even the most experienced leaders—like Gandalf pledging to lend “two eyes, as often as I can spare them”—can quickly find themselves stretched thin. With shifting priorities, parallel initiatives, and unexpected blockers, manual oversight simply isn’t scalable.

That’s where project tracking software proves essential. These tools provide real-time visibility across the project lifecycle, helping teams identify risks early, maintain alignment, and drive execution at scale. In this post, we’ll explore how project tracking works, why it’s critical to project success, and the templates and software solutions that can help you manage it all more effectively.

What is project tracking?

Project tracking is the process of monitoring a project’s progress against its plan. It involves tracking key details such as timelines, task status, overdue items, dependencies, milestones, and team ownership. As a core function of both project and portfolio management, effective tracking helps leaders maintain visibility, identify risks early, and keep work moving forward at pace.

Project tracking isn’t just about checking off tasks—it’s about transforming raw project data into real-time insights. By monitoring what’s happening across multiple projects, teams can adjust priorities quickly, resolve bottlenecks, and stay aligned on goals.

To do this efficiently, most teams rely on project tracker tools to centralize updates and automate reporting.

What is a project tracker?

A project tracker is a software tool that consolidates all project data—project roadmaps, tasks, timelines, owners, progress, and status—in one centralized workspace. It acts as a living source of truth, automatically updating as team members complete work, adjust deadlines, or add new tasks.

Modern project trackers offer visual tools like Gantt charts, Kanban boards, calendars, and custom dashboards that help teams and stakeholders quickly understand what’s on track, what’s at risk, and what’s coming next.

Beyond visualizations, a robust project tracker enables teams to:

In short, a project tracker is the system that powers project tracking—turning daily activity into actionable visibility for your entire team.

Why is project tracking important?

In fast-moving environments, execution speed is critical—but many teams struggle to deliver on time. According to The State of Project Management Report, only 34% of companies consistently complete projects on schedule.

Project tracking helps close that gap. By giving teams real-time visibility into timelines, tasks, budgets, and ownership, it enables proactive decision-making. You can catch delays, prevent scope creep, and identify resource constraints before they derail progress.

Beyond execution, project tracking improves alignment. It keeps stakeholders and executives informed, ensures accountability, and helps communicate progress clearly—so everyone knows what’s happening, what’s next, and what needs attention.

Ultimately, effective project tracking increases the likelihood of delivering on time, on budget, and in line with business goals.

How to track project progress effectively

Tracking project progress isn’t just about monitoring task checkboxes—it’s about setting up a system that gives you real-time visibility into what’s happening, what’s at risk, and what needs attention. Here’s a five-step process to help you track projects more effectively.

Step 1: Align on your project plan 

Before tracking can begin, you need a clear project plan. Meet with stakeholders to align on:

Use a project planning template to streamline this process. If you're tracking across multiple initiatives, start with a project portfolio management template.

Break down the work into smaller tasks and subtasks, assign owners, and estimate durations. Use Gantt charts to set start and end dates. Identify major milestones to mark progress along the way—for example, completing a campaign brief or finishing product QA.

Step 2: Choose the right project tracking tool

Next, select a project tracking platform that centralizes project data and gives you visibility into assignments, deadlines, resource usage, and budgets.

Look for tools that include:

AI-powered platforms like Airtable can automate project updates, create custom dashboards, and surface blockers—saving time and keeping your team aligned in real time.

Step 3: Create your communication plan

Even with the best tracking tools, your team still needs clarity around updates and responsibilities. A communication plan ensures everyone knows:

For example, if a marketer needs to assign design work, they can check a shared resource utilization dashboard to see who on the design team is available—no need to ask around or guess.

Step 4: Use visualizations to track progress from all angles

Configure multiple views in your project tracker to give you a full picture of progress:

These views update automatically as your team works—giving you live insight without manual input. For example, if a team member marks a task as complete or logs an expense, those updates are immediately reflected across your dashboards.

Step 5: Monitor progress regularly 

Schedule consistent check-ins to review progress and make adjustments. A daily 15-minute scan of your dashboards might be enough to catch issues early—no need to obsess over every data point in real time.

If something falls behind schedule or a budget line starts creeping up, take action immediately. The goal is to stay proactive, not reactive.

3 project tracking strategies 

Whether you're managing a product launch, marketing campaign, or cross-functional initiative, these project tracking strategies can help you stay organized, aligned, and ahead of schedule—no matter your management style.

1. Start with a template

Templates are the fastest way to get up and running with a project tracker. Built into project management tools like Airtable, these templates come pre-configured with fields for tasks, owners, due dates, deadlines, and more.

Rather than starting from scratch, you simply customize the fields to fit your specific project. It's a low-effort, high-impact way to standardize how your team captures and tracks work across different initiatives.

2. Leverage AI 

AI project management practices can take the manual work out of project tracking. Tools like Airtable AI can automatically generate status updates, flag delays, summarize project progress, or even draft content based on task activity.

Advanced AI features also help you surface insights—like predicting missed deadlines or identifying risk patterns—so you can stay ahead of blockers before they escalate.

3. Set up automated workflows

Workflow automation ensures that progress tracking happens in real time—without constant check-ins. Use your project tracking software to automate repetitive updates like status changes, deadline reminders, task assignments, or budget alerts.

For example, when a task is marked complete, an automation can trigger a notification to stakeholders or update a progress dashboard. This keeps your entire team informed and your project data always up to date—without extra overhead. 

6 free project tracking tools

Take a look at six different project tracking tools. The right choice can make the difference between staying ahead and falling behind.

1. Airtable

Best overall project tracking software

Airtable is an AI-native project tracking platform built on a relational database—allowing teams to link projects, tasks, resources, and stakeholders across a unified system. Changes made in one place automatically update everywhere, so everyone stays aligned with minimal manual effort. Meanwhile, dynamic views let you toggle seamlessly between Kanban boards, Gantt charts, calendars, and custom dashboards to monitor progress from every angle.

With Airtable AI, project tracking becomes faster, smarter, and more scalable. You can automatically generate project briefs, receive real-time status updates, and flag risks before they escalate. It also helps you summarize project milestones, allocate resources, monitor budgets, assign tasks, and deliver live updates to stakeholders. Airtable’s AI-powered app-building tools also make it easy for anyone to create a custom project tracker, no technical expertise required. 

For marketing teams, Airtable AI adds even more value by drafting content, generating visuals, and surfacing sentiment analysis from customer feedback. Everything you need to move from planning to execution—faster and with greater clarity—is built right in. 

Pre-built project management templates and no-code configuration make it fast to launch, while enterprise-grade flexibility ensures it scales with you.

2. Asana

Best for task-specific tracking 

Image credit: Asana

Asana is a project management solution primarily focused on task-level tracking and team coordination. Key features include timeline and task list views, customizable dashboards, status updates, and a portfolio overview that allows users to monitor progress across multiple projects.

Teams can break down work into individual tasks, assign owners and due dates, and track dependencies. Asana also includes automation features such as rule-based triggers and recurring tasks. While it's well-suited for task management and short-term planning, it may be less flexible for teams that require complex data structures or database-level relationships between projects and resources.

3. Trello 

Best for smaller teams 

Image credit: Trello

Trello is a Kanban-based task management tool. It uses a visual board system with lists and cards to represent tasks and workflows. Each card can include checklists, due dates, attachments, comments, and labels. Trello also offers basic automation through its Butler tool, which can trigger simple actions like moving cards or assigning tasks based on set rules.

Unlike platforms that offer relational databases or advanced reporting features, Trello is not built for complex data structures or large-scale project portfolios. It’s typically used by smaller teams or those with straightforward workflows who don’t require database-level tracking or detailed performance metrics.

4. Jira

Best for technical users 

Image credit: Jira

Jira is a project management solution designed for developers and engineers. Notable features include issue tracking, dashboards, and sprint planning tools. Development teams can leverage the platform’s Scrum and Kanban boards to plan projects and track progress.

The tool is highly configurable but may require more setup time and administrative oversight than simpler platforms. It’s generally best suited for teams already working within Agile or DevOps environments, as it integrates with tools like Bitbucket and Confluence.

5. Wrike

Best for teams looking for spreadsheet-like features

Image credit: Wrike

Wrike is a project tracking software with a spreadsheet feel to it, allowing you to manage tasks in a list view. With its shared Kanban boards, you can also track project progress and spot roadblocks. The tool also enables you to build custom dashboards, pie charts, and templates to make sense of project data.

While Wrike offers flexibility and visibility across multiple projects, its interface can feel complex for new users.

6. Microsoft Excel

Best for personal project tracking

Image credit: Microsoft

Microsoft Excel is good for tracking personal projects, but it lacks the visualization and analytics features you’d find in a modern project management solution, so it’s likely not going to satisfy the needs of most project managers.

Excel offers full control over how data is structured, but it doesn't support live collaboration or workflow automation out of the box. For teams or multi-stakeholder projects, this often results in version control issues and manual effort to keep data current. 

Free project tracking software at a glance

Key project tracker features 

These are the must-have features for effective project tracking. If a platform doesn’t check all the boxes, it’s worth reconsidering.

1. AI and workflow automation 

According to the Project Management Institute, there are currently 40 million project management professionals worldwide—but an additional 30 million will be needed by 2035 to meet rising global demand. While AI and automation aren’t a replacement for human expertise, they can significantly augment it—enabling smaller teams to scale their impact, streamline execution, and do more with fewer resources.

AI-powered project trackers can auto-assign tasks based on team capacity, generate real-time status reports, and trigger alerts as deadlines approach—helping teams stay ahead of potential delays. These AI-powered automations free up project managers to focus on strategic planning instead of routine admin work. Some platforms also offer AI-powered tools that allow you to build custom project management apps, without requiring technical expertise.

2. Integrations

Project trackers should integrate seamlessly with the rest of your tech stack. This includes project management tools, communication platforms like Slack, and file storage systems such as GitHub or Google Drive. Strong integrations reduce manual updates by enabling data to flow automatically across systems—so your team stays aligned and focused on execution, not duplicating work. 

3. Visual tools like Gantt charts and Kanban boards

Just as an engineer examines a 3D model from every angle to spot design flaws, project managers need multiple views to fully understand project health. A good project tracker should offer a range of visual tools that provide different perspectives on your work.

Gantt charts offer a timeline-based view, making it easy to spot scheduling conflicts, overlapping tasks, and critical path dependencies. Kanban boards, on the other hand, show task flow and status—helping you quickly identify bottlenecks or stalled work. Each view highlights different types of risks, giving you a more complete picture of where your project stands.

4. Dashboards and reporting 

Effective project trackers should include customizable dashboards and flexible reports that surface real-time metrics—such as task completion rates, timeline adherence, and resource utilization. This allows PMs to present insights to executive stakeholders in clear, visual formats like charts, graphs, and KPI indicators, making it easy to monitor progress at a glance. Instead of digging through spreadsheets, you get instant visibility into project health—enabling faster, data-driven decisions without the need for manual analysis.

5. Collaboration and sharing features

Modern project trackers offer collaboration features like @mentions, file sharing, permission controls, and real-time editing. These tools help ensure that stakeholders—whether they’re team members, clients, or executives—can stay aligned and contribute without communication delays or version control issues.

Behind the scenes, the best trackers use a relational database structure. This means updates made in one view (like a task list) are automatically reflected across all related views—such as dashboards, calendars, or reports. Everyone works from the same source of truth, reducing duplication and ensuring consistency across the entire project.

How to choose the best project tracker

When evaluating project tracking software, it’s important to consider a few key factors that will impact long-term success.

Look for customizable tools

Every team operates differently—whether in terminology, workflows, or reporting needs. Rigid, one-size-fits-all templates often fall short. Look for project tracking tools that let you customize fields, create tailored views and dashboards, and build automations that reflect how your team actually works.

Prioritize ease of use 

Even the most powerful tool is ineffective if your team doesn’t use it. A steep learning curve or clunky interface can lead to incomplete data and unreliable project visibility. Choose a platform with an intuitive interface, clear navigation, and ready-to-use templates that make it easy to get started and sustain adoption over time.

Find a tool that scales with your business 

As your team grows and projects become more complex, your tracking needs will evolve. Select a platform that can scale with you—supporting more users, data, and workflows over time. The ideal solution will offer flexibility, automation, and enterprise-grade security without requiring a major system overhaul as your needs expand.

Project tracker examples (with templates)

Airtable offers a library of free, ready-to-use templates that make it easy to set up your own project tracking system. Each template is fully customizable—giving you a structured starting point that you can adapt to match your team’s workflow, priorities, and terminology.

Below are several examples tailored to different use cases, from HR initiatives to software bug tracking. Use them as-is or modify them to create a tracker that works the way your team does.

1. Project tracker for all projects

Airtable's project tracker template  helps turn scattered project data into organized, actionable insights. You can use it to manage tasks, stakeholders, assets, and budgets—all in one connected workspace.

Built on a relational database, the template lets you link tasks to goals, filter views by stakeholder, and track progress through Gantt charts, Kanban boards, calendars, and dashboards. You can also create and share custom views to give each team member exactly the context they need.

Whether you’re managing a small initiative or a complex cross-functional project, this flexible template adapts to your workflow—making it easier to stay on track and aligned.

2. Marketing content promotion tracker

The marketing content promotion tracker template is designed for marketing project management teams looking to streamline campaign management. It helps centralize campaign details—like launch dates, assets, and collaborators—into one organized system.

Simply input your campaign information into the main table, and use the built-in views—such as the campaign launch calendar or asset tracker—to monitor progress and deadlines. The template is fully customizable, so you can tailor it to match your team’s workflow and priorities.

3. Events tracker

The events tracker template helps event planners bring structure to the complexity of virtual event planning. It includes built-in forms to collect and manage event sign-ups in one place, making it easy to track attendees and key details.

With customizable Gantt and calendar views, you can visualize your event timeline, monitor task completion, and ensure everything stays on schedule. The template is flexible enough to adapt to events of any size—so you can plan with confidence and stay focused on execution.

4. Bug tracker

The bug tracker template helps development teams log, prioritize, and resolve issues efficiently. You can categorize bugs by priority level—ensuring critical problems are addressed first, while lower-impact issues are tracked for later resolution.

The template also supports automated reports on a daily, weekly, or monthly cadence, so you can stay on top of blocked or untriaged bugs without manual updates. Built-in filters allow you to segment by system or feature, making it easier to communicate known issues to stakeholders or customers. Fully customizable, this template adapts to your team’s bug tracking workflow.

5. HR team project tracker

The HR team project tracker template is designed for HR professionals managing multiple initiatives across a shared client group. It helps track ongoing employee programs, ad-hoc requests, and in-progress projects in one centralized workspace.

Use the template to collect and organize project details, apply filters to sort by status or priority, and view your work in the format that suits you best—whether it’s a task list, calendar, or dashboard. Customizable and easy to update, this template helps HR teams stay organized and responsive across a wide range of responsibilities.

Track your projects more effectively with Airtable

Whether you’re managing a single project or an entire portfolio, having the right project tracking system in place is critical to staying on time, on budget, and aligned across teams. Airtable’s project tracking software gives you the flexibility to build a system that fits your unique workflows—while offering the power of a relational database, built-in AI, and real-time collaboration.

With customizable templates, multiple visual views, and automation that saves time and reduces manual work, Airtable helps turn scattered project details into organized, actionable insights. Whether you're launching a product, running a marketing campaign, or coordinating internal initiatives, you can track every moving part from one centralized, AI-powered workspace.

Ready to streamline your tracking process? Try the Airtable project tracking template and start managing your projects more effectively.