Project status report template: what a weekly or monthly report should contain

What a status report is for

A status report exists to support decisions. Its reader is usually a sponsor, a steering group or a PMO who does not follow the daily work. They want three answers quickly: are we on track, what has changed, and do you need anything from me?

If a report cannot answer those in the first few lines, it is a diary, not a status report. Everything else in the template supports those three answers with evidence.

Project status report template

Copy this structure. Each row is a section of the report, in this order.

Section	What to write	Length
Header	Project name, report period, data date, author, overall status colour	1 line
Summary	Two or three sentences: where we are, the biggest change, the main ask	3 sentences
Status by area	Schedule, cost, scope, risk, each with a colour and one line of reason	4 lines
Milestones	Next five milestones: baseline date, forecast date, variance	Small table
Budget	Budget, actual cost to date, forecast at completion, variance; CPI and SPI if you track earned value	Small table
Done this period	Completed deliverables, not activities	3 to 5 bullets
Planned next period	What will be finished by the next report	3 to 5 bullets
Top risks and issues	Top three of each, with owner and response	Small table
Changes	Change requests raised, approved or rejected, with cost and date impact	Bullets
Decisions needed	What you need, from whom, by when	1 to 3 bullets

Weekly vs monthly status reports

The contents are the same; the depth changes.

• Weekly reports suit fast projects and the delivery team. Keep them to half a page: summary, milestones, risks, asks. Skip the full budget table unless cost moves weekly.
• Monthly reports suit sponsors, steering groups and portfolio reviews. Add the budget table, earned value indices if you track them, a trend (this month vs last month) and the change log.

Pick one data date per period (for example, the close of Friday) and stick to it, so numbers are comparable between reports.

How to write the report in 30 minutes

1. Update the plan first. Record actual progress, remaining durations and costs at the data date. The report then describes the plan instead of competing with it.
2. Fill in the numbers: milestone forecasts, budget position, indices.
3. Review risks and issues. Close what is resolved, re-score what changed, pick the top three of each.
4. Choose the colours by applying your agreed thresholds, not by feel.
5. Write the summary last. Once the facts are in front of you, the three sentences almost write themselves: status, biggest change, the ask.
6. Read it as the sponsor would. If they read only the first three lines, would they know what to do? If not, rewrite the summary before you send it.

Set RAG status rules in advance

Red, amber and green (RAG) colours are only useful if everyone uses the same rules. Agree thresholds at the start of the project, for example:

Area	Green	Amber	Red
Schedule	Key milestones forecast on or before baseline	A key milestone forecast up to 2 weeks late	A key milestone forecast more than 2 weeks late
Cost	CPI 0.95 or higher	CPI from 0.90 to 0.95	CPI below 0.90
Scope	No unapproved changes	Changes pending decision	Work done outside approved scope

These numbers are examples, not a standard. Choose thresholds that fit your project size and risk appetite, write them in the plan, and apply them without negotiation.

Worked example: the budget and progress lines

A software rollout has a budget at completion (BAC) of $400,000. At the monthly data date:

• Planned value (PV), the budgeted cost of work scheduled to date: $120,000
• Earned value (EV), the budgeted cost of work actually completed: $108,000
• Actual cost (AC): $115,000

Now the indices:

• CPI = EV / AC = 108,000 / 115,000 = 0.94. Each dollar spent delivers about 94 cents of planned work.
• SPI = EV / PV = 108,000 / 120,000 = 0.90. Work is being completed at 90% of the planned rate.
• EAC = BAC / CPI = 400,000 / 0.939 = about $425,900, if current cost efficiency continues.

With the rules above, cost is amber (CPI between 0.90 and 0.95). The summary line could read: "Amber. Testing started one week late and early integration work cost more than planned. Forecast cost is about $425,900 against $400,000. Decision needed: approve one extra tester for four weeks to recover the go-live date." You can check the arithmetic with the earned value calculator, and the earned value management guide explains each formula.

Mistakes that make status reports useless

• Watermelon status: green outside, red inside. If the milestones table shows slips, the overall colour cannot be green.
• Activity lists instead of outcomes. "Held five meetings" says nothing. "Design approved" does.
• No forecast. Reporting only what was spent hides where the project is heading. Always show a forecast finish date and cost.
• Hidden asks. If you need a decision, put it in the summary, not on page four.
• Changing the format every period. Readers learn where to look; a stable layout lets them compare reports in seconds.
• Typing numbers by hand. Copying dates and costs from several files into a document invites errors. Generate the report from the live plan where possible.

How to do this in Critova

Critova has a printable status report for each project, built from the live schedule, cost entries, risks and issues, so the numbers match the plan at the data date. Milestone variance comes from the baselines you save, and CPI, SPI and EAC are each shown with their formula. For sponsors who want several projects at once, the portfolio and executive dashboards summarise status across projects. See the portfolio dashboards.