Project Estimation Free Excel Template

The project cost estimation template is a perfect tool to evaluate IT projects of any complexity. This fully customizable template gives the ability to estimate project activities and prepare a rough timeline at short notice. The solution is helpful for project managers, technical leaders, and developers alike.

Download the free template in Excel format.
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What is the Project Estimation?

Project cost estimation is an integral part of both project and cost management. In a nutshell, it is a process of evaluating the budget necessary for a project's successful completion.

How to Estimate a Project Accurately: Top Tips

Now, you can see both the projected cost and the project's timeline.

Before starting the project, structure its scope and get a detailed estimation from your development team.

Determine the functional scope and number of hours required for the initial development phase. At this step, you can dedicate features to different phases.

Set required params for such activities as stabilization, project management, etc., on a separate tab. It would help if you calculated it as % of efforts for initial development from the previous step.

Determine hourly rates and the number of employees for each role.

Add one-time activities and their estimation to totals.

Set a start date for the project.

Top 5 Project Estimation Mistakes You Must Avoid

Software development is a complex process that includes variables such as different methodologies, programming languages, and practices. With all these factors to consider, project estimation gets challenging. So how do you estimate a project correctly? The first step is to avoid the most common mistakes:

When estimating, don’t jump to fast conclusions

Include potential variations in estimates

Use alternative pricing models

Consider possible future changes

Don’t build your development strategy around assumptions

The Estimation Worksheet That You Need

The template includes into the quote not only functional development but all support activities on the project: stabilization, management, quality assurance, design, etc. The scope may be prioritized and split into several phases, and the template will calculate them separately.

Once you have estimated a quote, it's easy to adapt it to future changes in efforts price, activities duration, and planned risks. This way, when doing project planning, you get the essential data at a glance whenever you need it.

The Estimation Worksheet That You Need

The template includes into the quote not only functional development but all support activities on the project: stabilization, management, quality assurance, design, etc. The scope may be prioritized and split into several phases, and the template will calculate them separately.

Once you have estimated a quote, it's easy to adapt it to future changes in efforts price, activities duration, and planned risks. This way, when doing project planning, you get the essential data at a glance whenever you need it.

Akveo Project Estimation Template Features

Free estimate forms empower managers with the following set of crucial features:

Work hours estimations per task and total time

The estimate worksheet template formula summarizes the team’s working hours and demonstrates the total time of the project stage.

Employees’ hourly rates and total labor cost

The Excel estimate template counts the overall costs of the whole project or the project’s particular stage.

Stabilization

The estimating template demonstrates various productive debt metrics (QA, PM, BA) in % according to your parameters.

Project-related comments

The feature allows leaving valuable project-related comments in a separate widget.

Future completion time & expenses predictions

The template collects the previous estimations and gives you approximate future time & resource consumption.

How Does the Estimating Template Work?

The free estimate template has multiple fill-in-the-blank fields for such project essentials as specialists’ hourly rates, time per task, commentaries, quality assurance, project management parameters, and business assessment parameters.

Once you’ve entered all the variables, the template automatically counts total time & cost estimates and presents them in the corresponding estimating spreadsheet. This happens due to the special formulas embedded in the excel estimating software. As for stabilization, you set your requirements, and the template does all the calculations by itself. Eventually, you have the percentages of the work done/to be done.

After a certain stage or reporting period, the template makes calculations for possible next-stage expenses.

How You Benefit from Using Project Estimation Template

Using estimating templates, you can:

Enhance Project Management

Keep your team on the right track to your destination point. Get rid of tedious number crunching and focus on other essential tasks.

Improve Sponsor Relationships

Project estimation template helps you to stay within budget & time frames, inspiring trust in stakeholders and investors.

Win Customers’ Hearts

With estimation templates, you can set the exact release date and create reasonable prices. Don’t think twice - customers love both.

Work within Budget

Control expenses checking them against the numbers in the estimate format in excel.

Make Your Vision Clearer

Improve your understanding of what you need to achieve at every stage of the development process.

Create Precise Plans

Previous totals and the way you kept up with them allow you to create more precise estimations in the future.

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