Issue tracking spreadsheet template excel is one of the most common tracking spreadsheets used by the project managers and business experts.
It comes in action after the identification of an issue during process tracking activity.
The majority of us manage multiple projects daily. Additionally, they are always vulnerable to mistakes and issues, both little and large. There are, nonetheless, a variety of effective techniques and trackers to reduce the number of issues and problems in projects.
For your convenience, we have included Issue Tracker Excel templates. In essence, this application allows you to keep track of issues and designate a person in charge of the procedure.
In this article, a basic introduction to issue tracking template, its importance, types, and examples will be discussed.
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What is an Issue Tracking Spreadsheet Excel?
A business or project came across a lot of issues. Although, the key focus of the planning phase is to put all efforts in action to minimize the realization of any potential risk.
Therefore, risk managers devise a lot of mitigation strategies to nullify the probability of issue occurrence.
However, many times the potential risks occur during the execution phase due to several reasons.
So, an issue is anything that can harm the project’s progress or performance. Further, the risk is classified as an issue when it becomes a reality during the project implementation phase.


At that moment, the project managers review back the risk management strategy of the project. Also, if the risk of the particular issue was there during the planning stage.
Further, the risk manager had applied which strategy to mitigate the likelihood of occurrence during risk management.
So, the project managers perform several analyses to identify the cause of triggering the issue. Finally, the contingency plan comes in action to provide the solution to an underlying issue.
Thus, the proper monitoring and tracking of the issue are important to ensure timely mitigation.
Purpose of an Issue Tracker Templates
Project success is the timely completion of project activities. However, several issues not only delay the timely completion. But also impact the quality and performance of project activities.
Thus, it is the most important responsibility of the project managers to monitor and track the issue tracking spreadsheet. So, the issues stay on the list to monitor and resolve at priority.
Further, many project managers commit a common mistake of ignoring minor issues. Also, these issues keep on staying in the pending list and finally drop out of the consideration.



So, such issues work as a root cause of major issues that hamper the project progress and ultimately result in failure.
Thus, it is very important to effectively use the project management issue tracking spreadsheet template for excel.
Further, the excel issue tracking spreadsheet categorizes the issues based on their potential score.
The project managers describe the potential score of an issue based on its expected impact on the project schedule, quality, and performance.
Further, a kind of issue tracking dashboard template is more useful. As it displays a summary of pending and high priority issues. Also, the person held responsible to resolve the issue.
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Why do You need to Track an Issue?
In project management, when you refer to an issue, you mean a problem, but a problem that is particularly connected to your project. This issue may already be present or about to arise, but it needs to be fixed immediately to avoid jeopardizing the project as a whole.
However, a project’s issue is distinct from its risk. The danger is anything that hasn’t happened yet but could sabotage the effort. Is there a problem now or soon? Although it’s a somewhat slight distinction, it deserves notice. Because of this, using our free Excel issue tracking template is an excellent way to collect and address concerns as they emerge throughout a project.
You can gather those issues once you download and make your issue-tracking template. Of course, you must first identify them; this is where the template comes in. You can begin to formulate a strategy only after you’ve recognized them. Next, utilize the project team to generate ideas. Collaboration is a fantastic tool for solving problems because it provides you with various viewpoints and expertise you might not otherwise have.
You need a location to keep track of these ideas because the way you approach the problem is as open-ended as the potential number of problems that could develop in a project. Your actions are all duly documented, thanks to the issue tracking template. You can also use a project tracking programme to keep track of risk, problems, costs, and more in one location.
The risk tracking template allows you to swiftly and methodically execute risk mitigation measures. The template is also excellent for managing numerous concerns at once. A project is likely to have multiple issues. Therefore, you’ll need a document to keep track of them all.
Types of Issue Tracker Templates
There are several types of issue tracking templates. The project managers prefer to use a customizable issue tracking template.
Further, it what information to include depends on the use of issue tracking spreadsheet.
A google spreadsheet for issue tracking template may just include summary details of the issues. Such as what are the open issues with the expected closing date.
However, a team that is looking after the risk management and issue resolution process needs to maintain a perfect and detailed issue tracking XLS.
So, the basic type of project management issue tracking template includes the following information:
- Issue ID
- Current Status
- Issue Description
- Risk Matrix
- Reporting Date
- Expected Closing Date
- Responsible Person
There is another risk matrix type issue tracking spreadsheet. It only includes information such as issue short description and issue priority based on severity and impact.



So, the responsible person first focuses on the risks with high priority. While the project manager also defines the action plan for medium and low priority issues.
This approach keeps all the minor and major issues at one place but set the priority to resolve. In this way, no low or medium priority issue turns to high priority issue due to ignorance and stay on display.
Further, project managers also use historical data of issues from the execution of different projects to resolve issues.
So, the use of historic data based issue tracking spreadsheet excel provides a lot of information to resolve the issue at the earliest.
Related Article: 45+ Free Project Management Spreadsheet Templates for Excel (2020)
Examples of an Excel Issue Tracking Template
The project managers use issue tracking spreadsheet in almost all types of projects.
However, the use of issue tracking template in construction projects is pretty straightforward. Let’s understand it by an example.
Construction Project Issue Tracking Template
There are a lot of resources to manage a construction project. Many of them are on-site materials and labor.
So, many issues are faced such as the shortage of material and human resources.
For example, a supplier of steel bars has pushed the delivery of the order. So, this issue will be marked on the issue tracking spreadsheet.
The status will be updated as open and a person will be assigned to look into the matter.
Further, the responsible person will analyze the severity of the issue. The difference in the actual requirement date and arrival date will be the main focus.
So, if the material is required after 10 days of issue reporting while the supplier isn’t committing.
First, the impact of delay on project activities will be analyzed to set the priority. In this way, all the issues are market and prioritize on construction site issue tracking excel XLS.
Further, the action plan can also be included like comments on how the issue was resolved, expected, and the actual closing date.
Related Article: Free Project Risk Management Plan Template Excel [XLS] | Risk Planner
Project Management Issue Tracker Excel Template.
Project managers who seek a comprehensive, all-in-one tracking system for issues will find this project management issue tracking template to be the ideal solution. The design provides a dashboard view to monitor the specifics and get a sense of the overall situation. For example, the project name, department, and project owner are listed on the dashboard, along with information on the issues’ state (not started, in progress, or closed), priority, and status tallies and percentages.
Put all the information about the problems—discovery, department, priority, initiator, status, date opened, date closed, and any other relevant information—in the template. Then, developers can assess and prioritize the issue after submitting the form and work rapidly to resolve it.
Product Issue Tracker Excel Template
This tracker template was created with product-related concerns in mind and allows you to include all important information connected to a product issue. The following information must be entered: the issue’s number, name, department, priority, initiator (the person who reported the issue), status, date of opening, date of closing, and description. Your developers will know they need to fix the problem if they use the information in this template.
Project Issue Tracker Template.
Use this straightforward, project-specific issue tracking log form to record a project’s course, significant risks, and key issues. Your developers will be able to quickly identify the risks and problems with the project and start to address them. The information to enter is as follows:
- Project Manager: Select the name of the project manager in charge.
- Project Sponsor: Enter the name of the senior manager sponsoring the project.
- Project Start Date: Enter the project’s start date.
- Project End Date: Enter the project’s end date.
- Project Description/Scope Statement: Enter a project description and information about the project’s parameters.
In the drop-down lists for the Project Path, Key Risks, and Key Issues columns, enter the following project-specific information:
- Title: Enter a title for the problem that adequately describes it, or choose a title from the Title drop-down menu.
- Owner: Enter the name of the project team member in charge of the issue, or choose that person from the Owner drop-down menu.
- Due: You can type the due date or choose it from the Due drop-down menu.
- Status: Using the Status drop-down list, enter the issue’s status (e.g., not started, in progress, complete, etc.).
Issue Tracking Log Template.
In this issue tracker template, you can input all the details pertinent to a project-related issue. Your engineers can start fixing the problem once you’ve entered all the necessary information. This straightforward form is exceptional in containing all the required fields you’ll require to monitor an issue. It allows you to include the following details so that engineers can triage the problem and address it as quickly as possible:
- #/ID: Enter a unique number for the issue (for future reference).
- Issue/Title: Enter a title to describe the issue.
- Type: Include any information about the issue’s type (such as a release backlog, beta, production, software version, etc.) so that anyone analyzing the situation can quickly identify the pertinent data and development can take the necessary steps to solve the issue.
- Priority: Select a priority (high, medium, low, etc.).
- Opened By: Choose the name of the person who discovered and reported the issue first.
- Opened On: Include an explanation of the issue and its date.
- Closed On: Include additional details to explain the issue.
- Closed By: Enter the name of the person who closed the issue once it was resolved.
- Notes: Please add any more comments on this matter.
IT Issue Tracking Template
You are the foundation of any project endeavour as a member of the IT team. Without IT staff to keep things operating smoothly is not possible, you can miss deadlines, fail to ship products, and jeopardize the reputation of your entire organization. Therefore, it’s crucial to have the appropriate issue-reporting tool on hand. There is no way to guarantee that you’ll accurately prioritize and address those issues promptly without a central way to track issues that move through IT.
Any IT team member can easily log in and quickly resolve an issue using this template, accessible in Excel, Word, PDF, Google Docs, and Google Sheets.
To assign the issue to a team member and begin tracking its progress until resolution, choose or enter the following issue details:
- Seq: For the problem, enter a unique number (for future reference).
- Issue Name: Enter a title for the problem that is precise and concise.
- Originator: Type the name of the individual who filed the complaint.
- Submit Date: Indicate the day the problem was reported.
- Area: Include environment information (such as browser, operating system, URL) that enables IT personnel to review the issue to identify the causes and resolve the problem quickly.
- Module Name: Put the module’s name where the problem was found in this field.
- Description: Type a clear explanation of the issue here. (For example: QA scanner is not working, they can’t do their required testing).
- Priority: Enter a priority (For Example: critical, high, medium, low, etc.) for the issue.
- Status: Select the status (For Example: new, in progress, open, closed, etc.) of the issue.
Business Impact: Give specifics about how the problem affects your company (e.g., “Until QA has their scanner corrected, they can’t give the green light to launch”).
Expected Resolution Date:Enter the day you anticipate resolving the problem, not the risk deliverables deadline.
Assigned To:Enter the name of the worker whose job is to see that the problem is resolved.
Suggested Solution: Enter advice that could assist in fixing the problem, such as “Contact the manufacturer of QA’s scanner; they should have a nearby technician who can fix it ASAP.”
Progress: Describe the steps you’ve taken to solve the problem (for example, “Contacted the maker of the scanner; repair personnel should arrive on the morning of 4/23”).
How to create an Issue Tracking Template
A basic issue tracking template can be created using MS Excel or Google Sheets. However, it is important to identify the type of issue tracking sheet required to fulfill the requirement.
Thus, the following simple steps are useful to create an issue tracking spreadsheet:
- Identify the type of Issue Tracking Spreadsheet
- Identify all the Completed, In-progress, and Pending Issues.
- Enlist the description of issues.
- Analyze the issue to identify the priority based on severity and impact.
- Assign resources to resolve the issue at earliest.
- Discuss major issues in team meetings
- Take Action to Resolve the issue and write down the expected closing date.
- Once resolve, update the status to closed and add a final comment on how the issue is resolved and what steps are taken to avoid reoccurrence.
4+ Free Issue Tracking Spreadsheet Template Excel
The following issue tracker templates are available to free download. Click on the download to free download best free project management issue tracking spreadsheet templates XLS.










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