timeline template for business plan

How to Create a Business Plan Timeline

Below you will learn what a business plan timeline is and where it belongs in your business plan.  

What is a Business Plan Timeline?

A business plan timeline lays out the key milestones you hope to achieve in your business and when you plan to accomplish them.   

The Importance of a Timeline

In running a business, it is very easy to get caught up in day-to-day activities and putting out fires. When you do this, unfortunately, it’s hard to grow your business. Having a timeline that lists your key goals forces you to spend time each day, week, and month to work on key growth initiatives.

Also, if you are seeking funding, investors and lenders need to understand these milestones and your projected dates for accomplishing them. This helps give them confidence that you will successfully execute your plan. 

Also, having a timeline helps you better prioritize your time and hire the right people at the right time.

    Finish Your Business Plan Today!

Where does the timeline go in the business plan.

The timeline belongs primarily in the Operations Plan of your business plan, however, you may include some highlights within the Executive Summary as well. 

Using the established key milestones you have created, you will now assign a timeframe to those milestones to show when you expect to reach each milestone. Remember, use historical data and be realistic in your timeline so that you can meet these goals.  

What Should Be Included in the Timeline?

Your business is currently at point A. Where you want to go is to point B. Now getting from point A to point B requires you to complete milestones.

And the most important ones are what I call “risk-mitigating milestones.” These are the milestones that help eliminate the risk of your company failing.

Some examples of “risk mitigating milestones” may include:

• Finding a location for your business, store, warehouse, etc.
• Getting the permits and licenses
• Building the facility/store
• Hiring and training staff
• New products and services introductions
• Store opening date
• Key employee hires
• Revenue milestones (date when sales exceed $X, when sales exceed $Y, etc.)
• Key partnerships executed
• Key customer contracts secured
• Key financial events (future funding rounds, IPO, etc.)

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, it is your job to identify your risk-mitigating milestones and prioritize them so that you can take steps each day toward the larger business goals.  

How to Create & Prioritize Your Milestone List

Create your detailed risk-mitigating milestone list first. The goal should be to list approximately six major milestones in the next year, five milestones in the following year, and so on for up to five years (so include two in year 5). 

You can use this as a “To Do” list and ensure you achieve your goals each day, week, and month, further developing your business strategy.

Next to each milestone, include the expected timeframe, due date, and the budget you will need to attain them. For example, you may want to launch a billboard marketing campaign over a 6-month period (Expected Due Date: 6/30/2022), and the expected cost is $18,000.

After you create your milestone list, you need to prioritize them. Decide on which milestones you should achieve with the initial funding if needed. Ideally, these will get you to the point where you are generating revenues or profits. This is because the ability to generate revenues significantly reduces the risk of your venture; as it proves to lenders and investors that customers want the products and/or services you are offering.

By setting up your milestones, you will figure out what you can accomplish for less money. And the fact is, the less money you need to raise, the easier it generally is to raise it (mainly because the easiest to raise money sources offer lower dollar amounts).  

How to Develop a Timeline For Your Business Plan

You’ve already completed the hard part. 

Now, it’s time to schedule your milestone list and convert it into a timeline format to give you a quick visual reference. Be sure that your timeline includes all the milestones that you’ve deemed a priority.

There are many businesses that prefer to develop Gantt charts, while others may prefer a calendar, Excel sheet, or another preferred format. Choose the format that works best for you.

There are several format options and platforms to choose from if you do a quick search for “ create a timeline online .” However, keep in mind that it’s not how pretty the timeline is, it’s about functionality and the ease of use to track the progress of all the tasks completed. 

Here are a couple of options:

Source: SlideTeam

This one-page timeline is a downloadable template that is clean and easy to read and follow. While it doesn’t have all the details on this one page, it has enough information to help business leaders understand if the team is on track.

Source: Office Timeline

This is a PowerPoint Presentation add-in that allows you to create a custom Gantt chart with your Microsoft Office account. While the chart above says a 5-year plan, note that they did not include the parts of the milestones beyond Year 1. This may be to reduce clutter and keep focused on the near-future goals. 

Source: GanttPro

This Gantt chart online platform offers another alternative allowing you to assign tasks to others on your team and monitor their progress all in one place. It also tracks the time to complete each task so that you can better schedule in the future for similar projects.

These are only a few of the platforms available online to create an amazing timeline for your business plan. In the beginning, it may be a lot of work to set up, but once you obtain the funding you are seeking, it’ll be well worth the time and effort.

By creating a timeline as early as possible in the business planning process, you can begin to establish realistic goals that can help improve day-to-day decision-making and boost confidence among current and potential stakeholders.

Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

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10 Free Business Plan Templates in Word, Excel, & ClickUp

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

February 13, 2024

Turning your vision into a clear and coherent business plan can be confusing and tough. 

Hours of brainstorming and facing an intimidating blank page can raise more questions than answers. Are you covering everything? What should go where? How do you keep each section thorough but brief?

If these questions have kept you up at night and slowed your progress, know you’re not alone. That’s why we’ve put together the top 10 business plan templates in Word, Excel, and ClickUp—to provide answers, clarity, and a structured framework to work with. This way, you’re sure to capture all the relevant information without wasting time. 

And the best part? Business planning becomes a little less “ugh!” and a lot more “aha!” 🤩

What is a Business Plan Template?

What makes a good business plan template, 1. clickup business plan template, 2. clickup sales plan template, 3. clickup business development action plan template, 4. clickup business roadmap template, 5. clickup business continuity plan template, 6. clickup lean business plan template, 7. clickup small business action plan template, 8. clickup strategic business roadmap template , 9. microsoft word business plan template by microsoft, 10. excel business plan template by vertex42.

A business plan template is a structured framework for entrepreneurs and business executives who want to create business plans. It comes with pre-arranged sections and headings that cover key elements like the executive summary , business overview, target customers, unique value proposition, marketing plans, and financial statements.  

A good business plan template helps with thorough planning, clear documentation, and practical implementation. Here’s what to look for:

• Comprehensive structure: A good template comes with all the relevant sections to outline a business strategy, such as executive summary, market research and analysis, and financial projections 
• Clarity and guidance: A good template is easy to follow. It has brief instructions or prompts for each section, guiding you to think deeply about your business and ensuring you don’t skip important details
• Clean design: Aesthetics matter. Choose a template that’s not just functional but also professionally designed. This ensures your plan is presentable to stakeholders, partners, and potential investors
• Flexibility : Your template should easily accommodate changes without hassle, like adding or removing sections, changing content and style, and rearranging parts 🛠️ 

While a template provides the structure, it’s the information you feed it that brings it to life. These pointers will help you pick a template that aligns with your business needs and clearly showcases your vision.

10 Business Plan Templates to Use in 2024

Preparing for business success in 2024 (and beyond) requires a comprehensive and organized business plan. We’ve handpicked the best templates to help you guide your team, attract investors, and secure funding. Let’s check them out.

If you’re looking to replace a traditional business plan document, then ClickUp’s Business Plan Template is for you!

This one-page business plan template, designed in ClickUp Docs , is neatly broken down into the following sections:

• Company description : Overview, mission, vision, and team
• Market analysis : Problem, solution, target market, competition, and competitive advantage
• Sales and marketing strategy : Products/services and marketing channels
• Operational plan : Location and facilities, equipment and tools, manpower, and financial forecasts
• Milestones and metrics: Targets and KPIs

Customize the template with your company logo and contact details, and easily navigate to different sections using the collapsible table of contents. The mini prompts under each section guide you on what to include—with suggestions on how to present the data (e.g., bullet lists, pictures, charts, and tables). 

You can share the document with anyone via URL and collaborate in real time. And when the business plan is ready, you have the option to print it or export it to PDF, HTML, or Markdown.

But that’s not all. This template is equipped with basic and enterprise project management features to streamline the business plan creation process . The Topics List view has a list of all the different sections and subsections of the template and allows you to assign it to a team member, set a due date, and attach relevant documents and references.

Switch from List to Board view to track and update task statuses according to the following: To Do, In Progress, Needs Revision, and Complete. 

This template is a comprehensive toolkit for documenting the different sections of your business plan and streamlining the creation process to ensure it’s completed on time. 🗓️

If you’re looking for a tool to kickstart or update your sales plan, ClickUp’s Sales Plan Template has got you covered. This sales plan template features a project summary list with tasks to help you craft a comprehensive and effective sales strategy. Some of these tasks include:

• Determine sales objectives and goals
• Draft positioning statement
• Perform competitive analysis
• Draft ideal customer persona
• Create a lead generation strategy

Assign each task to a specific individual or team, set priority levels , and add due dates. Specify what section of the sales plan each task belongs to (e.g., executive summary, revenue goals, team structure, etc.), deliverable type (such as document, task, or meeting), and approval state (like pending, needs revisions, and approved).

And in ClickUp style, you can switch to multiple views: List for a list of all tasks, Board for visual task management, Timeline for an overview of task durations, and Gantt to get a view of task dependencies. 

This simple business plan template is perfect for any type of business looking to create a winning sales strategy while clarifying team roles and keeping tasks organized. ✨

Thinking about scaling your business’s reach and operations but unsure where or how to start? It can be overwhelming, no doubt—you need a clear vision, measurable goals, and an actionable plan that every member of your team can rally behind. 

Thankfully, ClickUp’s Business Development Action Plan Template is designed to use automations to simplify this process so every step toward your business growth is clear, trackable, and actionable.

Start by assessing your current situation and deciding on your main growth goal. Are you aiming to increase revenue, tap into new markets, or introduce new products or services? With ClickUp Whiteboards or Docs, brainstorm and collaborate with your team on this decision.

Set and track your short- and long-term growth goals with ClickUp’s Goals , break them down into smaller targets, and assign these targets to team members, complete with due dates. Add these targets to a new ClickUp Dashboard to track real-time progress and celebrate small wins. 🎉

Whether you’re a startup or small business owner looking to hit your next major milestone or an established business exploring new avenues, this template keeps your team aligned, engaged, and informed every step of the way.

ClickUp’s Business Roadmap Template is your go-to for mapping out major strategies and initiatives in areas like revenue growth, brand awareness, community engagement, and customer satisfaction. 

Use the List view to populate tasks under each initiative. With Custom Fields, you can capture which business category (e.g., Product, Operations, Sales & Marketing, etc.) tasks fall under and which quarter they’re slated for. You can also link to relevant documents and resources and evaluate tasks by effort and impact to ensure the most critical tasks get the attention they deserve. 👀

Depending on your focus, this template provides different views to show just what you need. For example, the All Initiatives per Quarter view lets you focus on what’s ahead by seeing tasks that need completion within a specific quarter. This ensures timely execution and helps in aligning resources effectively for the short term.

This template is ideal for business executives and management teams who need to coordinate multiple short- and long-term initiatives and business strategies.

In business, unexpected threats to operations can arise at any moment. Whether it’s economic turbulence, a global health crisis, or supply chain interruptions, every company needs to be ready. ClickUp’s Business Continuity Plan Template lets you prepare proactively for these unforeseen challenges.

The template organizes tasks into three main categories:

• Priorities: Tasks that need immediate attention
• Continuity coverage: Tasks that must continue despite challenges
• Guiding principles: Resources and protocols to ensure smooth operations

The Board view makes it easy to visualize all the tasks under each of these categories. And the Priorities List sorts tasks by those that are overdue, the upcoming ones, and then the ones due later.

In times of uncertainty, being prepared is your best strategy. This template helps your business not just survive but thrive in challenging situations, keeping your customers, employees, and investors satisfied. 🤝

Looking to execute your business plan the “lean” way? Use ClickUp’s Lean Business Plan Template . It’s designed to help you optimize resource usage and cut unnecessary steps—giving you better results with less effort.

In the Plan Summary List view, list all the tasks that need to get done. Add specific details like who’s doing each task, when it’s due, and which part of the Business Model Canvas (BMC) it falls under. The By Priority view sorts this list based on priorities like Urgent, High, Normal, and Low. This makes it easy to spot the most important tasks and tackle them first.

Additionally, the Board view gives you an overview of task progression from start to finish. And the BMC view rearranges these tasks based on the various BMC components. 

Each task can further be broken down into subtasks and multiple checklists to ensure all related action items are executed. ✔️

This template is an invaluable resource for startups and large enterprises looking to maximize process efficiencies and results in a streamlined and cost-effective way.

The Small Business Action Plan Template by ClickUp is tailor-made for small businesses looking to transform their business ideas and goals into actionable steps and, eventually, into reality. 

It provides a simple and organized framework for creating, assigning, prioritizing, and tracking tasks. And in effect, it ensures that goals are not just set but achieved. Through the native dashboard and goal-setting features, you can monitor task progress and how they move you closer to achieving your goals.

Thanks to ClickUp’s robust communication features like chat, comments, and @mentions, it’s easy to get every team member on the same page and quickly address questions or concerns.

Use this action plan template to hit your business goals by streamlining your internal processes and aligning team efforts.

For larger businesses and scaling enterprises, getting different departments to work together toward a big goal can be challenging. The ClickUp Strategic Business Roadmap Template makes it easier by giving you a clear plan to follow.

This template is packaged in a folder and split into different lists for each department in your business, like Sales, Product, Marketing, and Enablement. This way, every team can focus on their tasks while collectively contributing to the bigger goal.

There are multiple viewing options available for team members. These include:

• Progress Board: Visualize tasks that are on track, those at risk, and those behind
• Gantt view: Get an overview of project timelines and dependencies
• Team view: See what each team member is working on so you can balance workloads for maximum productivity

While this template may feel overwhelming at first, the getting started guide offers a step-by-step breakdown to help you navigate it with ease. And like all ClickUp templates, you can easily customize it to suit your business needs and preferences.

Microsoft’s 20-page traditional business plan template simplifies the process of drafting comprehensive business plans. It’s made up of different sections, including:

• Executive summary : Highlights, objectives, mission statement, and keys to success
• Description of business: Company ownership and legal structure, hours of operation, products and services, suppliers, financial plans, etc.
• Marketing: Market analysis, market segmentation, competition, and pricing
• Appendix: Start-up expenses, cash flow statements, income statements, sales forecast, milestones, break-even analysis, etc.

The table of contents makes it easy to move to different sections of the document. And the text placeholders under each section provide clarity on the specific details required—making the process easier for users who may not be familiar with certain business terminology.

No business template roundup is complete without an Excel template. This business plan template lets you work on your business financials in Excel. It comes with customizable tables, formulas, and charts to help you look at the following areas:

• Highlight charts
• Market analysis
• Start-up assets and expenses
• Sales forecasts
• Profit and loss
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow projections
• Break-even analysis

This Excel template is especially useful when you want to create a clear and visual financial section for your business plan document—an essential element for attracting investors and lenders. However, there might be a steep learning curve to using this template if you’re not familiar with business financial planning and using Excel.

Try a Free Business Plan Template in ClickUp

Launching and running a successful business requires a well-thought-out and carefully crafted business plan. However, the business planning process doesn’t have to be complicated, boring, or take up too much time. Use any of the above 10 free business plan formats to simplify and speed up the process.

ClickUp templates go beyond offering a solid foundation to build your business plans. They come with extensive project management features to turn your vision into reality. And that’s not all— ClickUp’s template library offers over 1,000 additional templates to help manage various aspects of your business, from decision-making to product development to resource management .

Sign up for ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan today to fast-track your business’s growth! 🏆

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Top 5 Business Plan Timeline Template with Samples and Examples

Vaishali Rai

US statesman Benjamin Franklin has given the world this timeless piece of wisdom, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” 

Yet, many entrepreneurs leap into initiating their business plans without having a solid business timeline. 

Writing a business plan timeline can sound boring, complex, and a waste of time when you're a busy entrepreneur with so much on your plate. However, for many businesses, the timelining phase is a make-or-break step that could save you time, money, resources, and energy in the long run.

Let's talk about what a Business Plan timeline is.

A business plan timeline is a flexible roadmap to the business's accomplished and pending goals. Any startup or new business must use a business plan timeline to track its achievements, milestones, and failures. In simple terms, a business plan timeline is a guide that outlines and tracks the progress of your business to date. It features the effectiveness of business strategies to track productivity, such as digital marketing tasks, market research projects, and organizational operations activities.

You’ve created a strategic business plan — now what? You need some additional planning documents to help map out your long-term strategy by outlining your daily actions. Stay on track with our carefully structured Top 10 Business Operational Plan Templates with Samples and Examples!

Why do you need a business plan timeline template?

The thought of starting a business plan can be an exciting time. No matter how excited you are to start with your great idea, it pays to slow down and create a timeline that will help determine loopholes in your plan and identify structural weaknesses of your business at an early stage. A good timeline template presents a road map to structure, operate, and grow your business. Competitors are waiting to outshine, even ambush, you. Thus, a business plan timeline template helps identify your company's core strengths using a balanced combination of logic and strategy.

From business analysis to financial projections, our thoughtfully-designed business plan timeline templates will set benchmarks, proactively align your team around a shared objective, and help avoid getting off track.

The 100% customizable nature of the our business plan ppt templates provides you with the desired flexibility to edit your presentations. The content ready slides give you the much-needed structure.

Check these out now!

Template 1: 10-Day Timeline Information Technology Marketing Activities Business Planning

Initiating marketing activities with a clear plan leads to consistent achievements. Use this 100% customized 10-Day Timeline Information Technology Marketing Activities template to present your data in a clear, easy-to-understand format. The template includes 11 slides, including a 10-day timeline, information, technology, marketing, and activities.

Download Now!

Template 2: 3-year Planning Timeline Business Plan Achievement Innovation Development

Keep your audience glued to seats with this professionally designed 3-year planning timeline Template. The template revolves around a new product innovation timeline, including innovation, transformation, strengths, weaknesses, efficiency, and effectiveness of a product. This deck comprises ten slides with creative visuals and well-researched content with appropriate layouts, diagrams, graphs, icons, charts, etc.

Template 3: Three-month Business Planning Timeline

A business plan is a set of actions or processes that describe how an organization plans and runs. This three-month Business Planning Timeline helps you demonstrate business plans essential for an organization to grow and accomplish its goals. The template helps in discussing approaches, techniques, tips, strategies, tools, and processes available with your team to achieve a target.

Template 4: Monthly Business Plan Animation Timeline

Guide your team about theories and methods of the sales planning and selling with this impressive Monthly Business Plan Animation Timeline Template. Clearly share your organization's vision, mission, and milestones timeline with your team. Get an overview of the specific market segments which your organization is targeting. It also helps identify the areas for improvement, failures, and weaknesses.

Template 5: Business Plan Executive Summary Company Timeline

A company's executive summary is like the back cover of your book. Capture and hold interest with this well-crafted and engaging business plan executive summary company timeline template that can effectively display the organization's policy, description, financial information, project fund investment, and market analysis. The template helps decision-makers get the gist of the entire project with just a flip through the executive summary.

THE TEST OF TIME

Multiple business plans come and go, but a business timeline has always stood the test of time. A business timeline is more than a bunch of numbers, scribbles, and buzzwords. It is a visual walkthrough of your business's journey and a roadmap to achieve key milestones while remaining useful and valued among competitors. Creating certainty, clarity, and consistency are the three foundations of a winning business plan template.

Don't wait! Grab your favorite business plan timeline template from the above set, prioritize your time better, and hire the right people at the right time for the right role.

FAQs on Business Plan Timeline

What is a timeline in a business plan.

The timeline is primarily a part of the Operations Plan of your business. However, you can also incorporate some key highlights from the timeline in the executive summary. 

A business plan timeline refers to a timeframe assigned against the established key milestones to show the expected duration to reach each of them. Your business plan timeline depends on historical and real-time data for it to be as practical and realistic as possible. An ideal business plan timeline includes the following elements:

• Where do you want to reach?
• When do you want to reach?
• How do you want to reach?

How do you write a timeline for a business plan?

First, to create a timeline, schedule your milestone list and put it into a timeline format for a quick visual reference. Make sure milestones are sorted by priority. There are many ways to create a business plan timeline. Some of these are:

• Gantt charts
• Excel sheets

Choose the format that works best for you, depending upon the functionality and the ease of use to track progress of completed tasks. However, you can always use our well-designed and researched business timeline templates to curate yours.

What are the seven steps of a business plan?

A good business plan provides direction to the company, attracts investors, and converts visitors into buyers. 

Now, how do you write a business plan?

• Research : To write the perfect plan, you must intimately know your company, product, competition, and market.
• Determine the purpose of your plan : Your plan is a road map that provides directions, steers the business towards gradual success, and helps avoid any bumps.
• Create a company profile : It displays the history of an organization, the products and services offered, the target market and audience, financial resources, and how you're going to solve a problem.
• Document business aspects : Investors want to ensure your business is profitable. Thus, they do in-detail research about your company. Document everything to help with this process, so you don't miss anything.
• Build a strategic marketing plan : A great business plan must include a strategic marketing plan that demonstrates your marketing activities and efforts.
• Make your plan adaptable based on your target audience : Each reader does have different interests. If you're successfully capturing these interests and data early, you can incorporate them while preparing a business plan for a particular audience.
• Explain why you care : Whether you're sharing your plan with an investor, team member, or a customer. Your plan must confidently present that you're passionate, dedicated, and care about your audience, business, and the plan.

What is a project timeline in a business proposal?

A business plan is just a wish list without a clear picture of what will happen. The best way to ensure the business plan stays aligned with the project requirements is by maintaining a project timeline.

A project timeline lays out the milestones of your business plan, employees' details, organization policy, locations, project fund investment, sales targets, net revenue expected and other targets, and the estimated time it will take to meet these.

A project timeline is a chronological list of plans, tasks, and activities that gives project managers a comprehensive view of the project plan. It is usually created in a template or bar chart, where each activity or task is allocated a name along with its start and end date.

Mainly, a project timeline provides an in-depth overview of the project, including its start date, due date, and task dependencies, if any.

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• [Updated 2023] Top 10 Product Management Google Slides Templates to Align Business Goals
• [Updated 2023] An All-Encompassing Guide to Project Planning (With 30+ PowerPoint Templates to Help You Get Started)

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40+ Timeline Templates, Examples and Design Tips

By Midori Nediger , May 30, 2022

Timelines are perfect for telling stories and visualizing projects and processes. You can use a timeline template to: 

• Provide an overview of events. 
• Break down an agenda or itinerary. 
• Highlight important points in time. 
• Distill important information that people might otherwise miss.

In this guide, we’ll share creative timeline ideas, outlines and templates to help you design timelines that will captivate your audience.

Here are our best timeline examples and tips on how you can use them. Click to jump ahead:

• Project timeline template
• Business timeline template
• Nonprofit timeline template
• Event timeline template
• Marketing timeline template
• Simple timeline template
• Historical timeline template
• Construction timeline template
• Internal communication timeline template
• More timeline templates
• FAQs about timeline templates

1. Project timeline templates

Project managers need to juggle multiple balls. A timeline template is a perfect addition to your presentation, project plan, proposal, project management software or other documents where you need to share project details with stakeholders and keep the team on track.

Color-coding data in your timeline is one of the easiest and most effective ways to make your design readable, like in the project timeline example below.

The visual project timeline outline above uses shades of blue to differentiate different tasks. You can use color hues for each day, week, month, or even specific activities. This will help them stand out from each other on the timeline. This timeline was created for a nonprofit, but of course you can use it to visualize any timelines you have for your projects.

Pro Tip:  Consultants and freelancers will especially benefit from using this project timeline template . They’re an easy way to show the client what steps are required to complete a project and how each step impacts the next. The client will love having a visual timeline to refer when they can’t remember what’s supposed to happen when. And this means fewer emails and phone calls to you—we hope!

Monthly project timeline template

For shorter project sprints, a monthly timeline example may be more useful. A timeline, like this example below, can be customized to make it weekly or even hourly:

To make this a weekly or hourly timeline, simply click “Jun 2021” and change it to “Monday” or “9 a.m.”, for example. Note how, unlike the above timeline which uses different shades of blue, this one uses multiple colors to differentiate between time periods.

If you feel like this one uses too many colors and doesn’t coordinate well with your branding, you can always add your brand colors to My Brand Kit and apply them to the timeline in one click:

Consultants for projects can also add this free timeline template to their marketing plan  to improve their workflow. A more efficient workflow will help the team effectively carry out your recommendations.

Pro Tip:   Timeline infographics are great for nonprofits looking to become thought leaders. Pick a topic that shows the development of an idea in your industry. Plot it into a timeline template and insert it into your blog posts or guest posts or share it on social media. You can also add it to a  white paper .

Real estate project timeline template

The home-buying process can be confusing for first-time buyers. Real estate companies can ease their customers’ concerns by designing a project timeline template that uses numbers to emphasize each step:

2. Business timeline templates

Running a business is never easy, and the time crunches may be hard to manage.

Do you have too short a time duration to get things done? I thought you’d say that. Try experimenting with two-week project timelines instead to manage your business needs.

Here’s a project timeline example that can help you structure your monthly product releases:

Pro Tip:  Use Gantt charts to outline due dates and break down projects into smaller activities that are either assigned to individuals or entire teams. Our  guide on Gantt charts  will teach you how to use Gantt charts to deliver projects on time, every time.

Vertical timeline template

Sometimes the key to creating business timelines that stick is the right orientation. Maybe in your case, a vertical timeline outline makes more sense than a horizontal project milestone template.

Pro Tip:  Learning how to complete projects by dividing up deliverables and underlying tasks is key to getting things done across a project’s entire life cycle. Our  project life cycle guide  will give you a handy framework to guide projects from inception to completion.

Simple business timeline format

The best business planning timelines are simple but communicate the core message clearly.

Don’t be fooled by their simplicity. Vertical timelines can look basic but they’ll help you communicate project timelines and deliverables to your potential clients. This technology timeline sample can be easily customized to reflect your business plan.

Related : 30+ Project Plan Templates & Examples to Visualize Your Strategy

PowerPoint timeline template

Text-only  presentation  slides are boring. Timeline slide templates are perfect for making information visually engaging. Optimize your timeline outline for PowerPoint, Google Slides or SlideDeck by using landscape orientation and big, bold text.

Use a gradient color scheme to create a flow from the beginning of your timeline slide to the end:

For more creative timeline ideas and outlines you can use for PowerPoint and Google Slides, check out our collection of PowerPoint timeline templates and examples here .

3. Nonprofit timeline templates

Nonprofits often rely solely on fundraising to keep their projects running. To make things easier for your team, and yourself, a nonprofit timeline template helps to organize your processes. It is a great way to sum up the events and tasks for an important day.

Your tasks may consist of planning content, promotion, social media, etc. Using a horizontal timeline template allows you to be much more organized and summarize your successes:

This horizontal timeline format is perfect for social channels. The colors and images will hold people’s attention and stop them from scrolling past your post.

Social impact timeline templates

Nonprofits need to show that they are making an impact on the world. This is a great marketing tool to attract more investors.

But marketers are busy people. It isn’t possible to design an impactful document from a blank timeline template. This attractive editable timeline uses images to create a connection between the audience and the company.

If you want to use a horizontal timeline format instead, check out the example below:

4. Event timeline templates

A lot of event planning is virtual these days. As a marketer, you may feel overwhelmed by the changes. Using an event timeline template will help you block your hours, days, and weeks out so that you can visualize each step of the way.

Horizontal event timeline templates

Use color hues for each day, week, month, or even specific activities. This will help them stand out from each other on the timeline. This project management timeline template for a nonprofit uses red and blue to differentiate different activities:

Here’s an example of a horizontal event timeline template — this case of the cannabis legalization history in the US :

If you don’t have too many events, you can use this template instead:

This event timeline template portrays the nine-month period of Elon Musk taking over Twitter in 2022 . Not a lot of timeline milestones are added — the designer decides to use the given space to add more notes about each milestone instead.

On the other hand, this Adobe acquisition timeline infographic is perfect if you don’t need to add lots of background info to your timeline events…

Vertical event timeline templates

Scheduling your days in time blocks can be an effective way to organize and prioritize your tasks. Try using different color blocks for different types of tasks or appointments.

This is an opportunity where icons can help you code information and make your timeline scannable.

This vertical timeline template, for example, can make sharing an event planning schedule a breeze:

Or this vertical timeline template which depicts the major data breaches in September 2022 :

If you need to add lots of background info to your event timeline, this iPhone evolution infographic is a great choice:

Fundraising event timeline template

You want to show what your event or fundraiser has achieved. Instead of starting off with a blank timeline, use a creative timeline format to showcase goals reached.

This timeline example shows how the foundation has reached its goals every month. Notice how the timeline is cleverly designed based on a blood donation symbol (which makes it perfect if you’re looking for a visual timeline for your blood donation project!):

Event timeline examples

If you’re a busy small business that needs to budget its time, it’s important that you can indicate how much time should be spent on each activity in your timeline. One way to do this is to use bars of different lengths to visualize lengths of time.

Look at how this fundraising timeline template segments lengths of time for each activity:

Or this timeline infographic which depicts Parler’s business story before being acquired by Kanye :

Wedding timeline template

Another timeline example for an event that you may be planning as a small business is a wedding. You can include specific times and any important details people should know, just like in this wedding day timeline template:

Conference planning timeline template

Want your event to go off without a hitch? Give your attendees a timeline of what the day will look like. That way, they’ll know what to expect ahead of time.

Don’t forget to include information about where each part of the day will take place. Including photos or illustrations of what to expect can also help get your attendees excited about the day’s events.

For example, check out this sleek and minimalist event timeline template:

Pro Tip:  During timeline formatting, special event  consultants  and event planners of all stripes can add their  branding  to any templates of their liking. Then, save it as a template to use again and again. Meaning: less administrative work for you.

Calendar timeline example

Take a classic  calendar  and make it more effective by using icons. Pick icons to represent different types of events. Don’t be afraid to mix up the colors. Simple visuals make information easier to remember, so pick icons that will stick in your memory.

Choose icons to fit your event timeline templates using Venngage’s library of over 40,000 icons.

For another example of a calendar timeline outline, check out this template which is in a vertical format:

5. Marketing timeline templates

Social media timeline example.

If you need to report on how your company’s social media channels grow followers over a period of time, it’s best to do that in a creative visual format.

Adopt this timeline template that presents Instagram’s user growth over time and edit it for your own user growth timeline:

Creative visual timeline for marketing

Understanding your customers’ journey is a core component of a solid  customer experience . Create an infographic that visualizes your various customer profiles.

Use icons to emphasize key steps in their journey.  Take a look at how this timeline example uses icons to make each customer journey easy to understand:

Click the template above to enter our online  customer journey map  maker. Customize the template to your liking—no design experience needed.

Iconic editable timeline

Icons visualize information in one small graphic. That’s why they’re perfect for including in a visual timeline for your events.

Pick an  icon  with a widely recognizable meaning (such as social media platform logos) so people can scan your timeline for information about a specific topic.

This historical timeline example shows the history of social media platforms. It uses icons to identify which point is about each individual platform. You can always customize templates to fit your needs:

6. Simple timeline template

A simple timeline template allows you to make project planning easier for everyone involved. Your team will be grateful for the visualization of a difficult project or process. Here is a simple timeline example that shows how your audience can easily understand what you’re presenting:

7. Historical timeline template

People often like to learn about the history of people, places, and things that they’re interested in. The historical timeline example below highlights the evolution of the internet and technology.

Real estate history timeline example

Showing the history of an industry that has existed for almost a century can be difficult. You don’t want to include too much information. That can be overwhelming for your audience.

Breaking up the decades like in this printable timeline template is the better option. It will make the timeline easier for customers to read and understand.

Brand historical timeline slide

This historical timeline template uses Google’s iconic color palette to reflect the story. Icons and logos make it easy for readers to skim this timeline example and find their favorite products.

Use it to present about a company or an organization that has a rich history as it’s a really long and comprehensive timeline template (click to see the full infographic):

Related:   COVID-19 Timeline: Critical Moments in the First Year

Periodical history timeline

While most timelines typically use one connecting line down the middle to show progress over time, you can group years together using horizontal lines.

Group periods according to different technological breakthroughs, political movements, artistic and fashion trends, or any other broad theme.

Don’t be afraid to stray away from the classic branch timeline design. Get creative by moving events around the page and playing with different layouts.

Check out this history timeline example for some inspiration:

Historical infographic timeline

Educate and remind readers about important dates in history using a history timeline template. Emphasize certain dates by using big, colorful fonts. Offer brief, concise explanations for why the dates are important.

If you are pulling your information from other sources, be sure to cite your sources at the bottom of the infographic.

Arrow timeline example

This timeline example uses text bubbles and cute arrow graphics to create a natural flow of information:

Comparison timeline format

It’s fun to see how things have changed over the years—tech, fashion, event foods. Create a visual timeline that shows photos of a thing, to highlight how it has changed over the years. You can use a  comparison infographic template  to do this.

This timeline example shows how cameras have changed over the years, uses images and brief descriptions to inform readers:

Simple historical timeline template

While you can’t cover  everything  that has happened in history in one timeline, you  can  highlight the important, defining events. Summarize the history of a person, place or thing by showing key moments in history and offering concise explanations of why those moments are significant.

Use colorful icons to enforce and illustrate the information. If you have a resource where readers can go to get more information, cite it at the bottom of the infographic.

These  political infographic templates  are a good place to start.

8. Construction timeline templates

The way the construction industry has advanced over the years is quite a feat. This printable timeline template clearly states what movements took place for the industry to reach the heights it has now.

Construction progress timeline example

Sometimes, processes can be confusing, especially if there are a lot of steps to follow. It’s easy for people to forget steps in a process, especially in the construction industry.

A  construction schedule  timeline template visualizes the building process, organizes the steps, and shows the connections between steps.

This construction project timeline template uses color text boxes to neatly organize its milestones by month:

Pro Tip:   Consultants can use project timeline templates to keep a project on track, especially if there are multiple people involved (subcontractors, multiple stakeholders etc.). Assign a task to a different person and color-code these people/companies i.e. green for you, red for the client.

PS:  Looking for a  scheduling app  to help you book meetings without the back-and-forth? Check out HubSpot’s Meetings tool.

Home renovation timeline template

Alternatively, you can organize your timeline by steps and the number of days you need to complete them, like in this construction project timeline template:

Pro Tip:  Design newbie consultants and freelancers can use our “ My Brand Kit ” tool to import  brand colors  and  logos  from a website. Or enter them manually. Use your branding, or the client’s, as you like. It’s an easy way to impress the client, without any design work on your part!

9. Internal communications timeline templates

Visual timeline templates are an effective way to  plan your business goals  or detail a new process in your internal communications. You can lay it all out, summarize steps, and use visuals to emphasize points.

New hires at any company will understandably have a lot of information to process. This sprint timeline example details the first day on the job. It would be a welcome addition to the usual onboarding documents.

Pro Tip:  Timeline templates can help simplify the onboarding process. You don’t need to limit your timeline to a new hire’s first day at the company either! Consider providing a timeline for their first week, month, or even the entire probationary period. Chart important information, like the dates of their reviews, or when their benefits kick in. This will be much appreciated by your new hire, who likely has a lot to keep track of!

Annual printable timeline template

Zoom out even further and plan your entire year. Organize critical milestones by month using this vertical timeline template to share with your company:

Colorful printable timeline format

This timeline example takes a similar approach, but it color-codes the months and text for improved readability and impact.

Weekly timeline template

As mentioned earlier in this guide, you can keep track of your team’s progress week over week with a simple and organized timeline template.

Use  symbols and icons  to categorize different types of tasks so that readers will be able to skim the timeline and find the information quickly.

Alternate between two neutral background colors to increase the readability of your design. Here’s the two-week timeline from earlier that follows this scheme:

Pro Tip:  A project timeline template can be a fresh way for consultants to make progress  reports  for stakeholders. The client can see at a glance what you’ve been up and how the project’s progressing. No wading through walls of text—a timeline is easy to scan, understand and digest.

10. More timeline templates

Here are more timeline examples that you can customize.

Colorful text boxes use icons and punchy descriptions to keep the reader engaged in this history timeline template:

Process timeline example

Use your  brand guidelines  to spread brand awareness and make your content recognizable across multiple channels.

Numbered timeline template

A timeline doesn’t necessarily have to chronicle years. It can also be used to count down information. Take this timeline template that counts down New Year’s Eve facts. The line down the middle of the infographic creates a flow from fact to fact.

You could use a timeline example like this to rank products, websites, movies…anything!

Illustrative timeline example

The beauty of a timeline infographic is that you can create a design that really reflects the theme of your information.

Pick a flat icon that reflects the theme of your information and stretch it to fit the background of your page. Then, pick a color that stands out to create your timeline, text and smaller illustrations.

Look at how this timeline example uses an icon of a body as the background image:

Iconic timeline sample

If certain dates or events are particularly important, emphasize them on your timeline by making them bigger than other dates. You can do this by using bigger icons, bigger font sizes, or using a contrasting color.

Not only will using non-uniform design elements make certain points stand out, they will also make your timeline more interesting to look at.

Pro Tip:  Use a timeline template to show the history of your business. Put it on your website’s About page to grab the reader’s attention. You can also add it to  consulting proposals  or  pitch decks . We have plenty of  business proposal templates  to help you get started.

Bubble chart timeline infographic

This timeline template combines the use of bubble charts and timelines to visualize the explosive growth of AI technology over the past five years:

Note, we welcome sharing! You have permission to use this infographic on your blog or website. Simply copy the HTML code below to add this infographic to your site. Or, if you’d like to reference a specific statistic or fact, please include a link to this blog post as a source.

FAQ about timeline templates

What is a timeline.

A timeline graphically represents the passing of time. It also showcases important events, activities, or tasks in a chronological manner.

What does a timeline include?

The timeline format generally includes the following components:

• Dates or times
• Short descriptions
• Images or icons

How can you create a timeline?

Making a blank timeline and building on it will take time and energy. Instead, use a timeline template, like the ones Venngage offers, to design timelines.

As you can see from this guide, Venngage has over 40 editable timeline templates. Each can be customized to your brand’s needs.

Where can you make a timeline?

Use Venngage’s Timeline Maker  to design timeline templates for free. You can choose a template that suits your needs and edit it according to your content.

With Venngage’s diverse icons and stock photo library, you can design timelines that appeal to wider audiences.

Is there a timeline template in Google Docs?

Google Docs doesn’t have a default timeline template, but you can create one yourself by manually inserting lines and shapes from Google Drawing:

Of course, it takes lots of time to polish a timeline created manually this way, and even then you can’t guarantee that it will turn out “good”. This is because Google Docs by itself isn’t designed for creating timeline templates, unlike Venngage which is a simple solution for non-designers.

If you still would like to have a timeline in Google Docs, you can create one using Venngage instead and export it as a PNG—which then can be uploaded to Google Docs as an image.

Is there a timeline template in Word?

Similar to Google Docs, Word doesn’t have a default timeline template. Of course you can still manually create one using the lines and shapes, or by using the SmartArt function. Check out this guide on how to create a timeline in Word if you want to go that route.

But, also similar to Google Docs, timelines created in Word take too much time and don’t look as good as the ones created using a design solution like Venngage.

A simple fix would be to choose a timeline template from Venngage’s library, edit it and export it as a PNG so you can upload it to your Word document.

How can you create a timeline with Venngage?

Watch this video to learn how to create a timeline template .

Follow these steps to customize your timeline templates on Venngage:

Step 1 : Pick a timeline template with the layout that best fits the story you want to tell.

Just so you know, some of our templates are free, some exclusive templates are paid. But you can always create an account and test out our editor for free.

Step 2 : Add, remove, or rearrange points with the smart templates in our  timeline maker  (screenshot below).

Step 3 : Insert your own dates and events using the text boxes.

Step 4 : Customize the  colors ,  fonts  and  icons  to make the final design your own.

Step 5 : Share your timeline design with a share link, or upgrade to download in multiple formats.

Not a designer? No problem. Create an engaging timeline template with Venngage, the simple design solution for businesses.

PS: Looking for a different kind of infographic? Venngage can help you:

• Create a business strategy or brainstorm new ideas with a mind map
• Explain a complex process with  process infographics  or product roadmaps
• Compare and contrast multiple options with  comparison infographics
• Raise awareness about an issue or cause with  nonprofit infographics  

Need some timeline formatting tips? Read our guide on  how to create a timeline in 6 easy steps .

Business Timeline

What do you think of this template.

Product details

Take pride in telling the story of your business, its growth and origination. This business timeline template is often used by both startups and established enterprises to communicate growth and progress over the years. This template is ideal when presenting to investors, employees, board members and shareholders.

Business Timeline Template is designed in a modern style and has all the necessary tools to prepare your company’s history. The first slide presents you with an opportunity to share your company’s achievements. You can inform your audience about your company’s key projects and future plans. Also, this slide can be used to familiarize yourself with the main topics that will be covered in your presentation. You can also use this slide to prepare a successful story about your new company director. What projects he has implemented throughout his career, in which companies and what positions he held before heading your company. The second slide can be used to create a roadmap for the project. You can also use it when preparing to discuss the main terms of the contract with the client. This slide will be useful for team leaders, project managers, department heads. You can use it to set weekly tasks for your employees. This slide will also be useful for research centers and scientific institutes. You can talk about your laboratory research in various fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, and others. The next slide is shown as a vertical timeline. This gives you the ability to split your presentation slide into two equal parts. You can use this slide to describe the story of the successful completion of the project. For example, a construction company might use this slide to prepare a presentation about the completion of a large complex or a modern hospital. You can also inform your audience about your strategic plans for the next few years, identify specific projects that you plan to complete. The last slide can be used by HR managers when preparing information about the company, its main achievements, development plans. This information will be very important for new employees of the company, which will help them to quickly understand the corporate rules and work standards. This slide can also be used in their work by start-up teams who can present their successfully implemented projects to investors.

Available in five design variations, this PowerPoint template presents horizontal and vertical timelines containing milestones, illustrations, data visualizations and text descriptions. This presentation is useful for demonstrating history review such as, company’s performance or growth. It can help display the breakthrough elements of company, project or forecast where the company is headed. The template can be modified to match your brand aesthetic. The colors, text and shapes are customizable and editable. The template will perfectly complement any of your presentation about the success of the company or the outstanding achievements of an employee.

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Customizable project timeline and roadmap templates

Plotting your course isn't just clarifying, it can be captivating too. build your next project timeline or roadmap using designer-developed, customizable templates. no matter what kind of project you're planning or managing, there's a timeline template that'll keep you on track..

Show your plan at a glance with timeline templates

Don't waste any time—start your next project plan or production roadmap with a timeline template. Timelines are a great way to visually organize your thoughts, plotting each step that you plan to execute. Making planners and trackers into timelines is a snap when working with templates. You can also use timeline templates to show how far a project has come along, every milestone accounted for. Small businesses can find timelines helpful for pitching new business during presentations as well as planning new products. And adding a timeline to a wedding save the date or an invitation is a great way to let guests know everything they can look forward to during your celebration. Timelines aren't just for project planning. Resumes are themselves a kind of timeline, and there are some fantastic graphic resume layouts that incorporate easy-to-read timelines that make your work history stand out.

Timeline Templates to Edit Online and Download

Here we have compiled a list of templates for the most commonly searched timeline templates below. All timeline templates can be edited online. You can change the colors, add text, or import images from your device or browse the web with the built-in Google image search to customize your timelines as needed.

Export them in PDF, SVG, PNG, or JPEG image formats to add your timeline templates to PowerPoint presentations, print, embed in your site, share or publish.

Timeline Templates

1) Vertical Timeline Template 2) Horizontal Timeline Template 3) Business Timeline Template 4) Personal Timeline Template 5) Career Timeline Template 6) Wedding Timeline Template 7) Project Timeline Template 8) Gantt Chart Template 9) Process Timeline 10) Event Timeline Template 11) Research Timeline Template 12) American Revolution Timeline Template 13) Martin Luther King Timeline for Kids 14) Timeline Series of Famous Women in History 15) PowerPoint Timeline Template 16) History Timeline Template 17) Monthly Timeline Template

Vertical Timeline Template

The vertical timeline is a very convenient way to visualize information, especially if you have a lot of data to represent. It has an easy-to-read structure, therefore, it is perfect for any size of screen.

Horizontal Timeline Template

This type of timeline works best with fewer points and less text. They are widely used for presentation slides as you don’t have to scroll down as you have to do with a vertical timeline.

Business Timeline Template

Businesses often use timeline templates for plans, project charter , and presentations, in order to visualize project tasks, business milestones, etc. This one here represents the major events of a business. It’s suitable for your business plan, business pitch, and many other scenarios.

Personal Timeline Template

Personal timelines are used to show highlights or significant moments of a person’s life. These may include moments like birthdays, graduations, and other important milestones.

Career Timeline Template

Planning your career? A timeline can help you plan ahead and set goals for personal development. It can also be included in your resume highlighting your past and present career experiences.

Wedding Timeline Template

You can use a timeline when you are planning your wedding, share it with organizers and vendors to make sure that everything is on track. You can also send a guest-oriented wedding timeline with your invitations, to help everyone plan and prepare ahead of time.

Project Timeline Template

A project timeline breaks down the tasks/ events of a project in chronological order, making it easier to get a high-level view of it. This can be a great tool when planning a project.

Gantt Chart Template

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart used in project management that illustrates a project schedule, including the start and end dates for each task or phase, dependencies between tasks, and milestones.

Process Timeline

A process timeline is a type of timeline that shows the steps involved in a particular process or workflow. It is used to visualize the sequence of steps and the relationships between them, and can be used to illustrate complex processes in a simple and easy-to-understand format.

Event Timeline Template

An event timeline is essential for a successful event planning process. As the organizer, you can use it to guide yourself through the planning process and keep track of all the deadlines. With little less detail, you can also turn it into your event’s agenda for the guests.

Research Timeline Template

This shows a chronological order of events that you plan to do during your research/ project. It can help give your reader a high-level overview of your project.

American Revolution Timeline Template

Here’s a timeline of the American Revolution covering all events from the French and Indian War to the Treaty of Paris.

Martin Luther King Timeline for Kids

This timeline shows the important moments from the life of Marting Luther Kind Jr, leading up to his death.

Timeline Series of Famous Women in History

Here’s a timeline of some of the most famous women in history.

PowerPoint Timeline Template

You can simply edit this timeline and export it as a PNG or JPEG to add to your PowerPoint presentation.

History Timeline Template

Highlight the key moments of any historical event with this timeline template.

Monthly Timeline Template

This 12-month timeline template is ideal for representing the events (i.e. monthly business or personal projects), within a year.

Not sure how to start your timeline? Here are the 3 steps you need to follow to create the perfect timeline diagram .

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FAQs on Timeline Templates

• Consider the timeline’s purpose, the key milestones, and the type of information that needs to be presented.
• Based on the information you have identified, determine the timeline format that will best suit your needs.
• Once you have selected a template, customize it to fit your specific project or event. Add your own events, milestones, and details to the template, and adjust the formatting and layout as needed.
• Including too much information. A timeline should be clear and easy to understand at a glance.
• Neglecting to include key events. Be sure to include all the key events and milestones related to the project or event on the timeline.
• Failing to organize events logically. Make sure that events are arranged in a clear and coherent order that makes sense to the reader.
• Not using visuals effectively. While visuals can help to make a timeline more engaging make sure to use them effectively. * Avoid using too many graphics or images, which can be distracting.

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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

How Do I Develop a Timeline for a Business Plan?

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• Business Planning & Strategy
• Business Planning Process
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How to Build Your Own Marketing Plan for a Bridal Shop

Manpower requirements and operations in a business proposal, how to deal with everyday issues in the workplace.

• How to Evaluate Strategic Management
• Characteristics of the Critical Path Method

A business plan lays the foundation for the organization you’re in the process of starting. It helps you develop and understand your business strategy, and it enables investors to see the potential in your company. When you’re working on the timeline or schedule for your business plan, it’s essential to consider both the big picture and the smaller details to stay on schedule while starting and running your business.

Identify and Schedule Your Key Milestones

There’s a lot to do when you’re trying to get your business off the ground. To determine how to create your timeline or schedule, it’s critical to identify your key milestones. These are the things you need to complete to launch your business.

Your key business milestones may include:

• Legal procedures such as incorporating your business or creating a partnership;
• Acquiring all the required federal, state and county licenses and permits;
• Securing your office, retail or manufacturing space;
• Designing, developing and packaging your product for sale;
• Purchasing business items such as a POS system, shelving or other materials;
• Hiring your employees;
• Launching your marketing campaign; and
• Officially opening your business.

After you schedule the large milestones, you can begin to factor in the smaller targets you need to hit. These may include creating your marketing materials and scheduling employee interviews. The smaller milestones build up to the larger ones.

Consider Past, Present and Future

When you’re creating the timeline for your business plan, don’t forget to factor in what you have already accomplished. The milestones you have achieved should also be part of your timeline. This information helps your investors understand the steps you have already taken and how much further you have to go.

An example of a timeline in a business plan may include market research you have already conducted or relationships with suppliers you have established.

Create a timeframe for each key milestone. Include a start date and an end date for items that require weeks or months of planning and execution. Some items may only require a due date.

Be sure to consider interdependencies for your milestones. Some milestones cannot be started until you have completed others.

For example, you cannot open your business until you have secured your permits. However, certain tasks can be completed in tandem, such as working on your marketing campaigns and obtaining business items.

Your business plan should not only be concerned with the immediate future. Include the milestones you intend to hit one, three and five years from now. You may plan to add new product lines to your business, consider expanding the warehouse facility or anticipate moving into a new downtown office in five years.

Use the Right Format to Create Your Business Timeline

Because business plan timelines have many interrelated components and complex schedules, it’s important to present your timeline in a way that’s easy to read and follow. Consider using a Gantt chart, which is a useful way to visually illustrate a project’s schedule. Gantt charts also show the interdependencies of specific tasks, which is necessary for a business plan timeline. A Gantt chart enables you to input start dates, end dates and hard deadlines.

You can create a Gantt chart in Microsoft Excel with the help of a free template that you download from the Microsoft website. You can also use a specialized Gantt chart solution, such as that offered by SmartSheet. It includes a preformatted template so you can easily add in tasks and dates, establish hierarchies and delineate dependencies.

• Microsoft Office: Present Your Data in a Gantt Chart in Excel
• U.S. Small Business Administration: Write Your Business Plan
• Money Instructor: Business Plans: Initial Start-Up Timeline
• WrittenSuccess: Building a Business Plan Timeline: What to Consider
• SmartSheet: How to Create a Gantt Chart in Excel With a Template

Anam Ahmed is a Toronto-based writer and editor with over a decade of experience helping small businesses and entrepreneurs reach new heights. She has experience ghostwriting and editing business books, especially those in the "For Dummies" series, in addition to writing and editing web content for the brand. Anam works as a marketing strategist and copywriter, collaborating with everyone from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, lifestyle bloggers to professional athletes. As a small business owner herself, she is well-versed in what it takes to run and market a small business. Anam earned an M.A. from the University of Toronto and a B.A.H. from Queen's University. Learn more at www.anamahmed.ca.

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• Project management |
• How to create a project timeline in 7 s ...

How to create a project timeline in 7 simple steps

Wondering how to transform your project management game? Learn how to streamline your tasks and dependencies by creating an adaptable project management timeline that's suitable for any industry and profession.

Fret no more. This guide offers a comprehensive example of how to create a project timeline suitable for any professional, regardless of their job title, industry, or department. Follow these steps and learn how to build project timelines that put you in the driver’s seat and build your own project timeline template .

What is a project timeline?

A project timeline is an important project management tool that visually represents the schedule and details the sequence and duration of tasks. It breaks down a project into parts and supports effective workload management by using integrations such as a work breakdown structure (WBS). A project timeline is more than a static calendar; it functions as a dynamic guide that adapts to the project's developing needs, ensuring that goals are completed quickly and within anticipated timescales, whether in a major enterprise project or a small business initiative.

How to create a project timeline

Creating a project timeline is a structured process that lays the foundation for successful project execution. It begins with defining the project’s scope and objectives.

A good timeline not only displays tasks in chronological order but also incorporates critical elements like task dependencies, resource allocation, and milestones. 

This is where the functionality of the timeline comes into play. It should provide a clear, visual representation of the project’s flow and allow for easy tracking and updates. The timeline should be both comprehensive and flexible, able to adapt to changes while keeping the project on track.

1. Create a project brief

To keep all project stakeholders aligned on the plan, every project should start with a project brief . It serves as a roadmap and is a way to explain big picture details, like the purpose, goals, milestones, and vision of the overall project. Here are a few questions to answer in your brief:

What are your goals for the project, both internally and externally? What are the project deliverables?

Which internal and external stakeholders are a part of the project? What are their roles?

What is the timeframe for the project? What are the most important dates?

What is the project scope ? Do you have a project scope statement?

What are the key milestones of the project?

Let’s put this step into practice. You’re responsible for planning this year’s client appreciation dinner. Your personal goal for the event is to be as organized, productive, and efficient as possible . You’re confident you can do it, and understand it all starts by putting together a cohesive brief for your event. Your answers to the four questions listed above are:

What are your project goals, both internally and externally?

The internal goal is to plan a high-impact client event under $15,000. The external goal is to achieve a 50% RSVP rate and 80% attendance rate.

Which internal and external stakeholders are a part of the project?

The internal stakeholders are the event’s planning committee (John, Sam, Tara, Linda), the VP of Client Success, and the Marketing team. Externally, the stakeholders include all current clients, and certain vendors (catering company, event venue, etc.).

What is the time frame for the project?

The project planning kicks off on January 15, and the event will happen on August 30.

Which tasks should be considered project milestones?

Publishing the registration page, securing the venue, and signing certain vendors.

Once you have your project brief and goals outlined, you’ll be ready to work backwards and figure out all of the steps you need to take to get there, and you can start creating a project timeline.

2. List your to-dos

In order to have a successful project timeline, you’ll need to create a list of everything that will need to happen throughout the project planning process, all the way to your final deliverable, whether it is a report or an event. Think both big and small in terms of steps. Any tasks that will help you get your project completed on time and on budget should go on this list.

At this point, don’t worry too much about the order of all of your steps or when you need to get them done—we’ll cover that later.

For example, the breakdown for our client appreciation dinner might look like this:

Write an event plan

Finalize budget

Confirm event venue

Select catering

Choose event theme

Design creative concepts for event

Set up an RSVP page

Send invitations

Advertise event

Finalize presentations

Prepare all event collateral and swag

Create a day-of checklist

For longer or more complex steps, break them into smaller, easy-to-digest subtasks. Not only will it help you figure out the true scope of a step, but it’ll also ensure you don’t forget any small details and make tackling it more manageable.

In our event example, to make the "Select catering" step less overwhelming, we would split this part of the project into a digestible task list:

Create a list of possible caterers

Get quotes from each caterer

Compare quotes and menus

Meet with top picks

Choose caterer

Finalize contract

3. Estimate how long each step will take

Once you have a comprehensive list of every step in your project, you’ll allocate an amount of time each will take to complete. When doing this, balance giving your team enough time to get project tasks finished and staying within your overall time frame. Once you know how much time each task will take, you’ll be able to properly plan and sequence each task to create a project roadmap.

Continuing on with our client appreciation event example, let’s take the “Select catering” step, along with each of its subtasks, and estimate how much time the smaller tasks will take, in chronological order.

Select catering (9 weeks)

Create a list of possible caterers (1 week)

Get quotes from each caterer (3 weeks)

Compare quotes and menus (1 week)

Meet with top picks (2 weeks)

Choose caterer (1 week)

Finalize contract (1 week)

Based on our time projections, the process of selecting a catering company will take a total of nine weeks. By working backwards, you can determine when you need to start on this particular step and fill in your project timeline with actual dates.

4. Map out dependencies

As you’re running a project, some steps can be worked on simultaneously—especially if different teammates are responsible for each of the overlapping tasks. However, others cannot be started or completed until another step is finished. In other words, some steps are dependent on others getting completed first. For instance, you can’t order food before you’ve selected the caterer. This is one of the many reasons why a timeline is so important. Visually seeing each step, how the steps overlap, and the amount of time each one takes will keep you on course.

This is also the time to figure out who’s responsible for each step. Assigning who’s responsible for what to every part of the project early on will help you spot and adjust timing or resource conflicts, and avoid future surprises and delays. In Step 6, you’ll learn how to share your project timeline with those involved, making responsibilities crystal clear.

One of the tasks for our example event is to send out invitations. While this particular step seems like an easy one, there are several other things that need to happen before we can even think about sending invitations. The invites must be designed, and we can’t design them until a theme has been chosen for our event. One task needs to occur before another starts. For example:

Event theme (Event Planning team) → Design concepts (Linda) → Choose design (Event Planning team) → Create invitation (Linda) → Send invitations (Tara)

It’s worth the time to map out each dependency and the sequence (or order) of each task. You’ll quickly start to see your project puzzle coming together. Deciding who will do what is critical as well. Who will be working on finalizing the event theme? Who will design the invitations? Don’t wait until it is time for a task to start before assigning it to someone—get everything ironed out early to avoid conflicts or hiccups.

The good news is the invitation process and catering selections can happen at the same time, which will be shown on our project timeline.

5. Create your timeline

Are you beginning to visualize what your project timeline could look like ? While it’s not practical to keep that image (and all those tasks and due dates) in your head, it is realistic to get them down on paper (or on screen). Your first instinct might be to open up an Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft presentation—but wait. Since neither were designed to plan or manage projects, you’ll run into some challenges you could avoid by choosing a better tool .

Instead, opt for a project management tool that’s designed to build and manage project timelines —like Asana. Not only will it save you time drawing your timeline (since you won’t have to attempt to hack merge cells and add formulas to turn a spreadsheet into a project timeline), it will allow you to continue managing your timeline after the project kickoff. Dedicated project management software allows you to easily adapt your timeline as you work, and update your stakeholders on changes and progress in real time.

With the right tool, your timeline will be tied to your underlying work and will always stay up to date. It can be the difference between a project running on track and one going haywire.

How to create a timeline in Asana

Use Asana’s Timeline feature to create your own project schedule :

Enter all of your project steps as tasks in a list

Add start and end dates to each task

Add a task owner for each one

Draw dependencies between tasks

Click "Timeline" view to see your list translated into a visual timeline.

Tip: If you’ve already created your plan in a spreadsheet, you can quickly import it into Asana using our CSV importer integration , and skip to step four.

Project timeline templates to get you started

The easiest way to set up a project timeline quickly is to start with a project template . Below are a couple of project templates, created by Asana, that you can use now. Each type of project starts as a List View, but you can click the "Timeline" tab to convert it into a Timeline:

Product marketing launch template

Event planning template

Product roadmap template

General project plan template

6. Share it with stakeholders

Remember when you added a list of all project stakeholders to your brief at the very beginning of this process? Now that you’ve built your timeline, it’s important to share it with everyone involved. We can promise they will be thrilled to see how clear your plan is. The easier you make their part of the project, the more kudos will come your way throughout the process.

When you use a project management tool to build your timeline, sharing it is quick and seamless. Forget emails and multiple docs—in no time, your stakeholders will know who’s doing what by when.

For the client appreciation event, we will want to share our timeline with everyone involved in the entire project, not just those who have immediate responsibilities. At any time, someone will be able to track their part of the project and its dependencies without having to ping you for information.

7. Manage and adapt as you go

If you’ve ever worked on any project, you know things don’t always go as planned. However, when you’re prepared to adapt, changes don’t seem so difficult to handle. Timelines aren’t just great for planning; they will also help you adjust as delays or changes inevitably happen.

Moving tasks around doesn’t have to be daunting or disrupt the entire project. If one part of the project runs into a delay, as the project owner, you will have clarity on the impact of the rest of the project. Then, you’ll be empowered to move things around accordingly so the overall project can still move forward productively.

As The Balance Careers notes, project changes can be managed within their own specific steps, but once the change is final, it’s time to update your timeline. Because timelines go out of date quickly when plans change, relying on a project management tool , rather than email or spreadsheets, offers a major benefit. As the project owner, it’s your responsibility to communicate to all stakeholders what the single source of truth is (your timeline) and make sure it’s always updated.

Take immediate action. As soon as the change is confirmed, update your timeline to reflect it.

Notify stakeholders. Anyone that is affected by the change to your project timeline should understand how it impacts them and be able to visually see the change on the project timeline.

Determine the impact. Once your timeline is updated, you’ll be able to see if there are time periods that are overcrowded and stakeholders that have too many tasks. Can you move a task to ensure more time? Can someone else take over that responsibility or lend a hand?

To wrap up our event example, let’s say you managed to choose a caterer for the client appreciation dinner. You’re about to finalize the contract when a call comes in that the catering company double-booked themselves. Unfortunately, you must find a new catering company.

With a timeline, it's easy to adjust due dates for any task or any team members that are impacted by this change. The positive part of this challenge is that we’ve already gone through several of the initial tasks and can see that reflected on the timeline. While this is a frustrating problem, it feels more manageable because our timeline has kept us organized and on track.

Types of project timelines

Project timelines are as diverse as the projects themselves. The reason for this variety lies in the distinct nature of each project, where factors like scope, complexity, industry, and team size dictate the most suitable timeline format. This diversity ensures that every project can have a timeline tailored to its specific needs.

Choosing the right type of project timeline is an important step in project management. The key is to assess the project’s requirements and consider factors like: 

Project duration

Level of detail needed

Team's working style 

For instance, projects requiring close monitoring of deadlines might benefit from a Gantt chart, while those emphasizing flexibility might opt for a Kanban timeline. Additionally, the availability of project timeline software and tools should also be considered to ensure compatibility and ease of use.

Knowing you've selected the right type of timeline often comes down to its effectiveness in project execution. A suitable timeline will streamline the planning process, facilitate clear communication among team members, and provide a realistic overview of the project’s progress. 

If the timeline allows for easy identification of bottlenecks , supports effective time management , and aligns with the team’s workflow, it's likely a good fit for the project.

Gantt chart timeline

A Gantt chart is a popular project timeline tool that provides a visual overview of tasks scheduled over time. It helps teams see the start and end dates of project phases, helping with time management and identifying potential bottlenecks.

For example, a Gantt chart can be used to manage deadlines and identify potential delays in a construction project by outlining stages such as design, procurement, and construction.

Vertical chart timeline

This timeline is a variant of the traditional Gantt chart, displaying tasks along a vertical line. It's effective for smaller projects or when you need a concise list of tasks without detailed scheduling.

In event planning, such as organizing a conference, a vertical timeline can efficiently display the sequence of tasks like venue booking, speaker confirmation, and marketing.

Historical timeline

Particularly useful in educational or retrospective projects, a historical timeline outlines key events in chronological order. When dealing with complex projects, this format can help streamline the visualization of project phases.

A historical timeline, for instance, could be used to help with the educational component of a museum exhibit project by listing important historical events or eras in chronological order.

Kanban timeline

Kanban timelines, inspired by Kanban boards , focus on the progress of tasks from "to-do" to "done." They're excellent for teams emphasizing teamwork and agile methodologies, where tasks move through different stages.

For example, software development teams often use a Kanban board to track the progress of features from conception to implementation. 

Critical Path Method (CPM)

The Critical Path Method is a more sophisticated approach that identifies the sequence of interdependent tasks that affect the project's timeline. It's pivotal in complex projects where time tracking and precise planning are key.

In a big manufacturing project, for instance, CPM can identify and keep track of important steps like design, production, and quality control to make sure the job is finished on time.

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

PERT is similar to CPM but focuses more on the time each task takes. It's beneficial in projects where time estimation is challenging by providing a project plan timeline that considers uncertainty.

In a research and development project, for example, PERT can be used to estimate the time needed for various phases like conceptualization, experimentation, and product testing.

Project timeline examples

Effective project timelines are more than just theoretical concepts; they are proven tools that drive successful project outcomes. They enable precise coordination, effective resource allocation, and timely completion of tasks.

A notable example is NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity Project. The mission's success was heavily reliant on a meticulously crafted timeline, coordinating hundreds of scientists and engineers. This precise planning facilitated the rover's successful landing on Mars in 2012, demonstrating how a well-managed timeline can lead to extraordinary achievements in highly complex projects.

Project timeline example 1: Digital marketing campaign

In a digital marketing project, a Gantt chart timeline could delineate phases like market research, content creation, and campaign execution. The project team might use timeline tools to track critical tasks, ensuring effective time management when meeting campaign deadlines.

Scenario: A digital marketing team at a tech startup is launching a new app.

Market research phase: The team sets a two-week period for market analysis to understand the target audience.

Content creation phase: Over the next month, the team develops blog posts, social media content, and email campaigns.

Campaign execution: The final phase involves a six-week rollout of the created content across different platforms, with weekly reviews.

With the Gantt chart timeline, the team can see how each phase is progressing, adjust to delays in content creation, and move resources around more efficiently, all of which led to a successful campaign launch.

Project timeline example 2: Boutique retail business

For a small business project, a simple vertical chart timeline or a Kanban timeline might be more suitable. Businesses can use this kind of timeline to make project timelines that are easy to follow and keep up-to-date by showing important tasks like product development, marketing, and sales.

Scenario: A boutique clothing store is planning to expand its online presence.

Product development stage: Tasks include selecting new products and setting up an online store. Each task is moved from "to do" to "doing" to "done."

Marketing stage: This involves social media marketing and email marketing tasks, tracked similarly through the Kanban board.

Sales monitoring: The final stage tracks online sales performance and customer feedback.

Using a Kanban timeline, the store effectively handles its growth into e-commerce, keeping task management flexible and ensuring a smooth transition to online sales.

Common questions about project timelines

Knowing how to create a well-organized project timeline is a great first step towards understanding how to use this powerful tool, but you may still have a few more questions. You’re not alone. Here are answers to a couple common questions people have about project timelines:

What’s the difference between a timeline and a Gantt chart?

Gantt charts focus more on workflow and task dependencies. They are more linear and don’t account for changes or multiple things happening at once. Timelines are flexible and adapt easily to changes in project plans. They allow the workflow to be updated effortlessly. Both are organized as bar charts and serve as visual tools.

How can you track project progress, especially if you’re managing multiple projects?

This is tough to do in spreadsheets, but easier in a project management tool. There are multiple views to be able to see one project at a time, or you can manage multiple projects through a portfolio-style view .

In other words, you can visualize when you’ll have more time to work on specific tasks, and when you’re at capacity, you can adjust as needed to even out your entire team’s workload .

Create your next project timeline confidently

It’s not enough to just come up with a project plan. Determining how to execute it is just as important . Developing a timeline of how the plan will evolve is critical to the planning phase and also makes managing the project more efficient.

Using this step-by-step process for every project management timeline will keep you on task and less stressed. Try it out, adapt it to your business, and share it!

To take your project timelines even further, create your next timeline using Asana .

Related resources

Critical path method: How to use CPM for project management

15 project management interview questions, answers, and tips

Unmanaged business goals don’t work. Here’s what does.

How Asana uses work management to drive product development

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