40+ Free Productivity Dashboards and Templates

This article was updated in February, 2017 to accurately represent currently available options.

Raise your hands if you think redundant tasks suck. Invoicing clients, accounting, time-tracking — these are some of the tasks which have little or no impact on the end result; usually they serve to help somebody else (the client, the taxman, et cetera).

But they have to be done, and since time equals money, it’s important that we don’t waste too much time on redundant tasks.

Let's take a look at the best dashboards, templates and apps that can help us complete redundant tasks quickly but thoroughly.

Business Planning and Projections

1. Unfunnel: a free Microsoft Excel template to help you strategise your startup. It outlines objectives, customer growth and retention, brand awareness, value proposition and so on.
2. Databox: an app to help you keep on top of your business KPIs wherever you are. Alternatively, you can learn how to make your own KPI dashboards at the Excel Dashboard School.
3. If you think Excel is a little outdated but Databox isn’t for you or your business, Klipfolio, Grow and Geckoboard are some other alternatives.
4. If you are an Excel fan, My Excel Templates, ExInFm or Excel Models will have what you want — everything from cash flow to valuation model to financial forecasting to risk assessment — break even analysis, SWOT templates, I could go on forever.
5. Entrepreneur is probably the internet’s most concise list of high-quality business templates, ranging from Contractor Agreements to NDAs, and Employee Review Sheets to Cease and Desist Letters.

Project Management

1. Office Timeline is a PowerPoint add-on that lets you you create Gantt charts and timelines, helping you manage projects in a highly-visual way.
2. If you're also a student, you can use Basecamp for free — the ultimate project management tool, especially if you’re a large company wanting to avoid having random spreadsheets scattered around company servers. Asana comes in as a close second. Zoho is another free alternative.
3. Trello’s card-based system is terrific for managing smaller projects; incredibly versatile as well.
4. Wrike may be more suitable if your team needs to focus more on marketing than anything else.
5. It’s literally impossible to list all of the best project management apps here — Capterra will help you find the right app for you and your company.
6. For quick n’ dirty templates, Vertex42 might serve your needs — it has a range of templates like calendars, time cards, budgeting, Gantt charts and timelines.
7. If you’re looking for prettier spreadsheets, try searching on Excel Online where you can directly view and edit them in the browser.

Invoicing and Financials

1. Need to create an invoice now? Aynax offers an on-demand invoicing service — simply fill it out online and hit the “Print” button. Invoiced is another alternative.

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by Daniel Schwarz via SitePoint