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How to Create a Work in Progress Report in Excel with ChatGPT

Cody Schneider•

Building a Work in Progress (WIP) report is a perfect way to get a clear snapshot of your ongoing projects, but getting it set up in Excel can feel like a chore. This guide will walk you through creating a powerful WIP report from scratch and show you how to use ChatGPT to write the formulas and generate the structure for you, saving you a ton of time.

What Exactly is a Work in Progress (WIP) Report?

A Work in Progress (or WIP) report is a management tool that provides a real-time overview of the status of all active projects, tasks, or jobs within a team or company. Think of it as your project command center. Instead of asking team members for status updates one by one, you can see a high-level view of everything that’s in flight.

Its primary goals are to:

  • Track Progress: Instantly see how far along tasks are and whether they are on schedule.

  • Identify Bottlenecks: Quickly spot tasks that are stuck, blocked, or overdue before they derail a project.

  • Manage Resources: Understand who is working on what, helping you balance workloads and assign new tasks effectively.

  • Communicate with Stakeholders: Provide clear, concise updates to clients, managers, or other teams without getting lost in trivial details.

Whether you're managing a marketing campaign, a software development sprint, or a client onboarding process, a WIP report helps keep everyone aligned and moving forward.

Key Components of an Effective WIP Report

The beauty of building a report in Excel is its flexibility. You can customize it to fit your exact needs. However, most effective WIP reports include a few core pieces of information. Here are the essential columns you should start with:

  • Task ID: A unique identifier for each task or job (e.g., #101, #102). This helps avoid confusion if you have similarly named tasks.

  • Task Name: A short, descriptive name for the task (e.g., "Draft Q3 Blog Content," "Design Social Media Graphics").

  • Project: The larger project or initiative the task belongs to (e.g., "Summer Marketing Campaign," "Website Redesign").

  • Owner/Assignee: The person responsible for completing the task.

  • Start Date: The date the work is scheduled to begin.

  • Due Date: The deadline for task completion.

  • Status: The current state of the task. Common statuses include: Not Started, In Progress, Blocked / On Hold, and Completed.

  • % Complete: A numeric value (0-100) representing how much of the work is done. This adds more nuance than a simple "In Progress" status.

  • Notes: A place for any additional context, links, or comments related to the task.

Setting Up Your WIP Template in Excel

Before bringing ChatGPT into the mix, let's create a solid foundation in Excel. Building a basic structure takes just a few minutes.

1. Create Your Headers

Open a new Excel spreadsheet. In the first row, type out the column headers we discussed above: Task ID, Task Name, Project, Owner, Start Date, Due Date, Status, % Complete, and Notes.

2. Format as an Excel Table

This is a small step with big benefits. Formatting your data as an official "Excel Table" makes it much easier to sort, filter, and apply formulas.

  • Click on any cell within your headers (e.g., A1).

  • Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon and click Table.

  • Excel will automatically detect your data range. Make sure the checkbox for "My table has headers" is checked, and click OK.

Your headers will now have filter dropdowns, and you'll see a new "Table Design" tab appear when you click inside your table. This makes managing your data much cleaner.

3. Add a Dropdown List for Statuses

To keep your status consistent, create a dropdown list. This prevents typos and ensures everyone uses the same terms.

  • Select the entire "Status" column within your table.

  • Go to the Data tab and click on Data Validation.

  • In the "Allow" dropdown, choose List.

  • In the "Source" box, type your statuses separated by commas: Not Started,In Progress,Blocked,Completed.

  • Click OK. Now, each cell in the Status column will have a dropdown menu.

With this basic structure in place, you’re ready to speed up the process with AI.

Using ChatGPT to Do the Heavy Lifting in Excel

Think of ChatGPT as your expert Excel assistant who you can talk to in plain English. You don't need to know complex syntax, you just need to describe what you want to achieve.

Generating Project-Specific Structures

Maybe your project has unique needs. Instead of guessing at the right columns, just ask ChatGPT.

Example Prompt:

“I'm a marketing manager creating a WIP report in Excel to track my content creation pipeline. What are the key columns I should include?”

ChatGPT will likely suggest a tailored list with additional relevant fields like "Content Type" (e.g., Blog Post, Video), "Target Keywords," "Funnel Stage" (e.g., Top, Middle, Bottom), and "Publish Date." This helps you build a more functional report from the get-go.

Writing Excel Formulas with Simple Prompts

This is where ChatGPT really shines. Manually writing and troubleshooting formulas can be frustrating. Now, you can just ask for them.

Example 1: Calculating Overdue Tasks or Days Remaining

Let's add some intelligence to our sheet. We want a formula that tells us if a task is overdue or how many days are left until the deadline.

Prompt for ChatGPT:

“I'm tracking projects in Excel. The due date is in cell F2. I need a formula that calculates the number of days remaining until the due date. If the due date has already passed, I want it to say 'Overdue'.”

ChatGPT's likely response:

=IF(F2 < TODAY(), "Overdue", F2 - TODAY())

Simply copy this formula, paste it into a new column in your WIP report (let's call it "Days to Due"), and drag it down. Excel's Table feature will autofill it for all rows. Just like that, you have a dynamic counter that updates every day.

Example 2: Automating Task Progress Calculations

Your team is updating the % Complete column, and you want a summary at a glance. Let’s build a small dashboard at the top of your sheet.

Prompt for ChatGPT:

“My WIP data is in an Excel Table. Task statuses are in the 'Status' column. I need a formula to count how many tasks are 'In Progress'.”

ChatGPT’s likely response:

=COUNTIF(Table1[Status], "In Progress")

You can repeat this prompt for "Completed," "Blocked," and "Not Started" to get a full summary. You can also ask for more advanced calculations.

Prompt for ChatGPT:

“Using my Excel table where the percentages are in the % Complete column, write a formula to calculate the average completion percentage for all tasks combined.”

ChatGPT’s likely response:

=AVERAGE(Table1[% Complete])

In seconds, you're building a dashboard that would have previously required looking up formulas and messing with syntax.

Example 3: Adding Conditional Formatting Rules

Conditional formatting turns your WIP report from a wall of text into a scannable visual dashboard. It highlights important information automatically.

Prompt for ChatGPT:

“I want to add conditional formatting to my 'Status' column in Excel. Can you give me the instructions to make cells with 'Completed' have a green fill, 'In Progress' have a yellow fill, and 'Blocked' have a red fill?”

ChatGPT won't just give you a formula, it will provide step-by-step instructions. It will tell you to go to Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Text that Contains... and then specify the text and format for each status. This guided approach is perfect for learning and implementing features you may not have used before.

Visualizing Your Work in Progress

With your summary data calculated, you can create charts that make the information even easier to understand. Here again, ChatGPT can act as your data visualization advisor.

Prompt for ChatGPT:

“I have an Excel summary that counts tasks by status (Completed, In Progress, Blocked). What is a good chart type to visualize this breakdown?”

ChatGPT will almost certainly recommend a Pie Chart or a Donut Chart to show the proportion of each status relative to the whole, or a Bar Chart to compare the raw numbers. It will explain why each chart is a good choice, helping you build better data literacy.

Once you have a recommendation, select your summary data (e.g., the status labels and their counts), go to the Insert tab, and choose your preferred chart type from the "Charts" section. Excel will generate a professional-looking chart instantly.

Final Thoughts

By pairing the organizational power of an Excel table with the AI-driven assistance of ChatGPT, you can create a detailed and insightful Work in Progress report in a fraction of the time. This frees you from the drudgery of formula writing and lets you focus on what really matters: keeping your projects on track and your team productive.

While this approach is a huge step up from fully manual reporting, you may find that keeping everything updated across multiple platforms is still a time sink. After connecting all our marketing and sales sources in one place, we built Graphed to be the next step in this evolution. Instead of exporting data to put into spreadsheets, you can hook your tools up directly and use plain English to build real-time, self-updating dashboards automatically, allowing your entire team to get the answers they need in seconds.