# Kanban Board Template: Build One in Google Sheets or Excel > Build a kanban board template in Google Sheets or Excel: status dropdowns, a FILTER board view, WIP limits that turn red, and when a sheet stops working. _Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/how-to-make-a-kanban-board — The Professional's Toolkit · updated October 2026_ --- A **kanban board template** is a ready-made layout of columns (To do, In progress, Done) and cards, one card per task, that you move left to right as work advances. You can build one in a spreadsheet from three parts: a task list with a status dropdown, a board tab that sorts every task into its column with one formula, and a counter that turns a column red when it holds too much. Below are the exact menu steps for Google Sheets and Excel, a worked example, and the point where a spreadsheet board stops keeping up. **16 hours** — The most work one card should hold, per Atlassian's WIP guidance - **5** — Components of a kanban board, per David Anderson - **3** — Columns at minimum: To do, In progress, Done - **No limit** — Needed on the Done column ## What goes into a kanban board template Every board, paper or digital, rests on the same parts. Atlassian, drawing on David Anderson, lists five: visual signals (the cards), columns, work-in-progress limits, a commitment point and a delivery point [1]. Columns can stay as plain as To do, In progress and Done. The commitment point is where a backlog idea becomes real work. The delivery point is where it reaches the customer. The time between the two is your lead time. A spreadsheet version needs one more decision: where the data lives. Keep **one task per row** on a Tasks tab and treat the board as a view of that list, never as the place you type. When the two get mixed, a task ends up in two columns and nobody knows which one is true. These five columns are all a small team needs to start. | Column | What goes in it | |---|---| | A: Task | One short action, starting with a verb | | B: Owner | One name, the person who moves the card | | C: Status | Dropdown: Backlog, To do, In progress, Review, Done | | D: Due | A date, if the task has one | | E: Started | The date the card entered In progress | > 💡 **Keep the board a view:** Type tasks only on the Tasks tab. The Board tab is formulas, and typing into it breaks what the formula shows. ## How to make a kanban board in Google Sheets Google Sheets has the dropdown built in. The steps below follow Google's own help page [2]. 1. Create a tab named Tasks and type the five headers from the table above in row 1. 2. Select the Status cells, for example C2:C200. 3. At the top, click **Insert > Dropdown**. The Data validation rules panel opens. 4. Under Criteria, type Backlog as the first item. Click Add another item for To do, In progress, Review and Done. Give each one a color, so the status chips read at a glance. 5. Leave the default behavior, which rejects anything not on the list, and click Done. Google also offers preset dropdowns for cases like project status and priority, which save a few clicks. Now add a second tab named Board. Type the five status names across A1:E1 and leave rows 2 and 3 empty for now. In A4, enter: `=IFERROR(FILTER(Tasks!$A2:$A200&" ("&Tasks!$B2:$B200&")", Tasks!$C2:$C200=A1), "")` Copy it across to E4. Each column now lists the tasks whose status matches its header, with the owner in brackets. Change a status chip on the Tasks tab and the task jumps to its new column. That is the whole trick of a Google Sheets kanban. The formula does the moving. ## Building a kanban board in Excel Excel takes one extra step, because its dropdown reads from a list you type first. Microsoft's help page describes the path [3]: 1. On a spare tab, type the five statuses in one column, then press Ctrl+T to turn them into a table. Microsoft recommends a table because dropdowns based on it update automatically when you add or remove items. 2. On the Tasks tab, select the Status cells. 3. Go to the **Data tab, then Data Validation**. 4. On the Settings tab, in the Allow box, select List. Click in the Source box and select your status range, leaving out the header row. 5. Keep In-cell dropdown checked. On the Error Alert tab, keep Show error alert checked with Style set to Stop, so a typo like Inprogress is refused. The Board tab works exactly as in Sheets, and the same FILTER formula carries over in current versions of Excel. If your copy of Excel has no FILTER function, use the column arrows on the Tasks table to filter by Status instead. You lose the side-by-side view but keep one clean list. For a kanban board in Excel that several people update, keep the file in one shared location so nobody edits a stale copy. ## Add WIP limits so the board pushes back A board without limits is a to-do list with extra columns. A WIP limit caps how many cards one column may hold. When it is full, the team finishes something before pulling more [4]. Atlassian notes that some teams set the In progress limit below the number of people on the team. Done needs no limit at all. Review the limits after a few weeks of use, and resist raising one just because the team keeps hitting it. In the spreadsheet, this takes two rows on the Board tab: 1. In row 2, type each column's limit. Leave Backlog and Done blank. 2. In row 3, count the cards with `=COUNTIF(Tasks!$C2:$C200, A1)` and copy it across. 3. Select A1:E1 and add a conditional formatting rule with a custom formula, `=AND(A2<>"", A3>A2)`, set to fill red. In Sheets it sits under Format > Conditional formatting. In Excel it sits under Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule. ### A worked example Picture a four-person marketing team. Backlog holds twelve ideas. To do has a limit of 6, In progress a limit of 3, Review a limit of 2. On Monday, In progress shows 4, because two people each started a second task. The header turns red. Dana moves the newsletter draft she had just started back to To do and spends the morning reviewing the landing page copy that has waited in Review since Thursday. In progress drops back to 3, and the landing page moves to Done. Nothing in the sheet blocked her; the color simply made the jam hard to ignore. > 💡 **Keep each card under 16 hours:** Atlassian suggests sizing tasks at no more than 16 hours of work. One oversized card clogs a column and makes every WIP limit look broken. ## The physical kanban board option Sometimes the right board isn't on a screen at all. A physical kanban board is a whiteboard split into vertical columns, with sticky notes as cards. Atlassian points out its main advantage: it is *always on*, sitting where the team works, simple to set up and simple to show others [1]. The same page is blunt about the downside. It is not ideal for remote teams. Use painter's tape for the columns and write each WIP limit in marker at the top. A paper board teaches the habit faster than any template. Moving a sticky note by hand makes people notice what they are holding. Use one color of note per kind of work, and the mix is visible from across the room. If half the team works remotely, though, a paper board splits the truth in two. Then a shared sheet or an app wins. ## Where the spreadsheet board stops working A spreadsheet board holds up well for one person, or for a small team that looks at it together every day. It breaks at specific points, usually in this order. - **Moving a card means editing a cell.** There is no drag and drop, so people forget to update the status, and the board drifts from reality. - **Nobody is told.** When a card lands in Review, the reviewer hears nothing unless someone sends a message. - **There is no history.** The sheet shows where a card is, not when it moved there. Lead time depends on the Started column, filled by hand. - **Comments and files have nowhere to live.** Owner notes grow into paragraphs, and attachments end up in chat threads. - **Limits only warn.** A red header does not stop anyone from pulling a fifth task. The threshold is concrete. Once more than one person moves cards every day, or you need to know how long work sat in Review, the sheet costs more upkeep than it saves. Plenty of people reach this point and search for a Trello kanban board by name. The wider point is that several task tools include a board view on their free plans. Three of them suit a team stepping up from a spreadsheet. ### ClickUp — solves this Tasks sit on a Kanban board on Free Forever, so a card changes column on the board itself instead of through a cell edit, and the free plan allows unlimited tasks and unlimited free members, so the board grows with the team. - Where it stops: Free Forever includes 60MB of storage and 5 Spaces. - Plan: Free Forever - How ClickUp does it: [Set up ClickUp boards](https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/how-to-get-started-with-clickup) - More: [ClickUp](https://professionalstoolkit.com/tools/clickup) ### Teamwork.com — solves this The Kanban view sits on the same tasks as the list, table and Gantt views, with time tracking built in, so the board, the dates and the hours stay in one place. - Where it stops: Free Forever allows up to 5 users and 5 projects. - Plan: Free Forever - More: [Teamwork.com](https://professionalstoolkit.com/tools/teamwork) ### Asana — partly solves this The free plan's board view shows tasks as cards in columns, and the same tasks appear in list and calendar views, with status updates included for the team. - Where it stops: The free Personal plan allows 2 users, and each task has a single assignee. - Plan: Personal (free) - How Asana does it: [Set up Asana boards](https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/getting-started-with-asana) - More: [Asana](https://professionalstoolkit.com/tools/asana) > ⚠ **Don't skip the Started date:** Without it, the sheet cannot tell you how long a card has waited, and a stale card looks exactly like a fresh one. For the side-by-side view of boards, limits and updates across tools, read our guide to [kanban board apps](/articles/kanban-board-apps). If you want the method itself first, start with [what a kanban board is and how WIP limits shape it](/articles/what-is-a-kanban-board). ## FAQ **Can a Google Sheets kanban board have drag and drop?** No. Sheets moves cell values, not cards. The closest you get is changing the status chip and letting a FILTER formula move the task to its column; for real drag and drop, use a tool with a board view. **How many columns should a kanban board template have?** Three is the minimum: To do, In progress and Done. The template above adds Backlog and Review because most small teams have work waiting in both; drop either if it stays empty, because every extra column is one more place for cards to stall. **What should a kanban card include?** A short task name that starts with a verb, one owner, and a due date if there is one. Atlassian also lists swimlanes, labels and due dates as optional ways to organize a board. **Is a physical kanban board better than a digital one?** For a team in one room, a whiteboard is always visible and quick to change. For remote or mixed teams, a shared spreadsheet or an app keeps one version everyone can see. ## The bottom line A working kanban board template comes down to three pieces: a task list with a status dropdown, a board view that sorts tasks by that status, and limits that flag a crowded column. Google Sheets and Excel handle all three with one FILTER formula and one COUNTIF. Start there, set a low In progress limit, and revisit it after a few weeks. When cards need to move without someone editing cells, or the team needs alerts and history, move the board into a tool built for it. ## Sources [1] Atlassian — https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban/boards (Oct 2026) [2] Google Docs Editors Help — https://support.google.com/docs/answer/186103?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop (Oct 2026) [3] Microsoft Support — https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/get-started/create-a-drop-down-list (Oct 2026) [4] Atlassian — https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban/wip-limits (Oct 2026)