How to export Microsoft Planner to Excel

Microsoft Planner can export a whole plan to an Excel file. That file is the input for the free Project Health Check: it reads the tasks, due dates, buckets and completion dates and shows delivery metrics and a milestone timeline.

Steps

1. Open the plan in Planner (in Teams or at tasks.office.com).
2. Click the … (more options) next to the plan name.
3. Choose Export plan to Excel. The file downloads to your computer.
4. Open the Project Health Check and drop the file into step 1.

Menu names can differ slightly between Planner versions.

What the export contains

Task ID, task name, bucket, progress, assignees, start and due dates, completed date and labels. The tool recognises English and German column headers.

Tips for better results

• Export on a fixed day every month and keep the files. Load two exports of the same plan to see how each milestone moved.
• Mark milestones with a label such as “Milestone” or put “Milestone”, “Gate” or “Go-live” in the task name. The tool suggests them; you confirm.
• Name buckets after phases (Intake, Preparation, Execution, Handover, Close) to get a phase band on the timeline.