Capital Project Management Template Permalink

Use this template to run a portfolio of capital projects in Quire: every building, machine, system or piece of land the company is buying or building, with approved budget, committed and spent side by side. The project opens in Table view, where one row is one capital project and a formula flags the ones already over-committed.

You can visit the Capital Project Management project and duplicate it to your workspace, so you don’t need to build everything from scratch.

You can also explore more ready-to-use templates to speed up your workflow.

Understand Capital Projects

A capital project buys or builds an asset that will sit on the balance sheet for years: a warehouse extension, a machining line, an ERP system, a plot of land. Three things follow from that. The money is authorized once, in a lump, by someone senior. It is spent over one to three years through vendors and contractors. And the question that matters is rarely how much you have paid, but how much you have promised.

Approved, Committed and Spent

Three numbers describe the financial state of a capital project, and they move at different speeds.

Committed is the number to watch. A project that has signed contracts for more than its budget is already over, even if the invoices have not arrived. Spent to Date lags reality by weeks or months, which is why a portfolio run on spend alone learns about an overrun at the point where nothing can be done about it.

Portfolio, Not Project

One capital project is a project plan. Ten of them are a portfolio, and the questions change: how much of this year’s authorization is already spoken for, which projects are in trouble, and which of next year’s requests are still waiting on the board. Those are table questions, so the template is built as one table.

Lay Out the Portfolio

Each root task is one capital project. Its subtasks are the lifecycle phases, from business case to close-out. Three sections split the portfolio by time.

The sample is a mid-size manufacturer. A warehouse expansion, an HVAC replacement, a CNC machining line, an ERP migration and a fire suppression upgrade are in flight. A solar array, a fleet electrification and a land purchase wait in the pipeline. A parking lot repaving is closed.

Phases as Subtasks

Every project carries the same spine of phases as subtasks: business case, funding approval, design, procurement, execution, commissioning and close-out. The names flex with the asset. The ERP migration’s execution phase is Build, configure & data migration, the fire suppression project commissions with an insurer inspection, and the solar array needs a grant submission before anything is bought.

Close-out is the phase teams skip and the one finance cares about most. It is where the asset is capitalized, moving from construction in progress to a depreciating asset, and where the lessons that would improve the next business case get written down.

The Project Description

Each project’s description holds the scope in one line, then the business case and the sponsor. The warehouse expansion reads: overflow storage costs $18k a month, payback in under four years, sponsor VP Operations. When the same project comes up for a change request a year later, that is the paragraph that gets reread.

Tip: Put change orders in the description too, as the HVAC project does. A one-line note saying what changed, by how much, and whether finance has signed off saves the next reader from reconstructing it from comments.

Track the Money in Table View

Table view is only available in the Professional, Premium, Enterprise plans. More information can be found on our pricing page.

Nine custom fields carry the portfolio, and Table view puts them beside every project.

You type three of the money figures. The other three are formulas and recalculate on their own. Edit a value directly in the table when a PO is signed, and the row updates before you have left the cell.

The Budget Health Formula

Budget Health is the column you sort by, and it is one line.

{Committed} > {Approved Budget} ? "🔴 Over-committed" : ({Committed} > {Approved Budget} * 0.9 ? "🟡 Watch" : "🟢 On track")

Under 90 percent committed is green. Between 90 and 100 is Watch, which is the band where the next change order tips the project over. Past 100 is Over-committed.

The HVAC replacement shows why the formula keys off Committed rather than Spent. Approved at $680,000, it has spent $410,000, which reads as 60 percent through and comfortable. But signed contracts total $705,000, so it is $25,000 over before most of the invoices have arrived, and the row is red.

Note: The 90 percent threshold is a convention, not a rule. Tighten it to 0.95 for a portfolio of small, predictable projects. Loosen it for construction, where change orders are normal. Edit the 0.9 in the formula and every row re-scores.

Column Totals and Grouping

The template ships with Sum switched on under the money columns, so the bottom row of the table is the portfolio position. Approved Budget is your total authorized CapEx. Committed is how much of it is already spoken for. The gap between them is what is still free to be contracted. Spent (pct) averages instead, because summing percentages means nothing, and Budget Health carries no calculation because it is text. You can change the calculation per column by hovering over that bottom row.

Group the table to ask the portfolio questions.

• Group by Funding Source to see how much of the year rides on a grant or a bond that has not closed yet. Each group gets its own totals
• Group by Asset Type for the mix between buildings, equipment and systems
• Pipeline projects carry no Approved Budget until they pass the gate, so the totals only ever count authorized money

Run the Lifecycle as Statuses

In the Free Subscription plan, you can have up to 5 statuses in each project, and this template uses 10. Upgrade your subscription plan to keep all ten, or merge the gates down to Business Case, Approved, Execution, Closed-out and Canceled after duplicating. More information can be found on our pricing page.

Ten statuses run the portfolio, and eight of them are gates in order.

Two side exits sit outside the sequence. On Hold is for a project waiting on something outside it, like the sample land purchase waiting on a growth forecast. Canceled is for one that will not proceed.

Open the project in Board view and shuffle the columns by Status. The portfolio reads as a pipeline from left to right, and a column that fills without emptying is the gate where projects stall.

Phase subtasks use the same statuses, following one rule. A finished phase is Closed-out, the current phase carries the same status as its parent, and future phases stay Not started. A project’s status and its open phase then always agree, and the phase carries the dates.

Note: Closed-out and Canceled both sit at 100 percent progress, so the Active tasks filter hides them. The Closed-out section looks empty until you switch the filter to All tasks.

Tag the Justification

Every capital request has a reason, and the reason is the tag: Growth, Replacement, Safety & Compliance or Cost Saving. A project can carry two. The CNC line is Growth and Cost Saving. The HVAC replacement is Replacement and Safety & Compliance.

Asset Type says what you are buying. The tag says why. When capital gets squeezed, Safety & Compliance and Replacement are defended differently from Growth, and filtering by tag is how you see what a cut would hit.

A fifth tag, Needs Board Approval, marks anything above the board’s approval threshold so it cannot slip through on a manager’s signature. Filter by it before the board meets and you have the pack.

See the Schedule in Timeline View

Timeline view is only available in the Professional, Premium, Enterprise plans. More information can be found on our pricing page.

Every project carries a start and a due date, and the sample portfolio runs from late 2025 into 2027. Switch to Timeline view and set the scale to Year to see the whole portfolio as bars, one per project.

Collapse the phases and each bar is a project. Expand one and the phases stack beneath it, so a commissioning date that has drifted past the parent’s due date shows up as a bar poking out. Color the bars by status and the gates read straight off the chart. Pipeline projects have a due date but no start date yet, so the timeline hatches the run-up to their deadline instead of drawing a solid bar.

Keep the Numbers Honest

A portfolio table is exactly as good as the last time someone typed a number into it. Three habits keep it true.

Then hold a monthly portfolio review sorted by Budget Health. Red rows first: is a change request in flight, and who owns it. Yellow rows next: what is the next change order, and does it tip the project over. Then the pipeline: which requests are still waiting on a decision, and when it is due.

Budget Changes

Approved Budget changes only through a formal budget change request, never by typing a bigger number to make a red row green. The HVAC project shows the shape. A change order for reinforcing the roof curb pushed Committed $25,000 over, so an Urgent subtask, Submit budget change request (+$25k), sits in the project with an owner and a due date, and the description records the change and that finance has not yet signed. Until it does, the row stays red. That is the point. Red is the honest state, and it is what starts the conversation.

Once the request is approved, raise Approved Budget by the sanctioned amount and Budget Health recalculates. Keep the change request subtask after close-out. It is the record of why the final cost differs from the business case, which is what the next business case needs to learn from.

Adapting It

• Plan by fiscal year? Rename the three sections FY2026, FY2027 and FY2028. The fields and statuses do not care
• Plan by site or business unit? Rename them to that instead
• Finance tracks forecast at completion? Add a Forecast money field and point the Budget Health formula at it instead of Committed
• Reporting to a board? Filter by Needs Board Approval and sort by Approved Budget. That is the pack

Read more on our blog about when a set of projects becomes a portfolio, and what changes when it does.

Start Your Portfolio

Everything on this page can be built by hand. The template is the same thing already assembled: three sections, nine sample projects with 59 phase subtasks, nine custom fields including the three formulas, ten statuses, five tags and the how-to document.

Duplicate the Capital Project Management project into your workspace, then change five things:

1. Delete the nine sample projects and add your own, one root task per capital project. Duplicate one sample first and keep its phase subtasks as the spine for yours.
2. Give each project the code your finance system uses, so the table reconciles to the ledger.
3. Fill in Approved Budget only when a project is funded, and set its status to Approved at the same time.
4. Reassign from the sample members to your own project managers, one per project.
5. Set the Budget Health threshold to your portfolio’s tolerance, then leave it alone so the colors mean the same thing month to month.

Point your team at the How to use this template document. It keeps the field definitions and the status rule inside the project, for anyone who does not read this guide.

If the business case for a project needs writing first, the Project Charter template covers it. For the risks on a large build, pair the portfolio with the Risk Register template.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is capital project management?

Capital project management is the planning, funding, execution and close-out of projects that create or improve a long-lived asset, such as a building, a production line or an IT system. The money is authorized once, spent through vendors over years, and the asset is capitalized at the end, which is why committed spend and close-out matter more than in ordinary projects.

What is the difference between committed and spent?

Committed is the value of signed purchase orders and contracts, paid or not. Spent is the invoices that have cleared. Committed tells the truth about the budget, because a project that has signed contracts for more than it was approved is already over, even if spend still looks comfortable.

What are the stages of a capital project?

Business case, funding approval, design, procurement, execution, commissioning and close-out, in that order. The Quire template uses these gates as statuses, with On Hold and Canceled as side exits, so the portfolio reads as a pipeline in Board view.

How do I manage a portfolio of capital projects?

Put every project in one table with the same fields on every row: a project code, asset type, funding source, and approved, committed and spent figures. Split it into active, pipeline and closed-out sections, then review monthly sorted by budget health.

How do I track a capital budget in Quire?

Add Money fields for Approved Budget, Committed and Spent to Date, then Formula fields for Remaining Budget, Spent (pct) and Budget Health. Table view puts all six beside each project, and the formulas recalculate as you type the committed and spent figures.

What does over-committed mean on a capital project?

Signed contracts and purchase orders exceed the approved budget. It is a stronger statement than over budget on spend, because a contract has to be paid or renegotiated. The template’s Budget Health formula turns red the moment Committed passes Approved Budget.

How do I handle a budget change on a capital project?

Raise a formal budget change request as an urgent subtask with an owner and a due date, note the change in the project description, and leave the row red until the sponsor signs off. Only then raise Approved Budget. Keep the subtask afterward as the record of why the final cost differs from the business case.

How often should a capital project portfolio be reviewed?

Update Committed the day a contract is signed and Spent to Date at month-end close, then review the whole portfolio monthly, sorted by Budget Health with the red rows first. Revisit the pipeline against the fiscal plan each quarter.

Is there a ready-made capital project management template in Quire?

Yes. Visit the Capital Project Management project and duplicate it to your workspace to get the three sections, nine sample projects with phase subtasks, nine custom fields including three formulas, ten statuses and five tags without building them yourself.