I’m leading ops on a two-site, 12‑month study and need a clean way to track protocol milestones, burn rate, and team handoffs without paying for a full CTMS… In architecture we lean on stage‑gate schedules and earned value; is there a clinical equivalent template that keeps scope, schedule, and budget synced? If you’ve got a Smartsheet or Excel tracker that ties IRB and monitoring visit dates to monthly budget forecasts, I’d appreciate a pointer.
, same pain — on a two-site, 12‑month study I keep scope/schedule/budget synced by building a single Smartsheet/Excel Gantt with “stage‑gate” tasks (IRB approval, SIV, first monitoring visit) as predecessors, plus PV/EV/AC columns so burn rate is driven off % complete and actuals. I add a RACI owner column and a handoff date so the next function triggers when a gate closes; small caveat, earned value gets messy if visit windows slide, so I lock baselines monthly. Want the Excel version I use?
I tie IRB/SIV gates to a PV/EV/AC block; start with Free Earned Value Management Template - EVM in Excel — want my two-site sample?
I’d use a single WBS to drive schedule and costs: a Tasks tab with unique IDs, plan dates/budget, and a RACI column; an Actuals tab keyed to those IDs; then a tiny dashboard with XLOOKUP to surface variance — duct-tape CTMS. @scarlett52, want to mash this with your schedule, or should I share my bare-bones file? Quick RACI reference if useful: https://www.smartsheet.com/content/raci-matrix-templates.