A 24-hour schedule is useful when work continues past the usual business day and the timing of handoffs needs to be obvious. It is often used for shift coverage, overnight maintenance, and time-sensitive operations where tasks must start and finish within specific hourly windows.
This 24-hour Gantt chart template is designed for planning a full day using hourly time blocks. It includes a project header, a task table for ownership and timing, and a 24-hour timeline that fills in colored bars based on the start and end times you enter. The timeline begins at 7:00 AM and continues through 6:00 AM the next day, which keeps overnight work connected to the rest of the schedule.
Start by entering the project details, then add each task with an assignee and the planned start and end times. The timeline updates as you enter times, so you can review overlaps, gaps, and handoffs while the plan is still easy to adjust. The sections below explain each area of the template and how it is typically used.
Project Details at the Top
The header area gives you dedicated fields for Project Name, Project Manager, Start Time, and Date. These fields keep the schedule identifiable when you print it, share it, or save multiple versions for different days.
Entering Tasks in the Table
The task table is where the schedule gets built. Each row includes Task ID, Task Name, Assignee, Start Time, End Time, and Duration in hours.
Duration calculates automatically based on the times you enter. If a start or end time is missing, duration stays blank so incomplete rows do not look finalized while you are still drafting the plan.
How the Gantt Bars Are Filled
The Gantt area uses the Start Time and End Time you enter to fill the matching hour columns with a colored bar. This gives you a fast way to scan the day, spot overlaps, and see where downtime exists.
Color is tied to Task ID. Each Task ID has its own color rule, so tasks are easier to separate visually during review. If you reuse a Task ID for related work, the bar color matches across those rows. If you keep Task IDs unique, each task stays visually distinct.
Scheduling Overnight Work
This template supports overnight tasks where the end time is after midnight. In those cases, you can enter an end time that is earlier than the start time, such as 11:00 PM to 2:00 AM. The duration calculation treats that as a next-day finish, and the bar fills across the late-night hours and into the early-morning columns.
Using Minutes With an Hourly Timeline
Start and end times accept minutes, and duration reflects the exact time difference. The timeline, however, is built on hourly columns. If a task starts at 7:30 AM, the bar begins at the next hour column, since the hour markers are the visual reference. If your schedule needs a visual timeline in smaller increments, the hour header can be expanded into half-hour columns, but that requires adjusting the timeline grid and the fill rules.
Expanding and Adapting the Template
The sheet includes 22 task rows. If you need more rows, you can add them beneath the last task line and extend the same formatting and rules so the new rows behave like the existing ones.
You can also rename the Assignee column for your workflow. Many teams use it for roles, departments, rooms, machines, or workstreams rather than a person’s name.
File Formats and Editing
This template is available in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Use the Excel file if you prefer desktop editing, offline access, and quick sorting during planning. Use the Google Sheets version if you want browser-based editing and an easier review process with teammates. Both formats keep the same task fields, time logic, and color-based Gantt bars, so the schedule reads the same in either file.
FAQs
Enter the start time normally, then enter the end time as the time it finishes after midnight. For example, 11:00 PM as the start and 2:00 AM as the end creates an overnight task. Duration calculates as a next-day finish, and the bar continues into the early-morning hours.
Yes. The hour labels at the top of the timeline control how the day is displayed. Replace the header times with your preferred start hour sequence, then test two or three task rows to confirm the bars fill in the expected columns.
You can enter minutes in the Start Time and End Time cells and duration will reflect those minutes. The timeline is hourly, so the bar placement is evaluated against the hour columns. A task that starts at 7:15 AM will visually begin at the next hour marker.
Add new rows beneath the last task row and copy the formatting and formulas from an existing task row. Then extend the conditional formatting range over the Gantt area so the bars appear for the added rows.
Decimals appear when the time difference includes minutes, since duration is calculated in hours. If you prefer whole hours, round your time entries to the nearest hour or format the duration cell to show fewer decimal places.
