A ready to use Excel lookahead for site teams, with a 2, 4 or 6 week view, constraints and predecessor tracking built in. Built by quantity surveyors.
A lookahead planner is a short interval programme, usually 2, 4 or 6 weeks, that a site team uses to sequence upcoming activities, flag constraints and check resources before work starts. It sits below the master programme and above the daily allocation, and it is reissued every week.
The lookahead is the document a foreman actually works from. The master programme tells the client the story. The lookahead tells the gang what happens on Tuesday.Most lookaheads fail in the same two places: the constraints column gets filled in once and never updated, and the plan drifts away from what the diary actually records happening. This template fixes the first problem and makes the second one visible, because every week starts from last week's actual progress, not last week's plan.
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Activity and location | Ties the plan to a physical area so clashes show up before they happen on site |
| Predecessor and duration | Keeps the sequence logic visible instead of buried in someone's head |
| Constraint (design, materials, access, resource) | Forces the team to name what could stop the activity, not just when it should start |
| Status (on track, at risk, slipped) | Colour coded so a project manager can scan the week in seconds |
| Week view toggle (2/4/6 week) | Same data, three horizons: this week's detail, this month's sequencing, this quarter's shape |
Each row carries a constraints note and a colour coded status so the site manager can flag anything that needs chasing before Monday's meeting, not during it.
The Excel file with 2, 4 and 6 week toggle views, constraint tracking and a worked example tab. No form to fill in.
Free download. No email needed. Yours to use and share with your team.A lookahead is only as good as the actual progress it is built from. If this week's diary entries have not been logged when Monday's plan gets written, the lookahead starts from a guess, not a fact.
Gather's AI QS turns the daily record into a contract aligned commercial position automatically, so the claim writes itself from evidence instead of memory.
See the AI QS in action A 30 minute call. No commitment. See if it fits how your team already works.FAQ
The master programme sets out the whole project sequence and milestones. The lookahead is a short interval slice of it, usually 2 to 6 weeks, reissued weekly with the level of detail (location, constraint, resource) the master programme does not carry.
Weekly, at minimum, against actual progress. A lookahead that is not reissued against what actually happened on site drifts within two or three weeks.
Anything that could stop an activity starting on time: outstanding design information, materials not yet on site, access not yet granted, or a resource not yet allocated. Naming the constraint early is what makes the lookahead useful rather than decorative.
They serve different meetings. 2 week for the daily site briefing, 4 week for the project manager's weekly review, 6 week for procurement and subcontractor coordination. This template gives you all three from one data set.
Gather reads your site diaries as they come in, so next week's lookahead starts from what actually happened.
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