NetBramha Studios · Internal Tool · PM Series 12
Design Tracker
A Google Sheets project tracking system built for design teams. The PM plans once. Every designer sees only their tasks. Status syncs back automatically — without anyone updating two places.
Live · Internal
Built by Sarath MS
@netbramha.com gated
Google Sheets · Apps Script
June 2026
The Problem
01
The PM had a plan. The designers had no idea what was in it. Tasks went out over Slack. Three people tracked three versions of the same truth — none of which matched by Friday.
02
Status updates required manual effort in two places. The plan said one thing. The designer's sheet said another. Things fell out of sync within hours.
03
A designer could be a reviewer on another task. No tool handled the dual-role — you either missed it or duplicated the row and maintained it separately.
04
No validation. Overloaded designers, impossible date sequences, and duplicate task names all failed silently — discovered only after the sync broke.
What Was Built
Project Plan
Master tab. PM owns it. 22 columns covering every milestone from planned start to client sign-off. Dropdown validation on every key field.
Designer Sheets
One tab per designer, auto-populated via Apps Script. Each person sees Design tasks and Review tasks — separated by Task Type column.
Two-way Sync
onEdit trigger fires the moment a designer saves. Status and review changes land in the Project Plan instantly. No menu action needed.
Validation Engine
Catches date conflicts, duplicate task keys, same-person reviewer assignments, and daily hour overloads — errors vs warnings, before sync runs.
Live Dashboard
Est vs actual by module. Week-wise timesheet split by designer. Deviation from plan. Planned vs actual completion % — week on week.
Config Sheet
Team names live in one place. Add a designer, create their tab — sync finds them automatically. New projects start from a copy. No script edits needed.
How a Task Moves
01
PM creates the task
Phase, Module, Task, designer, reviewer, estimated hours, planned dates — entered once in the Project Plan. That's the only place the PM touches.
02
Sync pushes to designer tabs
One click. Assigned designer gets Task Type = Design. The reviewer gets the same task as Task Type = Review. Both on their own tab, with the right hours and dates. No overlap, no duplication.
03
Designer works — status syncs back instantly
Designer sets Status → In Progress, fills Actual Start Date. The onEdit trigger writes it back to the Project Plan on save. The PM sees it move without asking anyone.
04
Designer submits for review
Status → In Review. Actual Hours Spent logged. The reviewer's tab now shows Review Status = to be reviewed. It's waiting for them.
05
Reviewer acts
Reviewed → task auto-promotes to Completed in the Project Plan. Changes Requested → designer goes back to In Progress and revises. Reviewer logs their actual hours too.
06
PM signs off
Client approves. PM sets Sign Off = Signed Off. Final state — nothing overwrites it, not even a full re-sync.
Scale & Impact
100+
Tasks tracked per project
4
Designers, dual-role aware
22
Columns, zero manual copying
500+
Rows supported at scale
What Makes This Different
01
Dual-role handling, built in
A designer can be the assignee on Task A and the reviewer on Task B simultaneously. Both appear on their sheet. The Task Type column tells them which role they're playing on each row. No other project plan tool handles this without duplication or a separate tracker.
02
Sync that preserves what matters
Re-syncing the plan doesn't wipe actuals. Actual Start, Actual End, and Actual Hours Spent are snapshotted before every push and written back after. Designers never lose work they've already logged.
03
Validation that flags overloads before they happen
Est Hrs are spread across working days per task. If a designer has 10 hours of assigned work on a single Thursday, the validator catches it — by name, by date — before the plan goes live. Errors block sync. Warnings let it through.
04
Multi-project, zero script edits
New project means make a copy, update Config, rename tabs. The script reads team members dynamically from the Config sheet. A new PM never touches the code. The whole system is in a Google Sheet — nothing to deploy, nothing to install.
"The project plan was always for the PM. This is the first version where the designer actually uses it."

— Sarath MS · Program Manager, NetBramha Studios

Stack
Google Sheets Google Apps Script onEdit Triggers Data Validation Config-driven sync No build step @netbramha.com gated
NetBramha Studios · PM Series 12
Built by Sarath MS · June 2026
Built for the people who actually deliver the work.