Comparison

Linetrack vs.
Microsoft To Do

Microsoft describes To Do as a simple and intelligent to-do list app for managing your day. Many teams start with it, or with Outlook tasks, before their projects grow. This comparison shows which planning level To Do works on and why projects in mechanical and plant engineering need a system that connects all levels.

Linetrack compared with Microsoft To Do for scheduling, capacity planning and task tracking in industrial projects

In short

Microsoft To Do and Linetrack work on different levels. To Do is one person's own task list: free with a Microsoft account, synced with Outlook tasks and well suited to planning your own day. Engineering projects are planned on three levels, from project planning through detailed planning with staff scheduling to task tracking by employees. To Do covers part of the lowest level and knows neither dependencies nor capacity. Linetrack connects all three levels on a shared data basis, and employee feedback arrives on the task in the project plan. If you run complex projects across several departments, you need that connection. A task list does not create it.

91 %

named Excel and tool sprawl
as their starting problem

59 %

named manual status chasing
as their starting problem

1512+

industrial projects
managed in parallel

10 days

from kick-off
to go-live

Every figure on this page comes from a full survey of all live Linetrack implementations, as of August 2026. Multiple answers were possible for the starting problems.

Starting point

What Microsoft To Do was built for

Microsoft describes To Do as a simple and intelligent to-do list app for managing your day. That is exactly what it is built for. Each person keeps their own lists with tasks and due dates; the app is included free with every Microsoft account and needs no setup. Tasks sync with Outlook. For work and school accounts, tasks assigned to a person in Planner also appear in the "Assigned to me" list.

For working together there are shared lists. You invite other people via a link, and from then on every member can view, add, edit and delete everything in that list. There are no roles. Microsoft therefore positions To Do as a personal tool; scheduling with dependencies is handled in its separate product Microsoft Project. Which system categories are worth considering for engineering projects is covered in the software comparison.

Planning levels

Which level To Do works on

In mechanical and plant engineering, planning happens on three levels. In project planning, sales and project management produce the schedule and the resource forecast, usually with tools such as MS Project or Primavera. The demand per department should flow from there straight into the departments. On the second level, department heads plan their area in detail and assign staff a few weeks before the work phase begins, often in a detailed scheduling system or in Excel lists. At its core, this staff scheduling is the assignment of a person, a task and a due date. That produces the third level, task tracking by employees. Microsoft To Do belongs on this lowest level, and within it on the most personal part: one person's own task list.

In most companies today, every level has its own island. The schedule sits in MS Project, staff scheduling in Excel, and tasks are kept in To Do or handed out by word of mouth. None of these solutions talks to the others. Linetrack connects the islands on a shared data basis: project management plans at a high level, department heads plan in detail down to individual employees, and feedback on tasks arrives on the task in the project plan. For complex projects Linetrack is therefore the right system, because only the connection between the levels shows whether a date will hold. The framework is described on the multi-project management page.

Sales and project management
Project planning and resource forecast
A schedule across the project duration and a forecast of which department needs how many hours, and when.
Typically used:
- MS Project
- Primavera P6
- Excel
Cost side:
- ERP project module
The forecast goes to the departments as resource demand.
Department heads
Detailed and staff scheduling
Each department plans its share in detail and assigns staff a few weeks before the work starts.
Typically used:
- Detailed scheduling system
- Excel sheets
Staff scheduling becomes the task: person, activity, due date.
Staff
Task tracking
Work through the tasks and report back. The feedback turns the planned status into an actual status.
Typically used:
- Trello
- Asana
- Monday.com
- Stackfield
- Microsoft To Do (this comparison)
The actual status goes back into project control: plan vs. actual, scenarios, rescheduling.

Linetrack connects all three levels on one data basis

The forecast lands directly in department planning
Staff scheduling creates the tasks
Feedback via the app updates the plan
Plan vs. actual and scenarios in project control

Today each level often works in its own system, reconciled by email, meetings and Excel sheets.

Breaking point

Where the task list reaches its limit

The limit of To Do is not ease of use. It is the point where many individual tasks are supposed to become one shared project plan.

None of this is a flaw in Microsoft To Do. A personal task list needs neither dependencies nor capacity. An engineering project needs both, plus a schedule in which shifts ripple through the chain of linked tasks. How dates and capacity fit together is described on the scheduling and capacity planning page.

A task knows nothing about its predecessor. To Do has due dates but no links between tasks. If design slips by two weeks, production and assembly stay on their old dates in the lists.
The list knows nothing about workload. Each list shows what one person or one group intends to do. Whether engineering is overbooked in March across all projects cannot be read from it, because To Do has no concept of resources or workload.
Shared lists have no roles. Anyone invited via the link can view, edit and delete everything in the list. In a project where design, purchasing and assembly are each responsible for their own part, that differentiation is missing.
The checkmark does not reach the schedule. Tasks from Planner do show up in To Do. According to Microsoft's support forum, however, even Planner and Project do not communicate without added automation. Project management therefore keeps asking for status by email or in meetings. 59 % of Linetrack customers named manual status chasing as their starting problem.
The ERP stays out of the picture. Orders, project numbers and hour budgets sit in the ERP. To Do syncs with Outlook and Planner; there is no connection to ERP systems. Project tasks are created by hand.

Core argument

To Do collects tasks, Linetrack connects the levels

Task and agile tools such as Trello, Asana, Monday, Stackfield or Microsoft To Do are good at task management. At their core, they collect tasks. To Do is the most personal form of this: the list of a single person, free and right next to Outlook.

An engineering project cannot be run on collected tasks. Design before production before assembly, the same departments in twenty parallel projects, suppliers with their own dates: no task list captures that complexity. In Linetrack, collecting tasks is the lowest level. Project planning and detailed planning sit above it, in the same system.

The test: ask whether engineering is overbooked in March across all projects. To Do cannot answer that, because it knows no resources and no workload. In Linetrack the answer is in the capacity histogram directly below the bar chart, across all projects.

On the lowest level, employees see their tasks in Linetrack on the desktop or in the mobile app and report status directly on the task. The plan turns into actuals. Project control compares the two and plays through scenarios in the system; nothing is rescheduled automatically, people make the decisions. If you need a comprehensive system for complex projects, Linetrack is therefore the one to use. What plan and actuals look like side by side is shown in the plan-vs-actual comparison.

Side by side

Microsoft To Do
versus Linetrack

Seven points where the difference in scope shows up day to day. What is compared is what each tool is built for, not the length of its feature list.

On cost, To Do is ahead, and the app needs no implementation either. The other rows describe the gap between a personal list and a system for collaborative project management. Microsoft To Do details as of our own research based on Microsoft's support documentation, August 2026.

Aspect	Microsoft To Do
Planning level	Task tracking as a personal task list	Project planning, detailed planning and task tracking on a shared data basis
Dependencies	Due dates without links between tasks	Task dependencies with critical path, shifts ripple through the chain
Capacity across projects	No concept of resources or workload	Capacity histogram directly below the bar chart, across all projects
Collaboration	Shared lists via link, all members with the same rights	Roles and permissions per area of responsibility, suppliers with a free collaboration licence
Feedback	Checkmark in the list, synced with Outlook and, for work accounts, with Planner	Task tracking directly on the task via desktop and mobile app, basis for the plan-vs-actual comparison
Integration	Outlook tasks and Planner, no ERP integration	ERP (including SAP, proALPHA, AP+) and time tracking (including AIDA, Finkzeit, OptiTime, VenDoc)
Cost	Free with a Microsoft account	From 10 € per user per month, modular

Security & Trust

Your data. Secure in Germany.

Linetrack runs entirely within the EU – hosted with an ISO-certified partner, fully encrypted, and backed up regularly.

Made in the EU

GDPR-compliant

Hosted in Germany

Application, database, and backups run exclusively with Hetzner in the Falkenstein data center.

Fully GDPR-compliant

Your data is processed and stored exclusively within the EU.

ISO/IEC 27001:2022-certified data center

Our hosting partner operates the data center to the internationally recognized ISO/IEC 27001 security standard.

Encrypted in transit and at rest

Data transmission via TLS 1.2/1.3, storage secured with AES-256 encryption.

Multi-tier backups

Hourly, daily, and monthly backups with a typical recovery time of under one hour.

Honest boundaries

When Microsoft To Do is enough

For many tasks, To Do is the right tool. Four cases in which the app is sufficient:

Your own task list. Reminders, call-backs, private to-dos: To Do is built for planning your own day. The app is included free with every Microsoft account and works without any setup.
The working day runs in Outlook. If you manage email and appointments in Outlook, To Do keeps your tasks synced right next to them. With work accounts, tasks assigned in Planner are added in the "Assigned to me" list.
Checklists without a sequence. The open points from a meeting or a packing list for an on-site job at a customer work well in a shared list, as long as no task depends on another and nobody has to coordinate capacity.
Individual jobs without a project structure. If no schedule is coordinated across departments, for example in a small service team, the coordination effort that Linetrack resolves does not arise.

Scheduling and resource planning in Linetrack across several projects and departments

The picture changes with many parallel projects in which departments share the same people and dates depend on each other. There, no task list is enough, not even a shared one. If you need a comprehensive system for such projects, you should use Linetrack: it connects project planning, detailed planning and task tracking and replaces the isolated solutions on each level. What that looks like in mechanical and plant engineering is described on the industry page.

Switching

How tasks arrive in Linetrack

When switching, the first step is to build the plan the tasks come from. Linetrack reads existing schedules and lists from Excel, MS Project, Primavera or SAP through its standard import. After that, project management plans at a high level, and department heads plan their area in detail down to individual employees.

In staff scheduling, the department head assigns a person and a due date to a task. That is exactly what reaches employees as a task, on the desktop or in the mobile app. They report their status directly on the task, and project management sees it in the plan without having to ask.

Work breakdown structure in Linetrack with work packages, tasks and responsible departments

It takes ten working days from kick-off to go-live. Data is hosted in ISO 27001 certified data centres in Germany, and testing before the decision is free of charge. The process is described on the implementation page.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Still have questions?

Book a meeting with our team.

Is Microsoft To Do a project management tool?

No. Microsoft describes To Do as a simple and intelligent to-do list app for managing your day. There are no dependencies between tasks, no concept of resources or workload and no roles in shared lists. For a personal task list that is fine. For running engineering projects, the foundation is missing.

What is the difference between Microsoft To Do and Linetrack?

To Do is one person's own task list and therefore works on the lowest planning level. Linetrack connects project planning, detailed planning with staff scheduling and task tracking on a shared data basis. Employee tasks are attached to tasks with dependencies there, and their feedback turns the planned status into actuals. The framework is described on the multi-project management page.

Can I plan task dependencies in Microsoft To Do?

No. To Do has due dates but no links between tasks. Microsoft offers scheduling with dependencies in its separate product Microsoft Project. Linetrack has task dependencies with a critical path, and shifts ripple through the chain of linked tasks. How the bar chart is structured is shown on the Gantt planning page.

Can I work on tasks as a team in Microsoft To Do?

Yes, through shared lists. You invite others via a link, and every member can view, add, edit and delete everything in the list. There are no graduated roles and no view across several lists. In Linetrack, roles and permissions apply per area of responsibility, and departments maintain their own part themselves.

How do Microsoft To Do, Planner and Project relate to each other?

For work and school accounts, To Do shows the tasks assigned to a person in Planner in the "Assigned to me" list. Microsoft Project is a separate product with dependencies and scheduling. There is no direct connection between To Do and Project. According to Microsoft's support forum, even Planner and Project do not communicate without added automation.

What does Linetrack cost compared with Microsoft To Do?

To Do is included free with a Microsoft account. Linetrack costs from 10 € per user per month and is modular. Suppliers get a free collaboration licence, and testing before the decision is free of charge. You can get a figure for your setup via the contact page.