How to preserve dates when Baseline functionality doesn't meet my needs

MelissaSan

Hi,

I am unable to use baseline because dates and tasks are set throughout a clinical trial and I don't want to reset each time a new "task" is added.

I have Start Date, End Date, Baseline Start and Baseline End.

I want the Baseline Start and Baseline End to be the first entry that is in the Start and End Date columns.

=IF([Baseline Start]@row <> " ", [Start Date]@row, "") this gives me CIRCULAR REFERENCE ERROR.

I've also tried

=IF(ISBLANK([Baseline Start]2, [Start Date]2, " ")) this gives me the same error.

Any advice?

Melissa

AravindGP

Hi Melissa,

The reason for the error is because you're writing the formula in the baseline columns which is referencing the same baseline columns. Since you're not using the default baseline function, the only alternative is to add it manually. You can lock the columns, so no one else changes it (hopefully, no one else has Admin rights) and set yourself an alert or an update request each time a new task is added, as the baseline dates will be blank for them. You can then have them updated manually as the start and end dates of the task.