Multiple dates in a single sheet

Dolley

I am having trouble tracking my project due to frequent date changes. Can I track the original and actual start/end dates?

Paul Newcome

Have you looked into the baselining feature?

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2482093-baselines

Jeff J Johnson

Hi Dolley,

I track Target Start and End dates vs current Start and End dates, then include variance calculations to show differences between that baseline date and the current date.

1. To start - add two columns to the plan. "Target Start" and "Target End"
2. Then add If not already in your plan.
3. "Schedule Delta (%)", Formula =IFERROR([Schedule Delta (Working Days)]@row / Duration@row, "")
4. "Schedule Delta (Working Days)", Formula =IFERROR(IF([End Date]@row = [Target End Date]@row, 0, IF([End Date]@row > [Target End Date]@row, NETWORKDAYS([Target End Date]@row, [End Date]@row) - 1, IF([End Date]@row < [Target End Date]@row, NETWORKDAYS([Target End Date]@row, [End Date]@row) + 1, ""))), "")
5. "Days", Formula =NETWORKDAY([Start Date]@row, [End Date]@row)
6. "%", =Days@row / (SUMIF(Level:Level, ="", Days:Days))
7. "Variance" =[Target End Date]@row - [End Date]@row
8. Those formulas combined with a Shedule Health formula will give you overall health indicators as well as line item indicators of the plans's progress.

For instance, I can see at the line item a task is behind the original schedule, but at the milestone level, we are still on track for the original date and at the project level, the schedule health is Green.

I hope this helps you! -Jeff

Dolley

@Paul Newcome not yet, but will be happy to dive into it. Thanks for the suggestion

Dolley

@Jeff J Johnson thanks for the breakdown. I will try it out and get back to you with any feedback.