How to use earliest start date when using mutiple start-to-start predecessors

Stephan Paul · 07/15/24

Trying to use mutiple start-to-start predecessors on a task.

It ends up using the latest start date for mutiple tasks. I want it to use the earliest start date.

Is this possible?

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp · 07/19/24

If it is okay to put all the predecessors under a parent row, you can set the parent-row SS to use the earliest start date of multiple predecessor tasks.

The parent rollup functionality ensures that the parent row gets the earliest start date from all of its child rows.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/765753-parent-rollup-functionality

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=29e4f7c0cce244e6ac4d0893cbbb4f3d

If you can not use the parent row, you can use a separate sheet to get the earliest start of the predecessors and create a link from the date.

A formula to get the earliest Start Date from the multiple predeccessors
=MIN({Start: Task 1}, {Start: Task 2}, {Start: Task 3}, {Start: Task 4}, {Start: Task 5})

We use a link because formulas cannot be entered in the Start column when dependencies are enabled in the project settings. To overcome this limitation, you can create formulas in a separate sheet to calculate dates and then link them back to the target sheet's date cell.

A separate sheet to get the earliest start of the predecessors

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=f02a375446ca4986a4799e5fe627e968

The range {Start: Task1}

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp · 07/19/24

@Stephan Paul

Glad I could help! Upvote for more!😁

jmyzk_cloudsmart_jp · 07/19/24

H @Stephan Paul