Handling Milestones when importing project plan data from Excel
I need import project plan data from Excel. I do this copying the data from Excel and pasting into Smartsheet. It works fine except Milestones aren't correctly handled. Tasks in Excel with the same start and end date and a duration of zero, when pasted have a duration of 1d meaning they are not recognised as milestones by Smartsheet. I then have to manually set the Duration to 0 in Smartsheet for them to be recognised.
Is there a way for these to be automatically recognised as Milestones?
Here is an example of the Excel data I am pasting:
Name | Status | Owner | Start | End | Duration |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Task 1 | Complete | Tom | 10-Jan | 16-Jan | 5 |
Task 2 | In Progress | Jane | 17-Jan | 30-Jan | 10 |
Task 3 | Not Started | Dick | 17-Jan | 21-Jan | 3 |
Task 4 | Not Started | Susan | 31-Jan | 05-Feb | 4 |
Task 4.5 | Not Started | Tom | 06-Feb | 12-Feb | 5 |
Milestone 1 | Not Started | Jane | 12-Feb | 12-Feb | 0 |
Task 5 | Not Started | Dick | 20-Jan | 07-Feb | 15 |
Task 6 | Not Started | Susan | 06-Feb | 13-Feb | 6 |
Milestone 1 is given a duration of 1d when I paste into Smartsheet.
Answers
-
That seems pretty frustrating!!! Have you thought of using automations?
- Set Up an Automation Rule:
- In Smartsheet, go to Automation > Create a Workflow.
- Set a trigger: "When rows are added or changed."
- Add a condition: If Start Date = End Date AND Duration = 1d.
- Action: Change Duration to 0d.
- This rule will automatically correct tasks that should be milestones.
- Set Up an Automation Rule:
-
Thanks for answer.
I can't see how to set such a condition - eg I can only set a date field equal to a specific date not to another field. I have quite restricted permisisons in my setup which may the issue here.
-
Hi @lawrenceway
There currently isn't a way to automatically adjust duration across your entire sheet like this. What I would suggest doing is set up a Filter on your sheet to make your manual job easier.
Filter by if the Duration = 1d, then check to see if any of these should be 0d instead.
Cheers,
GenevieveNeed more information? 👀 | Help and Learning Center
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