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

  • Paul.Woodward
    Paul.Woodward ✭✭✭✭✭

    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.
  • 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,
    Genevieve

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