Welcome!

Set and lock a baseline due date

Hello,

I am new to SmartSheet and attempting to see if a certain capability exists. I have a waterfall based timeline in place with start date, end date, duration, and a dependency matrix. I now would like to have a column that is called original baseline end date that copies the initial end date but does not move. As the project kicks off and I move duration as the project goes I want to see a difference in the adjusted end date (based off duration changes) and the original unchanged baseline end date.

How can I create this column?

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Jessica Bradbury

The quick answer is Yes, Smartsheet has this capability. However, it's difficult to instruct you the best/easiest way to do this without knowing how your current sheet is set up. It will depend on if you are adjusting the "Duration" Column or "End Date" Column of each row/project phase AND/OR if you're adjusting the "Duration" Column or "End Date" Column of the overall Project Timeline.

Richard Rymill SBP

Craig

Jessica is right you can do this in Smartsheet by creating a LIVE Start and Finish column and a Baseline pair that is a static copy of the first two as you kick off. Then a comparison column to show whether you are "winning or losing" would be helpful comparing actual with Baseline.

Easy to set up and use and there are other ways to do this, by using Reports showing Gantt comparison bars which combines two sheets. Happy to demonstrate these solutions to you if needed?

Our consultants use these regularly.

Hope that helps?

Richard R

SBP

NickV

The easiest way I find is to create a baseline schedule with your durations (set baseline dates in this schedule)

Save it as baseline schedule

Create a template from that baseline schedule

Use template as your master, live, or construction schedule which will let you know what your actual performance (variance) is against your baseline schedule once you start tracking actual dates

Note: To view and reset baseline dates you must be in "Gant View" and you will see "Baselines" on the top right corner.

Cheers

Sign in to join the conversation!

Quick Links

Trending discussions

Dynamic View Editing Role
Hi all, I want to utilize the Smartsheet Dynamic View. Considering the "editor access" type in smart sheet I wonder if the users are aimed to edit the view, should have the editor role? If I am not shared the file with them, will they stay as a Smartsheet user with viewer settings but are able to view the file? Thank you!
Cannot create new Chart from a report
I can create a Chart in Dashboard from sheet well but from Report is not working now. I just try with simple Report (just contain 2 column Primary and Number) but cannot make the chart. Is there any changes recently right, because I haven't worked with Smartsheet dashboard for a long time and I remembered that I could do…
Limiting Access to Folder and it's assets
I shared access to a user to a specific folder under workspace A (folder is 2025-09-Service Factory). However, I can see that he's shown to have access to all the other child folders under 02-ACTIVE Initiatives. Why is that when I only shared out one folder? Is there a way to only share access to users to ONLY specific…