Can a Dependency outcome be set to show an early or late value in production process?

ew112261

Hi There, 

I am using my smartsheet to manage a production of furniture goods. I have set columns up for Start/ Finish/ Expected finish/ Duration/ and Delay to Expected finish. This will enable me to see where the delays are happening in the process and analyse where to improve. 

I have set the dependency between the Expected finish and Finish to give me the Delay to Expected finish. However I have noticed that this gives me the same figure, whether the Finish date comes before or after the Expected Finish date. I.e. a process finishes early or late. 

Is there a way of setting the dependency so its illustrates this? I.e. If a task came in one day early it might read, -1d, or if it came in a day late, +1d? 

Thanks in advance, 

E.winter

Alejandra

Hello,

When you enable the Dependencies functionality, you could see how long something will take to finish (duration) and determine what must happen first (predecessors).

Under the Dependency settings, you'll need to select the columns you'll want to use as the Start and the End date columns. Once you've specified the Start and End date columns, the End date cannot come before the Start date.

If you would like to know the number of days (either positive or negative) between two dates, I would suggest using a formula like this in a new column:

=([Expected Finish]@row - Finish@row) + "d"

If needed, more information on formulas can be found here: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/get-started/formula-basics