How do you make duration dependent on a fixed end date?

David Erickson

I've created a new project where I will track the completion of grant applications. Each grant has a fixed end date (this will never change). However, if I use the dependencies tool to adjust the duration or start date accordingly, it often alters the end date instead. Is it possible to fix the end date and only have the duration and start date as variables?

Marta Lewis

I love to build from scratch but sometimes it helps to get ideas from a Smartsheet template. Take a look at this one:

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=6331d5287aa54027b341897a4861be9e

Dependencies are there to help associate one task/row with another, and the two date columns work hand-in-hand with the duration column to convey the length of time that one task/row takes to implement.

The grant's fixed deadline is something else, normally included somewhere in the course of tasks/rows as THE milestone to reach, with a 0 in its Duration cell. It's often also highlighted at the top of the sheet, see screenshot example.

Does this help?