Floating tasks

Phil Lynn Dickinson

Short task, task B, 5 days, can start after task A , 1/10/20 start and must be finished by 1/1/21, but I want it to show as a five day task not 60 days. How do you do a floating task?

Prevain D

Hi @Phil Lynn Dickinson

Currently, we offer the Predecessors menu, including the Lag Days field that you mentioned, to control the start/end dates of dependent tasks. There is not currently an option to dynamically control the start date of a dependent task. I would suggest raising an enhancement request for this feature to be added as a consideration with our next product launch update via the following form: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/739aa75f30ca43a8a22eb53e4da7d409

To represent a period of inactivity or overlap between the predecessor and dependent, you can use lag time. More information on project settings can be found in this help centre article: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/765727-enabling-dependencies-using-predecessors

If you are looking for a way to calculate slack, you will want to create 2 more columns, one text/number column and another date column. In the text number column, you can then set a formula to calculate the difference between the end date of task and end date of project. You can then create a formula using either the NETDAYS or NETWORKDAY to calculate the difference between those dates. NETDAYS will calculate the calendar days difference between the two and NETWORKDAY will calculate the set working days between the two days.

Please see our Help Center for more information:

NETDAY: https://help.smartsheet.com/function/netdays

NETWORKINGDAY: https://help.smartsheet.com/function/networkday

Thank you fo using Smartsheet!

Prevain

Prevain D

Hi @Phil Lynn Dickinson

Currently, we offer the Predecessors menu, including the Lag Days field that you mentioned, to control the start/end dates of dependent tasks. There is not currently an option to dynamically control the start date of a dependent task. I would suggest raising an enhancement request for this feature to be added as a consideration with our next product launch update via the following form: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/739aa75f30ca43a8a22eb53e4da7d409

To represent a period of inactivity or overlap between the predecessor and dependent, you can use lag time. More information on project settings can be found in this help centre article: https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/765727-enabling-dependencies-using-predecessors

If you are looking for a way to calculate slack, you will want to create 2 more columns, one text/number column and another date column. In the text number column, you can then set a formula to calculate the difference between the end date of task and end date of project. You can then create a formula using either the NETDAYS or NETWORKDAY to calculate the difference between those dates. NETDAYS will calculate the calendar days difference between the two and NETWORKDAY will calculate the set working days between the two days.

Please see our Help Center for more information:

NETDAY: https://help.smartsheet.com/function/netdays

NETWORKINGDAY: https://help.smartsheet.com/function/networkday

Thank you fo using Smartsheet!

Prevain