Project Mgmt Changing Start Date

Hello, I am trying to create a project management sheet and have a question. I am new to project management as well. The sheet has a start date, end date, duration, and predecessors. If i go to change the start date to an earlier date, I get the following message: Manually changing "Start Date" will result in the removal of all predecessor relationships on the row. I am not sure why it does this?

The sheet has a start and end date, should they date be replaced with actual start and end dates? I am not sure is this is the correct way. I was also wondering does anyone use (add) estimated or actual start and end dates along with the start and end date on the sheet?

I appreciate any help!

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Accepted answers

Hannah H

Hi @Bob Acerrano,

Welcome to Project Management!

You will need to use the predecessors and the duration to adjust any dates that are not your very first start date.

I like to have a row called Project Approved for Initiation where I enter my start date.

Use the predecessors to assign which tasks should follow. Here you can add a lag (positive number of days) or a lead (negative number of days).

Use duration to set how many days a task should last (this will look at the start date and and determine the end date).

Yes, you can use your start and end dates and set up separate columns to track the actual date that work is complete. Here you will want to create a Record a Date workflow using the Automation menu.

Your sheet might look something like this:

Screen Shot 2021-02-16 at 9.50.10 AM.png

You should consider taking some of Smartsheet's training tracks to set you up for success: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/get-started

Best wishes,

Hannah

All comments

Hannah H

Hi @Bob Acerrano,

Welcome to Project Management!

You will need to use the predecessors and the duration to adjust any dates that are not your very first start date.

I like to have a row called Project Approved for Initiation where I enter my start date.

Use the predecessors to assign which tasks should follow. Here you can add a lag (positive number of days) or a lead (negative number of days).

Use duration to set how many days a task should last (this will look at the start date and and determine the end date).

Yes, you can use your start and end dates and set up separate columns to track the actual date that work is complete. Here you will want to create a Record a Date workflow using the Automation menu.

Your sheet might look something like this:

You should consider taking some of Smartsheet's training tracks to set you up for success: https://help.smartsheet.com/learning-track/get-started

Best wishes,

Hannah

Bob Acerrano

Thank you Hannah, I do need to take some of the training. It does make sense, I appreciate your input!

JDI

I really wish there was a hybrid option like MS project has. I want some dates to be calculated for me based on predecessors, FS,SS, lag times, etc. However there are other dates where I want to input a fixed date (eg a report due on 31 August) without having to do the calculations myself to get the math to work out AND so that these are independent of other tasks that could shift over time.

veevee06

Agreed with JDI. That is one of my biggest issues with Smartsheets thus far. The inability to manually change start and finish dates, if dependencies are enabled. In order for the dates to line up, I have to do a workaround of adding a longer duration, when in fact it didn't take that long to execute on the task.

PeggyLang

@veevee06 would you not be better off to add lag or lead times; that way you preserve the duration of the task.

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