Planned Dates vs. Actual Dates with Date Variance and Gantt Chart

Anita_C

Good evening Smartsheet Community,

Question 1 - Does anyone know the formula I would use for the "Date Variance" (variance between planned and actual) column to populate?

Question 2 - I have set the baseline of the project, however when I populate the "Actual Start Date and Actual End Date" there is no visual change on the Gantt Chart. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Anita_C

Good evening Smartsheet Community,

I believe I may have just solved my planned vs. actual issue.

Once you set your baseline, you can select to show your baseline on your Gantt (You can see a small grey line on the Gantt Chart below).

You will see three new "uneditable" columns (Baseline Start, Baseline Finish, and Variance). The columns you had used as a "Planned Start Date / Planned End Date" now become your actuals.

Please view the screenshot below, I originally set the start date of 2nd July 2018, I then changed the "Planned Start Date" (the new actual date) to the 5th July 2018, and you can now see that the table shows -3 days from the original baseline and the box on the Gantt has now moved to the 5th however the grey "baseline" line is still on the 2nd.

Hope this makes sense!

Anita_C

Good evening Smartsheet Community,

I believe I may have just solved my planned vs. actual issue.

Once you set your baseline, you can select to show your baseline on your Gantt (You can see a small grey line on the Gantt Chart below).

You will see three new "uneditable" columns (Baseline Start, Baseline Finish, and Variance). The columns you had used as a "Planned Start Date / Planned End Date" now become your actuals.

Please view the screenshot below, I originally set the start date of 2nd July 2018, I then changed the "Planned Start Date" (the new actual date) to the 5th July 2018, and you can now see that the table shows -3 days from the original baseline and the box on the Gantt has now moved to the 5th however the grey "baseline" line is still on the 2nd.

Hope this makes sense!

Genevieve P.

Hi @Anita_C

Thanks for posting your resolution! If you're interested to learn more about the Baseline feature, we have a free webinar recording on this page, here: Keep Your Projects on Track with Baselines

Cheers,

Genevieve