Baselines - Variation Field in Business Days?

Tom Ward

Really happy to see this baseline feature in Smartsheet and have been using it effectively. There is one item that doesn't quite seem to make sense with other smartsheet behavior for me.

The Variance shown is in absolute days between two dates - I understand a logic for that, however given the duration column is processed in working days rather than absolute this has been causing confusion in our teams.

Is this logic intentional - if so is there an option to change it?

Genevieve P.

Hi @Tom Ward

The Variance in the Baseline Feature is the difference between Actual End Date and Baseline End Date calculated in decimal days according to the working schedule defined for your project. This means that you should see variance in your Project's specific working days, not in absolute. (See: Baselines)

For example, I have my Project Settings set like so: Monday - Friday, 8hr days

This means that for my project, weekends aren't seen as working days.

Take a look at the 3rd row. When I change my task from its original Friday start date to a Monday start date, this is only seen as a Variance of -1d.

Can you check to see if your Project Settings have different Working Days scheduled than expected?

Cheers!

Genevieve

Genevieve P.

Hi @Tom Ward

The Variance in the Baseline Feature is the difference between Actual End Date and Baseline End Date calculated in decimal days according to the working schedule defined for your project. This means that you should see variance in your Project's specific working days, not in absolute. (See: Baselines)

For example, I have my Project Settings set like so: Monday - Friday, 8hr days

This means that for my project, weekends aren't seen as working days.

Take a look at the 3rd row. When I change my task from its original Friday start date to a Monday start date, this is only seen as a Variance of -1d.

Can you check to see if your Project Settings have different Working Days scheduled than expected?

Cheers!

Genevieve

Tom Ward

Odd, my question was based on feedback from a team member using a template of mine and I thought I tested it out first prior to posting the question.

However testing it to confirm now it looks to be behaving as I'd expect and you described - looks like I didn't look closely enough prior to posting.

Thanks for your response

Genevieve P.

No problem at all!

If you do find that the behaviour is unexpected (or it doesn't align with your Project Settings) please reach out to Support with screen captures and they'll look into it for you.

I'm glad it's working correctly!

Genevieve