The behavior of Duration, Start Date, and End Date fields when dependencies are enabled

Felipe S

Thought sharing what I learned about editing these fields in a sheet vs a report could be helpful to others. Please note that this only applies when dependencies are enabled on the project settings.

On the sheet

• when they are all blank, indicate any 2 and Smartsheet calculates the third
• After there's already data on these 3 fields:
  • ​If there is no predecessor set in Smartsheet
    • if the end date changes, the duration is recalculated
    • if duration changes, the end date is recalculated
    • if the start date changes, the end date is recalculated
  • If there is a predecessor, the type of relationship will dictate the behavior
    • If it is Finish-to-Start (most common and default relationship) or Start-to-Start:
      • The start date of the item with a predecessor cannot be changed without losing the predecessor relationship
      • Changing duration will recalculate the end date and vice-versa
    • If it is Finish-to-Finish or Start-to-Finish
      • The start date of the item with a predecessor cannot be changed DIRECTLY without losing the predecessor relationship
      • Changing the end date will recalculate the duration and update the start date, and the end date will remain the same
      • Changing the duration will update the start date

On the report:

• when they are all blank, anything can be filled in (I imagine because it is not committed to the DB yet)
• But once there is data on these fields:
  • If there is no predecessor
    • the end date cannot be changed
    • the start date and duration can be changed
  • If there is a predecessor, the type of relationship will dictate the behavior
    • If it is Finish-to-Start (most common and default relationship) or Start to Start:
      • start date and end date cannot be changed
      • changing duration will recalculate the end date (can only be seen in the report after the report is refreshed)
    • If it is Finish-to-Finish or Start-to-Finish
      • ​start date and end date cannot be changed
      • changing ​duration will recalculate the start date (can only be seen in the report after the report is refreshed)

404.IRL

Excellent! Thank you!