Task Start Date Without Predecessor

dale3ME

Hello, I am having an issue with tasks not having a predecessor defaulting to the project start date and cannot be changed. is there a way to add in a specific date to commence the task?

Thanks in advance

Genevieve P.

Hi @dale3ME

I've set up a sheet similar to what you have (just different row numbers).

If I'm understanding you correctly, the yellow cells below represent the dates you want changed, and the orange cells are the dates you want to stay the same:

The blue row won't be able to change because it's a Parent Row, so it will default to the earliest Start Date of all the child rows and the Last End Date of all the child rows, due to the  Parent Rollup Functionality.

For your Task 2 ("Send Energy Enclosure Drawings"), if you want the tasks to be linked (so you need to attach it to Task 1, but it needs a different Start date), then what you've done here is what I would suggest. Add Lag Days to the end of the previous task so that it has the duration you want and yet ends on the correct date. (See the bottom of this article for Lag and Lead time).

If you don't need it linked at all, you could simply remove out the Predecessors all together and those same dates will stay in your sheet as a task that isn't dependent on anything else.

Then for Task 1, you should be able to adjust the Start Date, no problem! However since your Duration is set to 36 days, adjusting the Start will push out your End Date to a different date, moving all your dependent tasks initially. For example, if I want the Start Date to actually be 01/14/22:

So then after I've changed the Start Date, I just need to adjust the Duration to be the correct length to reach the right End Date:

This will then bring the End Date back to the correct date, so all the dependent tasks will go back to how they were.

Note that the blue Parent Row adjusted because my "earliest Start Date" has now changed to 1/14/22 instead of 12/01/21.

Is this the behaviour you're seeing, or do you mean that the cells are completely greyed out so you can't make these adjustments?

Cheers,

Genevieve

Genevieve P.

Hi @dale3ME

You should be able to manually adjust a Start Date of any of your tasks without a Predecessor defined, unless they are a Parent Row. Parent rows will take the earliest Start Date of their Child Rows, see: Parent Rollup Functionality

If you can confirm that this task has no rows indented below it, but you still can't adjust the Start Date, it would be helpful to know a bit more about your project. Could you post a screen capture of the sheet, identifying the row, but block out sensitive data?

Cheers,

Genevieve

dale3ME

Hi Genevieve, please see attached screenshot of one area of the schedule, on the revise energy enclosure drawings task I have had to make the duration 36d to compensate for the start date defaulting to 12/01/2021. The next task send energy enclosure drawings for quoting I have had to add a SS with + 48d to gain the right finish date, regards Dale

Screenshot 2022-01-18 071119.png

Genevieve P.

Hi @dale3ME

I've set up a sheet similar to what you have (just different row numbers).

If I'm understanding you correctly, the yellow cells below represent the dates you want changed, and the orange cells are the dates you want to stay the same:

The blue row won't be able to change because it's a Parent Row, so it will default to the earliest Start Date of all the child rows and the Last End Date of all the child rows, due to the  Parent Rollup Functionality.

For your Task 2 ("Send Energy Enclosure Drawings"), if you want the tasks to be linked (so you need to attach it to Task 1, but it needs a different Start date), then what you've done here is what I would suggest. Add Lag Days to the end of the previous task so that it has the duration you want and yet ends on the correct date. (See the bottom of this article for Lag and Lead time).

If you don't need it linked at all, you could simply remove out the Predecessors all together and those same dates will stay in your sheet as a task that isn't dependent on anything else.

Then for Task 1, you should be able to adjust the Start Date, no problem! However since your Duration is set to 36 days, adjusting the Start will push out your End Date to a different date, moving all your dependent tasks initially. For example, if I want the Start Date to actually be 01/14/22:

So then after I've changed the Start Date, I just need to adjust the Duration to be the correct length to reach the right End Date:

This will then bring the End Date back to the correct date, so all the dependent tasks will go back to how they were.

Note that the blue Parent Row adjusted because my "earliest Start Date" has now changed to 1/14/22 instead of 12/01/21.

Is this the behaviour you're seeing, or do you mean that the cells are completely greyed out so you can't make these adjustments?

Cheers,

Genevieve