Can I add start not earlier than date

Maxplank

Dear Smart Sheet Community,

I am building a project plan and for few tasks I need to add a start date which is independent of predecessors, is this possible in Smartsheet?

Best regards

Paul Newcome

Hierarchy shouldn't be affected, but you are correct that it wouldn't quite fit within the flow.

It may be a little bit of a pain, but have you tried entering that date and then working forwards and backwards from it with the predecessors?

Paul Newcome

Have you tried not including any predecessors in the predecessor column for those rows?

Maxplank

Many Thanks Paul for your answer, I am aware of this option. However then it wont show the hirearchy and the flow of activities as intended.

Paul Newcome

Hierarchy shouldn't be affected, but you are correct that it wouldn't quite fit within the flow.

It may be a little bit of a pain, but have you tried entering that date and then working forwards and backwards from it with the predecessors?

David Sullivan

It would be really good to have "do not start before", "must finish by" etc. as standard constraints in Smartsheet. Work arounds aren't really suitable in the real world (which is why products like MS Project have them). In my view it is one of the few areas of serious project planning functionality that isn't in the gantt workflow. Wouldn't recommend work arounds myself as one slip and it will cascade your dates!

Paul Newcome

@David Sullivan Feel free to browse the Product Ideas topic (link at the top of the page). I am sure someone else has already "officially" submitted this as a product enhancement request, and you should be able to add your vote to it.