So I want to populate Duration from another cell on the same sheet.

Rob DeVargas

I get that Duration is auto-calculated from the start and end dates, AND that I can manually enter a duration to adjust the start and end dates. HOWEVER, I have already calculated the number of days that a task will take. So I want to have that number AUTOMATICALLY appear in the Duration column, OR have the End Date automatically calculate based on my task days.

How can I accomplish this? As is stands now, I have to manually enter the days into the Duration column. No bueno.

Andrée Starå

Hi @Rob DeVargas

I hope you're well and safe!

Can you describe your process in more detail and maybe share the sheet(s)/copies of the sheet(s) or some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help.

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Rob DeVargas

I calculate WDays and I need that value to be used as the duration OR to somehow change the End Date.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Rob DeVargas

The Project columns already use a sort of built-in formula to be able to auto-adjust based on the information manually entered, as you described. Because of this, these columns cannot have a formula applied to bring in data from other columns.

See: Areas where formula use is restricted

Cheers,

Genevieve

Rob DeVargas

So this is a HUGE issue, then, for us. It seems that the whole start date, end date, and duration is a closed loop that only allows MANUALLY entered data from the outside. This is not practical since we automatically determine duration lengths of hundreds of project items based upon a series of human resource and project variables.

There has to be some way to allow my duration calculation to be use to determine the end date of the project item, OR some way to allow me to calculate the end date myself. Of course all of this would need to be seen on the Gantt view as well. (I realize that I can calc an end date myself, but it wouldn't be seen on the Gannt view).

David Horowitz

I agree - and there are many applications of this issue where there's a problem. In my example, I only want shipments to leave from one vendor to another on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. The difference between date material received at one vendor and the date they can ship is minimum of 2 days, but I need to add days to the duration based on the day of the week that ends up being. So I have a helper column that says basically - "if the task name is 'available to ship' what is the earliest date material can ship from vendor 1 to vendor 2", and that formula works great. However, it seems like I can't add that value - which is variable between +2 days and + 6 days - to either the duration or to the directly to the date of the next row.

Agree with @Rob DeVargas - I can obviously generate the date, but it won't be seen in gantt and it breaks the downstream rows that are all related to the same process

Wanted to follow up: it would be pretty simple to add a feature where if you drill into the Edit Predecessors box, to indicate the lag is "next monday" or "17 Tuesdays after". OR lag could be the value in a different cell / column