Differences/advantages "Status" vs. "% Complete" columns

Clarissa

Hi!

Being quite new to Smarthseet with our organisation, I'd like to understand the advantages and disadvantages of using a "Status column" with Dropdown or Symbols vs. using the "% Complete" column to mark the progress of a task.

Many in our team prefer the more simplified status by just having "not started", "in progress" or "done" (or red, yellow, green symbols) over the % complete where you have to type the percentage.

But I'd like to be sure that we're not missing out on an important advantage of using the % complete column instead.

I'm aware that in % complete you can be more precise of how far a task is while it's in progress, e.g. just started with 10% or almost there with 90%.

And I also know that with % complete you can have a summary for the parent row.

But besides those 2 points, anything else that makes % complete better than the simplified column types? E.g. any advantage with conditional formatting or other more "advanced" functions in Smarthseet?

Paul Newcome

As you have already realized... Having the percentage is much more precise. Everything else (including parent row summaries) can be accomplished through formulas.

I personally prefer the precision of percentages as it allows me to get more accurate results when I am using RYGB for risk because then I can compare the actual percentage to the expected percentage and get a handle on if the task is at risk or not as opposed to just being "In Progress".