10

Modify the Project Plan Sheet

Use the Project Plan sheet to track and maintain critical data about a project. Project sheets in Smartsheet have dependencies enabled and includes columns such as Duration, Predecessors, and % Complete. The project plan will automate your project timeline from the start date and will provide an estimated end date based on project tasks. It's best to enable dependencies for projects with deadlines to ensure every milestone in your project is tracked, on time, and ultimately meets your deadline.
Hover over each step to view a walk-through
A
In the Task Name column, name the project phases in the parent (gray) rows.
B
Use the indented grandchild (white) rows in your hierarchy, to enter tasks in the Task Name column.
C
Starting on row 3, enter dates in the Start Date and End Date, Target Start Date, and Target End Date columns. This template uses the difference between the Actual End date and the Target End date along with Duration to determine the health of the schedule. At the beginning of your project they should be the same for each row.
D
The other data on your ancestor and parent rows, including Start Date, End Date, % Complete, and Duration are auto calculated by the tasks below the parent row.
E
Attach documents or links to webpages to the row in the Attachment (paperclip icon) column to keep all of your project information and resources in one place.
F
Track the progress of your project by viewing the interactive Gantt timeline to see which tasks are complete (green), which are late (red), which are in progress (blue), and which are on hold (orange). These colors are automatically applied to tasks based on their status by existing Conditional Formatting rules on the sheet.