Enable Dependencies and Use Predecessors

You can use the Dependencies functionality in Smartsheet for automatic calculation and adjustment of dates as values for Duration (how long something will take to finish) and Predecessors (what must happen first) change. Once dependencies are enabled, your sheet will have the following functionality:

• Altering the start or end date on the defined predecessor will immediately adjust the dates of any dependents.
• Entering any two values for the start date, end date, and duration columns will automatically calculate the third value.
• Start and end dates, duration, and % complete will roll up to parent rows as summary calculations.
• When you enter a Duration and Predecessor value, start and end dates will populate automatically based on the Working Days schedule established in the sheet’s Project Settings.
• Parent row values are read-only, as they’re calculated automatically based on values in the child rows. Learn more in our article on Parent Rollup Functionality.
• You can highlight the Critical Path in the Gantt chart to visualize what drives the overall project duration. See the Help Center article on Critical Path for details.

Enable or Disable Dependencies in a Project

To enable dependencies in your sheet:

1. Click the dropdown arrow  under any column header and select Edit Project Settings.
   
   The Project Settings form will appear.
    
2. In the project settings form, under Dependencies, select the Dependencies Enabled checkbox.
   
   
   
   New options will appear in the Project Settings form.
    
3. Select which columns in your sheet should be used as the Predecessor column and the Duration column. (If you don't have columns set up for this, Smartsheet will insert columns named “Predecessors” and “Duration” for you when you enable dependencies.)

To stop using dependencies and remove the automation from the sheet:

1. Click the dropdown arrow  under any column header and select Edit Project Settings.
2. Uncheck the Dependencies Enabled box and then click OK to apply the changes.

Work with Duration and Predecessors

When you enter a Duration or Predecessor value in a row, the Start and End Dates will populate automatically based on the Working Days schedule established in the Project Settings.

Duration

Duration is the amount of working time between the start and end dates. Duration can be calculated automatically based on a start and end date or you can manually enter it in the Duration column.

When you calculate duration automatically using start and end dates, your duration is returned in days. For other units, enter duration manually. 

The following table includes examples of how to format values in the duration column.

Elapsed time can be used in the Duration column to ignore non-working time (including non-working days and holidays). Lead with an “e” to indicate duration in elapsed time (e.g. e3d, e5h).

Predecessors

Predecessors are used to create dependencies between items. 

Create a Dependency by Specifying a Predecessor

1. Find the row for which you want to create a predecessor.
2. In the Predecessor column, type the row number for the item that must occur before the item you’re working with.

• You can make dependencies on multiple predecessors by entering the row numbers into the cell, separated by a commas (as in row 7 in the image below). Smartsheet will take all predecessors into account when determining the dates of the dependent. (For example: on Finish-to-Start relationships, Smartsheet will schedule the dependent's start date after the latest occurring end date of all predecessors.)
• Adding predecessors to a parent row in hierarchy will apply the predecessor to all of its child rows due to the parent roll up functionality. This predecessor relationship prevents dates in child rows from being directly changed. For example, if a Finish-to-Start predecessor is set in a parent row, all of the child tasks will start on the same date regardless of the predecessors that are set at the child row level. To work around this, set predecessors at the lowest-level child rows whenever possible.

Change the Attributes for a Predecessor Relationship

By default, when you specify a predecessor, a Finish-to-Start relationship is established between items. 

To make changes to the relationships between dependents and their predecessors, click  Edit Predecessors (click on any cell in the Predecessors column). From the Edit Predecessors form, you can change the relationship type or add lag time.

You can choose from the following dependency types:

• Finish-to-Start (FS) - start after the predecessor finishes.
• Finish-to-Finish (FF) - finish at the same time the predecessor finishes.
• Start-to-Start (SS) - start at the same time the predecessor starts.
• Start-to-Finish (SF) - finish before the predecessor starts.

Lag Time and Lead Time

To represent a period of inactivity or overlap between the predecessor and dependent, you can use lag time. For instance, entering 1d into the “Lag (days)” field for a Finish-to-Start dependency causes the dependents to start an additional working day after its predecessor finishes. To schedule the dependents to start before the predecessor finishes, use a negative number (for example, -1d) to create lead time.

NOTE: Lag and lead time can be entered in increments of weeks, whole working days, partial working days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, or a combination (in similar fashion to the duration examples above)