Saving and managing a baseline

Saving and managing a baseline

Goal: record the schedule as an agreement (a baseline), so you can later see how far the execution deviates, and keep, rename, choose and delete several baselines.

When you need this

You record a baseline when the schedule has been approved and the work still has to start. If the schedule is formally revised later, for example after a variation order, you save a second baseline and keep the first one. That way you measure the execution against the first agreement and against the revised one. What a baseline records exactly and how the app calculates the variance is explained in Progress, status date and baseline.

Steps

Saving a baseline

1. Press Calculate (F5), for example through Planning › Schedule › Calculate. The baseline records the dates that are calculated at that moment.
2. Choose Planning › Baselines & progress › Manage baselines…. The Baselines window opens.
3. Under Save new baseline there is a suggested name, such as Baseline 1 — (today's date). Type a name of your own that you will recognise later, for example Baseline.
4. Click Save. The baseline is now in the list and is immediately the active baseline.
5. Click Close.

Under every task bar in the Gantt there is now a thin bar with the baseline dates; a milestone gets a small diamond. You turn that overlay on or off with View › Baselines & progress › Baseline overlay.

Choosing the active baseline

Open Manage baselines… and choose in the Active column the baseline you want to compare with. As long as there are baselines, exactly one is active. The Gantt overlay, the report type Variance and the Progress report use it.

Renaming a baseline

Change the name in the list. The change applies immediately; you do not have to click Save.

Deleting a baseline

Click the small wastebasket next to the baseline in the list. If you delete the active baseline, the app asks Delete the active baseline?. Afterwards the newest remaining baseline becomes the active one. If there is no other, there is no active baseline any more and the overlay disappears. You bring back a deleted baseline with Ctrl+Z. Close the window first; Ctrl+Z does not work inside a window.

Variances in the task table

Every baseline has six columns in the task table. Click the + at the right of the task list header (Add column) and open the category Baseline. Per baseline there are Scheduled start, Scheduled finish, Duration, Start variance, Finish variance and Duration variance, with the name of the baseline in front, for example Baseline — Finish variance. The variances are in work days: a plus is later, a minus is earlier. A task that is not in the baseline shows a dash (—) in those columns.

Pitfalls and what the app does

An out-of-date schedule. If the schedule is out of date, the window says Schedule is out of date — recalculate first (F5). That is a warning; saving remains possible. But you then save the old dates. Close the window, press Calculate and only then save.

A baseline with progress in it. If you save a baseline after you have entered progress, it records the state with those actual dates. The variance is then zero and says nothing about the execution any more. Record the baseline before the work starts.

A baseline cannot be updated. If you want to revise the agreement, save a new baseline and delete the old one if needed.

A ⚠ at Duration or Duration variance. For a task in hours, a day is the working time of its calendar. If the calendar has its own hours per day (for example 8 with blocks of 10 hours, from Primavera P6), an older version of the app counted the days differently. A baseline from that version keeps the old number: a task of 1870 hours is 233.75 days in the baseline and 187 days now. The app does not convert such a baseline. The columns Duration and Duration variance of that baseline then show a ⚠; point at it for the explanation. The dates of the baseline are correct. Save a new baseline and delete the old one if needed.

Only tasks without subtasks. A phase is not in the baseline: it has no baseline bar and no variance. The phase follows from the tasks below it.

New and deleted tasks. A task you add after saving has no baseline bar. In the Variance report it appears as New. A task you delete appears as Dropped.

Move project. In the Move project… window, as soon as there are baselines, there is the checkbox Shift baselines too. It is off by default: the baselines stay in place, so the shift shows up as variance. See Moving a project.

Stored in the project file. Baselines and the active choice are saved with the project and come back when you open the file.

See also

• Progress, status date and baseline: what a baseline records and how the variance is calculated.
• Moving a project: the checkbox Shift baselines too.
• Updating progress: entering the actual state that you compare with the baseline.
• 6 New Terraced Houses, De Akkers: one baseline (Baseline at start) before the start, with progress and a status date of 20 May 2027.
• De Vaart Apartment Complex: two baselines, Contract and Re-baseline (variation order), with progress and a status date of 5 July 2027.