Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Drag your task names or category fields from your data model into the Tasks and Hierarchy bucket. To build a multi-level hierarchy, drag multiple fields into this bucket in order (e.g., Phase, Category, and TaskName). The visual automatically aggregates and collapses them into a tree structure in the Data Grid.
To display taskbars on the timeline, you must bind:
- A Start Date field (Date data type).
- Either an End Date field (Date data type) OR a Duration field (Numeric data type).
If you only bind a field to the Start Date well and leave both End Date and Duration empty, the tasks will render as single milestone-like points (dots) on their start dates.
Yes. If your dataset tracks start dates and duration value increments rather than specific end dates, drag the duration numeric column into the Duration well. Go to the Duration card in the Format Pane to specify the unit of time the values represent.
When using the Duration well, you must specify the unit type in the Format Pane under Duration -> Unit. The visual converts numbers to durations based on your selected unit:
- Seconds
- Minutes
- Hours
- Days
- Weeks
- Months
- Years
By default (prior to v3.1), durations were calculated such that they ended before the final calendar day. Toggling Include Last Day to On (available from v3.1) includes the last date in the taskbar span. For example, a 5-day task starting on Monday will stretch through Friday, rather than ending on Thursday.
Drag a progress column into the Progress bucket. The values in this column must be numeric and range between 0 and 1 (representing 0% to 100%). The taskbar will render with a darker shaded portion starting from the left edge of the bar to visualize completion.
Baselines allow you to compare your planned schedule against actual execution. Drag your baseline start date into the Planned Start Date bucket and your baseline end date into the Planned End Date bucket. The visual will render a secondary, thinner bar (colored dark-orange/red by default) underneath the main taskbar.
Summary/parent rows aggregate actual child dates and progress but do not roll up or draw baselines by default. Baselines are mapped specifically to leaf-level child tasks where planning data exists.
Yes. If you have a column with URLs in your dataset, drag it into the Additional Columns bucket. To format it as clickable links, go to the Web URL card in the Format Pane and toggle Show to On.
Yes. Under the Data Grid card in the Format Pane, you can customize background colors for different levels of your hierarchy. This helps visually separate sections:
- Grouping Background Color: Applied to the top-level parent rows (Level 0).
- Category Background Color: Applied to intermediate category rows.
- SubTasks Background Color: Applied to the lowest leaf-level rows.
Yes. Under the Data Grid card, locate the Node Customization section:
- Select Root node in the dropdown to change Font Color, Font Size, and Font Style (Regular, Italic, Bold) for parent rows. You can also specify the background and font color when a parent row is expanded.
- Select Child node to separately format the Font Color, Font Size, and Font Style of the lowest-level tasks.
A ragged hierarchy is a tree structure where some leaf tasks are nested deeper than others, creating blank parent levels for shorter branches. Power BI normally renders these empty levels as blank rows with expand chevrons. To clean this up:
- Select the Gantt visual and open the Format Pane.
- Go to the Ragged hierarchy card.
- Toggle Hide blank to On. The visual will hide the blank parent rows and attach the child tasks directly to the closest non-empty ancestor.
Under the Baselines card in the Format Pane, you can select custom colors for:
- Fill Color (the inner area of the baseline bar)
- Border Color (the outline of the baseline bar) Setting these to transparent/no-fill allows you to render borders only, or solid blocks of color.
Yes. The visual is designed to dynamically detect and adapt to Power BI's high-contrast accessibility themes. It injects a secondary stylesheet that overrides colors with high-contrast tokens, ensuring that text, taskbars, borders, and icons remain visible for visually impaired users.
If your source data contains progress values exceeding 1.0 (100%), the tooltip will show these raw values. To cap progress at 100%, expand the Chart Options card in the Format Pane and toggle Show 100% as max to On (available from v3.1).
In the Format Pane, go to the Timeline card and select a day (Monday through Sunday) from the Week start day dropdown. This aligns weekly timeline columns to start on your selected day when zoomed to the week level.
- Interactive Toolbar Zooming: Under the Toolbar card, toggle Zoom and Zoom To Fit to On. This places buttons on the visual's header toolbar, allowing users to zoom in/out or fit the entire project window.
- Predefined Default Zoom: Under the Timeline card, toggle Zoom Level to On to set a numeric Default Zoom Level (e.g., zoom level 21) or configure a Default Value period (such as Year or Month) for the report load.
Yes. The Timeline card in the Format Pane provides separate control blocks for:
- Top Level Header: Set Height, Background Color, Font Color, and Font Size.
- Bottom Level Header: Set Height, Background Color, Font Color, and Font Size.
Focus Time defines where the horizontal scroll viewport aligns when the report is loaded. Under the Focus time card in the Format Pane, you can configure:
- Today: Centers the scroll position around the current date, leaving a small buffer before and a longer view after.
-
Custom date: Hardcodes a specific date (e.g.,
05/12/2025) as the scroll anchor. - Period Before/After Today: Offsets the scroll viewport relative to today's date by a set number of days (e.g., 95 days after).
If you want the visual to automatically scroll to the earliest task's start date on load, go to Focus time -> Scroll Position and choose Start of the chart from the dropdown (available from v3.1).
Milestones are zero-duration target dates displayed as icons on taskbar rows. Drag your milestone date fields into the Milestones bucket.
Yes. By dragging multiple date fields into the Milestones bucket, the visual will render multiple milestone shapes at their respective dates along a single task row.
Under the Milestone card in the Format Pane, you can configure:
- Show Label: Display description text next to the milestone.
- Label Type: Select whether the label is permanently displayed (Label) or shown on hover (Tooltip).
- Type: Select from various vector shapes (e.g., Diamond, Triangle, Square).
- Styling: Configure Shape Size, Top Offset, Background Color, Label Color, Border Color, and Border Width.
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Data-driven dependencies: Drag a predecessor ID/name column into the Primary Connect To bucket, and optionally drag a connection type column (text containing
StartStart,StartFinish,FinishStart, orFinishFinish) into the Primary Connect Type bucket. - Manual dependencies: Double-click a taskbar to open the Task Information modal, click the DEPENDENCY tab, select the predecessor task, set the connection type, and save.
Four dependency link types are supported:
- Finish-Start (FS): Dependent task starts after the predecessor finishes.
- Start-Start (SS): Dependent task starts when the predecessor starts.
- Finish-Finish (FF): Dependent task finishes when the predecessor finishes.
- Start-Finish (SF): Dependent task finishes when the predecessor starts.
- Double-click the taskbar of the dependent task.
- In the Task Information dialog, select the DEPENDENCY tab.
- Click Add to create a new row.
- Select the predecessor task from the dropdown, choose the dependency type, and set the lag offset (in days).
- Click Save. The visual will automatically render the connecting line.
- Static Events (Events): Configured manually by the report author inside the visual's Edit Mode using a form. These are static date lines or ranges that are saved in the visual configuration.
- Dynamic Events: Driven entirely by fields in your data model. Drag a event date column into Dynamic event and a text column into Dynamic event label. The visual automatically parses your dataset and renders all events dynamically.
Drag the event date field into the Dynamic event field well and the description field into the Dynamic event label field well.
The visual automatically stagger-stacks dynamic event label banners vertically at the point of the event lines, preventing labels on close dates from overlapping.
Yes. Go to the Event Range card in the Format Pane:
- Behind Taskbars: Renders the vertical event range in the background. Taskbars are drawn opaque in front of it.
- In Front of Taskbars: Renders the event range over the taskbars. You can set the Transparency (%) slider (e.g., to 50%) to make it translucent, allowing the underlying taskbars to remain visible beneath the range overlay.
In the Format Pane under the Column Options card, use the Visible Columns stepper to set the default number of columns displayed in the grid before a viewer must scroll horizontally.
In the Column Options card, you can set the width in pixels for each individual column:
- Tasks Column Width (px): Controls the primary hierarchy column.
- [Additional Column Name] Width: Steppers will automatically appear for every field bound to the Additional Columns bucket, allowing you to configure their widths independently.
If you have multiple additional columns in your Data Grid (e.g., Manager, Grouping, Status), displaying all of them can take up valuable screen space. Group Columns allows you to merge these columns under a single collapsible header block. Viewers can expand the group to see all columns or collapse it to see only a single representative column.
- Switch the visual to Edit Mode (click the Edit Mode button in the toolbar).
- Under the Group columns section, click + and select New Grouping.
- Give the group a name and choose if it should be Default expanded.
- Select the columns to group (fields must be bound to the Additional Columns bucket).
- In Group formatting, customize the header style (background, fonts, alignment).
- Choose a Main column to display when collapsed.
- Click Save.
The Main Column is the single column selected from a grouped set that remains visible in the grid when the column group is collapsed. All other columns in the group are hidden until the viewer clicks the expand chevron (»).
Yes. From Gantt v3.x onwards, you can select cells or drag-select ranges directly in the left-hand Data Grid (which highlights the selection in blue). Press Ctrl+C to copy. If you paste this data into Microsoft Excel, the visual's rich formatting (e.g., bold text, text colors, and summary row background fill colors) is preserved.
If Search is turned on in the Toolbar formatting card, a search field appears on the top toolbar. Typing keywords filters the Data Grid rows in real-time, helping viewers quickly locate specific tasks.
When Filters is enabled in the Toolbar card, small filter funnel icons appear on each column header in the Data Grid. Viewers can click these funnels to select specific values to filter the row list, similar to standard Excel filters.
Custom Date Filters allow you to add predefined date ranges to a dropdown menu on the toolbar.
- In the Format Pane under the Custom Date Filters card, click + to add a filter.
- Select a filter type:
- Date: Jumps to a specific, hardcoded date.
-
Date Range: Displays a fixed window (e.g.,
01/01/2025 - 31/03/2025). - Dynamic Date Range: Displays a relative window (e.g., "75 Days After Today") that shifts dynamically relative to the current date.
- Turn on Show Custom Filters in the Format Pane to display the dropdown on the visual's toolbar.
The Profitbase Gantt Chart visual is Microsoft Certified. It undergoes automated and manual testing by Microsoft to guarantee that it does not access external network services or resources. The visual runs inside an isolated iframe sandbox within Power BI. It operates strictly on a push model: Power BI pushes data and settings to the visual, and the visual renders it entirely locally. It cannot connect to the internet, write to external databases, or transmit project data.
A watermark overlay appears if you configure premium features (like custom date filters, column groupings, or manual dependencies) without having a valid license for the user accessing the report. To remove the watermark, you must purchase a license via Microsoft AppSource or directly from Profitbase.
There are two licensing paths depending on how you purchased the visual:
- Purchase: Buy user licenses directly from Microsoft AppSource.
- Assign: Assign seats to users through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center under Billing > Licenses.
- Apply: No license key is required. Microsoft handles licensing natively; users simply need to be logged into Power BI with their assigned account.
-
Purchase: Contact us at
pbi.visuals@profitbase.comto purchase an Enterprise Site or Embedded license. - Apply Key: Select the visual on your Power BI report canvas, navigate to the Format Pane, expand the License card, and paste your provided key into the License key field.
Getting started
Data & setup
Chart & display
Timeline & dates
Baselines & dependencies
Milestones & events
Toolbar & interaction
Edit mode · 
Theming