Plan the deal timetable

The client wants to see the road to closing on Project Alpha: due diligence, signing, the conditions precedent, merger clearance and the long-stop date. And when clearance slips by a week, every deadline that hangs on it has to move with it, without anyone recounting days by hand.

The board does both. A Gantt view lays the phases and milestones out against the calendar for the client. Date offset ties each dependent deadline to the task it follows, so it moves when that task moves.

Add the Gantt view

1. On the deal's board, click the plus beside the views (Add view) and choose Gantt. Adding views is for board managers.

2. Under Select a date range column, choose the column that holds each task's start and end, or Create new date range column if the board has none. Give the view a Title, such as Timetable, and click Create.

   

Add the view early. Add view is not available once a board has more than 200 tasks.

Lay out the phases and milestones

1. Each task group is a row on the chart with its tasks under it. To give a task dates, drag across its row from the start date to the end date.

2. Drag a bar to move it, or drag either end to change the start or the end.

3. Double-click a bar to open Edit task and type the Start date and End date, or a Duration (days). A duration of 0 makes the task a milestone: use it for signing, closing and the long-stop date. Convert to milestone in the menu you get by right-clicking a dated task does the same.

4. To put tasks under a phase, right-click a task and choose Indent: it moves under the task above it, so the individual conditions sit under "Conditions precedent". Outdent lifts it out again. Tasks nest one level deep.

5. Switch between Day, Week and Month to zoom, and click Today to bring today's date into view.

   

The view opens in the new Gantt, marked New (beta). Classic at the top of the view switches to the earlier version, and your browser remembers which one you chose.

Task groups draw a soft rail spanning their tasks. A parent task with dates of its own shows those dates, even when it has subtasks: you edit its dates separately from theirs. A parent without dates of its own shows a thin rail spanning its subtasks instead.

If signing becomes a period rather than a single day, right-click its milestone and choose Convert to task, then adjust the dates. This works even when the milestone has subtasks, such as the checks on signing authority.

Make the timetable useful on a status call

In New (beta), board managers choose the bar colours and further dates for each Gantt view. The choices are saved for everyone who opens that view and survive a reload. Reloading the board also reopens the view you were on.

1. Click Colour: Task group in the Gantt toolbar to choose what the bars tell the reader. Pick a Status, Label, Priority or Dropdown column from the board, or keep Task group to show the workstreams. The button then names the chosen column, for example Colour: Status.

   

   Each task bar takes its option's colour; the row's left edge keeps the task group colour. A task with no coloured option keeps its group colour. For a Dropdown with several selected options, the first option supplies the colour.

   The call is about	Colour the bars by
   Which workstream owns each phase	Task group
   How far the documents and conditions have got	The board's Status column
   Which tasks need attention first	The board's Priority column

2. Click Dates and tick the other date columns the call needs, such as a filing deadline or a review window. The date range column that supplies the main bars is not listed here.

   

3. Close the menu to read the timetable. A Date or Date & time appears as a ring on its day; another Date range appears as a line under the bar. The legend names the columns, and hovering over a mark shows its column and date. Untick a column in Dates to hide its marks again.

   

The marks use the same date-column colours as the board's calendars. A board manager changes those colours in the calendar's Date columns panel; see see the deal's deadlines in a calendar.

Make deadlines follow the task they depend on

A date offset works on a date column, such as the deadline column, in a Table view of the board.

1. Click the deadline cell of the task that depends on another, for example "Completion accounts delivered", and choose Date offset.

2. Under Select the task you wish to associate with the date, keep Tasks and click the task it depends on, such as "Closing". Choose Columns instead to count from another date column on the same task.

3. Type the number of days under Date offset. A negative number counts back, so -5 is five days before. The line underneath gives the date it comes to. Click Save.

   

When the earlier date moves, the dependent deadline moves with it. Open the cell again and it tells you which task it is connected to and by how many days.

To investigate a moved deadline, open the board's Activity log view. The date-change entry shows the old and new dates and Follows … with the source task or column where those details are recorded. Check the source date before changing the dependent deadline; see find out who changed what.

Count working days only

Whether an offset skips weekends and public holidays is set for the whole board. A board manager clicks Board, then Board settings:

• Include holidays, with the country chosen, makes offsets skip that country's public holidays.
• Include weekends makes them skip Saturdays and Sundays.

When you set an offset, the line under it says how many holiday and weekend days it skipped.

Tips from practice

• Plan back from closing. Put closing in first, then give each earlier deadline a negative offset from it. If closing moves, the whole run-up moves with it.
• Two kinds of date, two jobs. Keep phases in the date range column and hard deadlines in a date column with offsets. Tick that deadline column under Dates to see the deadline beside the phase without changing the main bar.
• Show the client the shape, not every task. A timetable for the client usually needs the phases and three or four milestones. Filters apply in the Gantt view too, so filter the board down before you show it: see find what is outstanding before closing.

To see the same deadlines by month, see see the deal's deadlines in a calendar. To have the team warned before a date arrives, see get reminded before a deadline.