Baselines and variance

A baseline is a snapshot of your plan — every task's and summary's dates and duration — saved so you can compare the live schedule against it later. Ganttry keeps up to five named baselines per project, and one of them is the active baseline that the variance columns and the Gantt's gray bars measure against.

Where to find it#

Click the project's name in the top row to open Project settings, and find Baselines. The toolbar's Baseline button picks which one the Gantt draws.

Saving a baseline#

Press Save baseline… and give it a name — Ganttry suggests Baseline 1, Baseline 2 and so on. It snapshots the plan as it stands and becomes the active baseline.

Save one before your first progress update, so every later update has something to measure against — see Progress tracking and the Projects page.

Managing baselines#

Each saved baseline is listed with its name, the date it was set and how many tasks it holds:

• The round button beside it makes it the active baseline.
• Rename changes its name.
• Replace with current plan re-takes it from the schedule as it stands now.
• With rows selected in the grid, a second button replaces just those tasks and their subtasks.
• Delete removes it, after asking. Deleting the active baseline makes the most recent remaining one active.

Every one of these is a single undo step. With five saved, Save baseline… is grayed out until you delete one.

Variance in the grid#

The active baseline drives two read-only columns, Start Var and Finish Var. They start hidden; show them from Add or show columns… (right-click any column header).

Both count working days, with Microsoft Project's signs: positive means the task has slipped (shown red), negative means it is ahead (shown green). A row that finishes later than the active baseline also gets a red row number.

Once you record progress — a data date and actual dates — the variance reads as plan against actual, with nothing to change.

Baseline bars on the Gantt#

The active baseline draws as gray bars under the live bars, on screen and in PDFs. The toolbar's Baseline button switches which baseline is drawn, or turns them Off.

Point at a bar and its tooltip always gives dates and variance against the active baseline. When you draw a different one, the tooltip adds a dates-only "Drawn" line for it.

In exports#

• The variance columns go into CSV, Excel and PDF once they are shown.
• The PDF dialog has Baseline (planned) bars, and, with more than one baseline, Baseline shown to pick any of them.
• The MS Project XML export sends the active baseline as MS Project's Baseline 0. It goes one way: importing that file back does not bring baselines in.
• With costs on your tasks, the cash-flow chart adds a baseline curve — see Cost loading and cash flow.

Who can use it#

Admins and Editors save and manage baselines in the editor. See Who can see and do what.

Good to know#

• A baseline keeps dates and durations only, for the variance columns and the gray bars. To keep the whole plan as it is now, choose Save a version… from the save chip or Tools ▾: History keeps it by name, and you can look at it, compare it with today's plan or restore it. Make a copy… makes a separate project, without bookings or assignments. See Saving, history and opening projects.
• Baseline names can be up to 60 characters.