I’ve recently converted to Monday.com after being on Smartsheet for the past 5 years. I’ve built out a nice program of boards and dashboards but keep getting stuck with this one basic function.
Each project has a project plan board with a very simple waterfall task list with over 100+ tasks. Very simple, FS setup as my account does not have the dependency type options or leads/logs (very basic functions?).
The project plan has a timeline, with durations and dependencies added for all 100+ tasks. I understand that Monday.com will not auto-load dates for each task like Excel, Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, ProCore…etc. The user has to manually enter each date, and then can use the dependencies/durations function to adjust dates depending on the dependency setting (strict in my case).
For a project with hundreds of tasks, I can’t see having to manually enter dates that could be auto filled so easily since dependencies and durations are already set.
There has to be a better way to do this. Is there a way (with formulas or automations) where if I have dependencies and durations completed for all 100+ tasks, that when I enter the first task date in the waterfall, it will automatically add dates to all tasks from project start to finish?
Thanks for your message - I appreciate your feedback, which will be shared with the product team internally.
That said, I want to make sure I am understanding exactly the roadblock you’re looking to combat. Can you confirm if this is along the lines of what you’re hoping to achieve?
Using the dependency, timeline and duration column, those dependent timelines autofill based on the duration set and the item they’re dependent on.
My overall goal is to have a project template created with all dependencies and durations set, and when the PM opens the template and inserts a date into the timeline of item 1, the timeline dates will autofill for all subsequent items (item 2, item 3…etc). Currently that doesn’t seem to be possible, and I’ve never used a PMIS that didn’t have this feature, so I’m not sure what to do. I believe there use to be an automation for this when I used Monday years ago, but that automation has been removed.
With that said, the action in the video link does not work on my side. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t have the beta version with dependency types (leads and lags…FS/SS etc). If I set dependencies, insert a date into item 1, and then add a duration to item 2, the timeline date for item 2 just becomes today’s date. I’ve spent about 7 hours with chat support and haven’t had any luck figuring this out.
I’m happy to jump on a zoom call and share my screen if you are available.
Hey Kyle, thanks for your response. I understand that this is clearly becoming a tedious process, so would be happy to investigate this further.
If you’re happy to send me a private message with your email, I can take a closer look at the correspondence you’ve had and also inquire internally as to what the update is on full release of our updated dependencies capabilities. Let me know what you think!
Hi Kyle, I had a similar issue when we started using Monday. A Monday team member suggested a work-around which we have been using; sounds like it could help you.
In your template input all dependencies and durations. The duration should be 1 day less than what you need. Timeline should be blank.
Add a ‘simple date’ column. This column can be hidden or deleted later.
Create the automation: “When ‘simple date’ column changes increase ‘duration’ by 1”. If created on your template, the automation will transfer to any boards you create from it.
Once a board is created, select all of your items and pick a date for the simple date column (any date will work). The automation will take several seconds to run on large boards. The change in duration column will trigger Monday to automatically assign dates in your timeline column based on dependencies and durations. Note: any item without a dependency will be scheduled to start on the current day. Strict scheduling will allow you to change the start date if needed.
Hope this helps in the short term. Thanks to the Monday team for looking into adding this as a standard feature.
Hi Bianca,
My apologies for the delayed response here. Before the holiday I had a call with my account sales manager who brough in someone else to take a look. We walked through the issues I am having, and she believes my account has some type of bug. She said she recorded my screen and would put in a ticket. I haven’t heard back yet, I’m hoping this fixes the issue.
