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Smartsheet Timeline Showing Plan vs. Actual

OnePager makes it easy to create a timeline that compares planned and actual dates from your Smartsheet project.

Quickly compare planned and actual dates from your Smartsheet projects in a OnePager timeline like this:

Smartsheet plan vs. actual timeline built using OnePager.

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If you don't already have OnePager, click the button above to download a free trial. Then, follow these instructions to get started:

  1. Start with your project in Smartsheet. Notice that we have a pair of columns called Planned Start and Planned Finish, plus a second set of columns called Actual Start and Actual Finish. This enables us to enter both planned and actual dates into Smartsheet:

    Smartsheet project with planned and actual dates.

  2. Adding a checkbox field called OnePager lets us include certain rows from Smartsheet in the timeline while still keeping things at a high level:

    Checkbox field decides which Smartsheet rows will import into the OnePager timeline.

  3. Save your Smartsheet project, and then click the OnePager button on your desktop:

    Launch OnePager Bundle to import from Smartsheet and build a timeline.

  4. On the OnePager start screen, choose New to start building a new timeline from Smartsheet:

    OnePager start screen.

  5. On the import wizard, choose Select > BROWSE Smartsheet:

    Browse Smartsheet projects from OnePager.

    If this is your first time connecting OnePager to Smartsheet, Smartsheet will ask you for your username and password, and whether you want to allow OnePager to have read-only access to your Smartsheet project for the purposes of building your timeline.

  6. Select your Smartsheet project and click OK:

    Import from Smartsheet into a OnePager timeline.

  7. Back in the import wizard, give your Smartsheet timeline a name, and click Next:

    Name your Smartsheet timeline

  8. Here, we can map the two pairs of date fields to the OnePager timeline. We will map Planned Start and Planned Finish at the top, with Actual Start and Actual Finish at the bottom as baselines.

    Map the Actual Start, Actual Finish, Planned Start, and Planned Finish fields from Smartsheet into your timeline.

  9. Click Create New Chart. OnePager will import both the planned and actual dates from Smartsheet.

    OnePager timeline from Smartsheet comparing planned and actual dates

    In this timeline, planned dates are the colorful bars on top, while actuals are in the gray bars underneath. You can quickly see that there has been a lot of movement in the project, especially in Phase 3 towards the end.

    If you only see one set of dates, go to Home > Chart Properties > Task Bars and make sure that the Baseline Markers box is checked:

    Display actual dates from Smartsheet underneath planned dates, if they're not already showing in your timeline.

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Adjusting the Position of Planned or Actual Dates

OnePager is flexible and gives you many options on how to adjust your display of plan vs. actual dates from Smartsheet.

For example, if you want to switch the positions of the planned and actual dates so that actual dates appear on top of planned dates, go to Home > Chart Properties > Field Mappings, and reverse the mappings on your planned and actual dates from Smartsheet:

Switch the position of planned and actual dates from Smartsheet in your timeline.

Click OK, and you'll see the the planned and actual dates from Smartsheet will switch positions, like this:

Smartsheet timeline with actual dates on top and planned dates on the bottom.

Get started today by downloading a free trial.

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