Is it possible to set a task due date by the number of days before the milestone date?

Lynn Clemens

I am working to set up a Request form with a milestone date to complete.  We are a medical practice, and this is for a new physician joining.  My milestone is the physician's start date.  I want to set up each task to start/end several days before the milestone.  Example:  If the physician starts on September 1, then my Collateral (Design tasks) need to be completed 20 days before the milestone.  Is this possible?

Juan Muttoni

Hi Lynn Clemens, welcome to the Community! Thank you for sharing your use case with us, it's definitely an interesting one. I'm glad to confirm that it is possible to set the start dates of your tasks by an X number of days before a milestone. Also, you can apply this logic to your request form. I'm going to share with you the steps you need to follow to achieve this below:

1. First, you need to create a Blueprint, where you will specify the connections between your tasks and your milestone. Also, this will help you save time, because you'd only need to create the tasks once.
   To achieve this, create a project blueprint called 'New Physician' or similar and create/add all the relevant tasks to it. Among these tasks, you'll also have to create your milestone.
2. The second step consists of creating dependencies between the tasks and the milestone, which you will accomplish by using the Gantt chart view. You'll need to create a start-finish dependency between your tasks and the milestone.
3. Once the tasks and the milestone have been linked, the last adjustment has to do with applying a lead time to your tasks, so they will start 20 days, 10 days, or the number of days you need before the milestone. Here's an example of how your blueprint would look:
   
4. Once your blueprint is ready, you need to create the request form you mentioned in your comment and link it to the blueprint. You can, for instance, add two questions to your request, which could be: one to define the assignee of the task/project and another one, which would be mandatory, to define the start date of the physician.
5. To link your request form to your blueprint, all you need to do is: in point number 1 of the request builder (on the right side of your screen), select the option 'Create from', select 'Blueprints' and search for the relevant one. By selecting this option, when a user submits the form, a project will be created from the blueprint.
     
6. And for the last step, you need to ensure that your tasks and milestone will be scheduled accordingly - so they won't have the original dates set in the blueprint (however, the lead times will be respected). To do so, scroll to step number 6 of the request form builder, which is 'Reschedule', and select the option to reschedule with the last's task due date (which will be your milestone). At this point, you'll be asked to create a due date question. You can call this question 'Physician's start date'. This date will be applied to your milestone and the rest of the tasks will have the corresponding lead times, with their updated dates.
     

That's all! If you have any additional questions or need extra help, please do let me know.  Also, allow me to mention that you can check our New to Community forum to discover all the resources you can find in our Community 🙂

Looking forward to seeing you more often here!