BuildBook’s Scheduling allows you to view and manage your project’s Schedule using both a traditional calendar view and a Gantt chart view. You can feel free to switch between views, depending on which you prefer.

The default schedule view in BuildBook is the Gantt chart.

A Gantt chart shows you when different items in your Schedule start and finish, if they overlap, and helps define when one item should begin related to another - all on a single horizontal timeline. It also allows you to easily drag and drop events to change their duration and due date.

If this is your first time using a Gantt chart, all you need to know is that it’s a great way to visualize the timeline for each item and determine how long it will take.

On the left side of the chart shows you columns, some of these are not automatically shown to you but can be added by right clicking on the column name and selecting Columns:

The right side of the chart displays bars that correlate to the start and end dates of each item and include arrows between items to convey dependencies. The longer the bar, the longer the duration. Hovering over each bar will show you the start date, end date, and duration as well.

Dependencies are created through dependent relationships between predecessors and successors.

This relationship allows you to order items in a sequence, where one item must be completed before the next item can begin. If the date of the predecessor changes, you can configure the dates of the successors to automatically shift.

Learn more about how dependencies work in BuildBook here.

As we've discussed, a Gantt chart improves efficiency in your project schedule via dependencies (relationships between predecessors and successors) where one item must finish before another begins.

In addition, you can create what is called a parent-child relationship, where a number of items (children) can be "grouped" within a larger item (parent).

In BuildBook, Phases represent the high-level timeline for your project and can be created as parents to add another level of organization to your Schedule. Example Phases include Demolition, Foundation, Framing, Electrical, etc. Read more on how to use and create Phases.

When you take any item in your Schedule and group it under a Phase, you've now created a parent/child relationship. This means that the Phase, as the parent, now becomes a container for the children where the start date, end date, and duration of the Phase automatically adjust based on the children.

The BuildBook Schedule has the ability to use multiple Schedule Dependency options. To see a little more on these options, head over to this article: Working with Dependencies.

Minimum lag is the option to add additional lag time between items; this lag time can be a negative or a positive number. This allows you to control the gap between dependencies more effectively. For example, you may need to wait a few days for Paint to completely dry before you do another Installation. You can add that lag time to your Installation Task to automatically start a few days after the Paint Task is complete.

Similarly, you may need to have Tasks that are dependent on each other but can start the same day. Putting a negative lag in the Successor Tasks will allow you to move those Tasks backward to start on the same day as the Predecessor Task.

The default option is Auto-scheduling and uses minimum lag, which means when you move two (or more) dependent items forward, you don't want those items to start before the date that you drop them (ie: the space between dependencies will compress down to the minimum).

Alternatively, When you then drag an item backward that has successors, that item will move, but its successors will stay in place because they are preserving their start date (ie: the space between predecessor and its immediate successor will increase, and negative lag won't have any effect).

To automatically move the successors in this case, right-click on the predecessor and click “Auto-Schedule > All Successors”. That will remove the start date constraint, and the successors will move back.

Transitioning from Auto-schedule to Fixed mode or Ignore mode

Minimum lag will not be applied when switching over to Fixed or Ignore modes, but retained for future use when returning to Auto mode.

Transitioning from Fixed to Auto or Ignore

Transitioning from Auto or Fixed

All items will snap to pre-existing constraint dates after clicking “Save”. Minimum Lag and Manually scheduled settings are retained from before Ignore Mode was selected.

Learn more about setting lag time between items.

The sidebar has a default view, but you can customize it if you would like. You have the ability to hide columns, re-arrange columns, and sort. The Manual column is hidden by default

Right-click on the column header and choose Columns. From here you can uncheck any columns you want hidden and can unhide columns.

Click the column you wish to move and drag it to the right or left.

Hover over the vertical line between any column and a double arrow will appear, which indicates you can drag to resize that column.
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Create a project Phase