1. The use of baselines

Geniusproject allows a project manager to track iterations of their project’s dates. The initial dates saved when planning a project are referred to as the Initial Baseline. A project’s baseline is meant to be used as a point of comparison between what the project schedule was intended to be and what it actually is.

2. Project Dates in Genius Planner

Genius Planner tracks three types of project dates: Initial

Planned Current

The "Current" state of the project plan displays all plan dates as of the current moment. All tasks are displayed as blue bars and deliverables as blue diamonds. The shaded green portion of the task bar represents actual time spent on a task.

1. Initial Baseline

The "Initial" baseline is used to keep track of the intended project schedule that was initially planned and saved.

To see a plan’s "Initial" baseline:

Click on the "Dates" field on the toolbar Select "Current and Initial"

The "Initial" baseline will be displayed as a thin turquoise line under the current blue tasks and deliverables, but not necessarily on the same dates.

The "Initial" baseline is not automatically saved the first time a project plan is saved. All updates or modifications made to the project plan after the "Initial" baseline has been saved will not automatically be added to it.

If project managers want to save the "Initial" baseline, or make changes to the project plan that need to be added to the "Initial" baseline after it has been saved, they can do so manually.

To add tasks and deliverables to an existing "Initial" baseline:

Select "Initial baseline" -> "Accept all current dates as initial baseline"

All blue tasks lines and "Initial" baseline turquoise lines will now line up on the same dates.

If a project manager only wants to include selected task and deliverable updates into the "Initial" baseline they can follow the same steps as above, but select "Accept selected current dates as initial baseline".

2. Planned vs. Current Dates

Once the initial baseline for a project has been saved, all future modifications and updates to the project are stored as "Planned" dates. Planned dates are displayed when "Current and Planned" are selected from the "Dates" field on the plan toolbar.

The "Planned" dates are displayed as a thin purple line under the blue tasks and deliverables, but not necessarily on the same dates.

The Current dates reflect what is going on at the moment, specifically any actual time posted against tasks. While the planned dates reflect any rescheduling of the plan after the initial baseline has been saved and does not include actuals.

The "Current" dates are automatically saved every time the project plan is saved. All updates or modifications made to the project plan after the "Planned" dates has been saved will not automatically be added to it.

If a project manager makes changes to the project plan that need to be part of the "Planned" dates, they can do so manually.

To make all current dates part of the planned dates: Open the project plan

Click on the [Plan] menu

Select "Planned dates" -> "Accept all current dates as planned dates"