Core concepts
Baselines and re-baselines
What a project's baseline is and when it is set, how the PM's live edits differ from a new baseline, how a re-baseline draft is made and approved, the baseline history, and the project's activity log.
- PM
- Approver
A project's baseline is the plan everyone agreed to: a saved copy of every activity's start and end date, and so of the launch date. Srishti measures the project against it. The schedule deviation, the Behind schedule status and every "shifted" date compare today's plan with the baseline.
The PM keeps the live plan current without asking anyone, but those changes never touch the baseline, so a slip stays visible. The baseline itself changes only when an approver approves a new one.
When the first baseline is set
The first baseline is called BL0. It is taken from the schedule calculated while the project is created:
- Within the template's duration, the project is created straight away and the calculated schedule becomes BL0. The creation step says so: "This schedule is the baseline (BL0) — frozen when the project is created."
- Over the template's duration, the plan waits for a baseline approver. BL0 is set when they approve it. Srishti recalculates the schedule at that moment; if the approval comes after the chosen start date, the project starts the day after the approval.
From then on the header shows the Baseline launch beside the Forecast launch, and the difference between them is the schedule deviation. See Projects and project health.
Live edits or a new baseline
The PM has two ways to change a running plan. Use live edits to keep the plan true day to day; use a new baseline when the agreed plan itself has to change, for example after a scope change.
| Live edit | New baseline | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | The activity's side panel and + Add activity | Actions → Create new baseline |
| What can change | Duration, owner, predecessors; add, Mark as done, Delete | Duration and predecessors |
| Approval | None | One of the project's baseline approvers |
| Dates | Recalculated at once | Recalculated when approved |
| Baseline and deviation | Unchanged, so the deviation shows the drift | A new baseline is saved and the deviation goes back to 0d |
An activity added by a live edit has no baseline dates: its side panel says "No baseline (added after creation)" and the Gantt draws it faded. Live edits step by step are on Run a live project.
Re-baseline drafts
Opens the Gantt tab, where you can compare baselines.
The project's permanent record of project-level events.
The PM's menu. Others do not see it, and it is gone once the project is closed.
Starts a re-baseline draft.
Ends the project for good. See Close a project.
A re-baseline starts as a draft that only the project's PM can make, on a running project. A project has at most one draft at a time.
- Open Actions → Create new baseline. In Start a re-baseline draft, keep or change the suggested Draft name (such as "BL1 — 24 Oct 2026"), write the Reason, and choose Create draft.
- Make the changes in the Activities tab. The page locks to the draft: a banner reads "Editing draft baseline …", and the Duration and Predecessor cells become editable (a predecessor is picked from a dropdown, with a lag, and there can be several). Completed activities are locked; a parent's duration comes from its sub-activities. Owners are not part of a re-baseline; change one on the running project.
- Pause if you need to. Save & exit keeps the draft and unlocks the page; Resume editing brings it back. Discard draft throws it away; the live project is untouched.
- Choose Submit for approval. It needs at least one change. The project's baseline approvers are notified, and the page shows the draft is awaiting their sign-off.
The full procedure is on Create a new baseline.
Approving a new baseline
A draft goes to the project's baseline approvers: the one to three people with the Approver flag that the PM named when creating the project. Any one of them decides, in a single round, from Approvals awaiting you. The PM cannot approve it, even if they are one of the approvers; they can reject it to withdraw it.
The review lists the PM's reason and every change, old against new, marks which changed activities are on the critical path, and shows what happens to the forecast launch date.
- Approve
- The changes are applied, the whole plan is recalculated, and the new schedule is saved as the next baseline (BL1, BL2 and so on). The schedule deviation goes back to 0d.
- Reject
- Needs a comment. The draft is discarded and the live project is untouched. To try again, the PM starts a new draft.
The PM is notified of the decision. Deciding step by step is on Review and approve.
Baseline history
Every baseline a project has had is kept. On the Gantt tab, Compare baseline lists them oldest first by name and date, such as "BL0 — 01 Jul 2026", with (current) after the one the project uses now. Pick an earlier one to see how the plan has moved since, or None to hide baseline bars.
The deviation in the header, the Overview and the project list is always measured against the current baseline. The Dev. column on the Gantt follows whichever baseline you compare with.
The activity log
Activity log at the top of the project opens the Project activity log: a permanent, read-only record of project-level events, newest first, with who did what and when. It includes each re-baseline draft being created, submitted, approved (with the new baseline's name) or rejected (with the comment), activities added to the running plan, and the project's closure. It stays readable after the project is closed.
Each activity also has its own Action log tab in its side panel, for that activity's history: task work, document uploads and reviews, and changes to it.