Baselines, variance and resources

Take a baseline of the plan so you can see how far dates have moved, and add the people doing the work to see who is over-allocated.

Updated 19 October 2026

Who this is for: business analysts.

A baseline is a snapshot of the plan's dates, usually taken when the plan is agreed. From then on, every item shows its variance: how many working days its forecast is ahead of or behind the baseline. Taking a baseline moves no dates.

Set a baseline

Open the project and choose Plan.
Open the Baseline menu at the top of the page and choose Set baseline….
Under Name this baseline, type a name people will recognise, for example "Approved at Gate 2".
Choose Set baseline. You see how many items it covers.

The Plan page's Baseline menu open, showing the current baseline's name, date and item count, with Re-baseline the plan and Clear baseline below. — Fictional demonstration project. All names and details are invented and do not represent any real organisation, including any that shares a name with it.

See the variance

On the Schedule tab, turn on Baseline in the toolbar.
Read Baseline start, Baseline finish and Variance. For example +4d is four working days late; −2d is two days early.
On the Gantt tab, turn on Baseline to draw the baseline under each bar.

Add a resource and assign work

For resources, the project's Planning level must be Schedule and resources. Set it in Project Setup, on the General tab, under Plan.
On the Plan page, choose the Resources tab and + Add resource.
Choose Person or Role, type the Name, and set Hours a day and Availability % if they differ from the usual.
Choose Add resource.
On the Schedule tab, type the resource's name in a task's Resources cell, for example Jane[50%] for half her day.

Re-baselining

Choosing Re-baseline the plan… replaces the current baseline on every item. Earlier baselines are kept as a record under Earlier baselines, with their names, dates and milestone dates.

Clearing a baseline

Choose Clear baseline… and type the baseline’s name to confirm. Variance disappears until you set a new one.

Reading the load chart

The Resources tab shows one row per resource and one column per week. A figure over 100% is marked with !. Click a cell to see the tasks behind it. The chart only shows over-allocation; it never moves a task. To fix it, change a duration, a dependency or the assignment.

Leave

In a resource’s window, choose + Add a period under Leave to record days away. Leave stays inside the project and is never shown in a report or an export.

Who can do this

Setting baselines and managing resources need the manage plan permission.

Milestones and project status
Add milestones and phases, see each one's health against your tolerance, and write the highlight report that records the project's RAG.
The schedule and the Gantt chart
Switch a project to a full schedule, build the work breakdown with durations and dependencies, paste tasks from Excel, and reschedule on the Gantt chart.
The reports library
Open a project's reports on screen, narrow them with parameters, export them to Word or a spreadsheet, and find every file the project has produced.