WBS, budget, Gantt and baselines¶

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The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) splits a project into phases, work packages and tasks. In ProjectIQ the WBS is where the budget is built, where dates and dependencies are planned, where progress is reported and where hours and costs are collected. On top of it sit the Gantt chart, with the critical path, and the baselines, frozen copies of the plan that let you compare what was agreed with what is happening.

This manual covers the WBS and Gantt tabs of the project form, the WBS node form, dependencies, allocations and baselines. Planned hours by resource are covered in Resource load.

Concepts¶

flowchart TB
    P[Project PRJ-000042<br/>Office renovation] --> A[1 Design]
    P --> B[2 Construction]
    P --> C[3 Handover]
    A --> A1[1.1 Survey]
    A --> A2[1.2 Executive design]
    B --> B1[2.1 Demolition]
    B --> B2[2.2 Systems]
    B --> B3[2.3 Finishes]
    B2 --> B21[2.2.1 Electrical]
    B2 --> B22[2.2.2 Plumbing]
    classDef leaf fill:#e8f1fb,stroke:#2b6cb0;
    class A1,A2,B1,B21,B22,B3,C leaf;

A WBS node is any element of the tree. A node can have a parent node, so the tree can be as deep as you need.
A leaf node (highlighted above) has no children: it is a real task. Budget, dates and progress are typed on leaf nodes.
A parent node (summary) has children: in the tree grid and in the Gantt its figures are rolled up from the nodes below.
A dependency links two nodes: the successor can start only after the predecessor has finished (finish-to-start), optionally after some lag days.
An allocation says how many hours a resource is planned to work on a node.
A baseline is a snapshot of budget and dates of all nodes at a given moment.

The WBS node¶

Fields¶

General tab

Field	Meaning
Project	The project (required). The node is deleted with the project
Parent Node	The node above in the tree. Only nodes of the same project can be chosen. Empty = top-level node
Code	Outline code, for example `2.2.1`. Free text; it is used for ordering (see below)
Name	Name of the phase or task (required)
Owner Resource	The resource responsible for the node
Sort Order	Optional number that forces the position among siblings
Start Date / End Date	Planned dates
Progress %	Completion percentage (0–100), typed on leaf nodes
Owner	Record owner

Budget tab

Field	Meaning
Budget Hours	Planned hours
Actual Hours	Approved hours recorded on the node (calculated)
Budget Labour	Planned labour cost
Budget Materials	Planned material cost
Budget Other	Other planned costs (subcontracting, rentals, travel...)
Budget Total	Labour + Materials + Other (calculated on save)
Actual Cost	Approved labour cost + material usage on the node (calculated)

Dependencies tab: Predecessors (nodes this node waits for) and Successors (nodes waiting for this one).

Allocations tab: resources and hours planned on the node.

Ordering of nodes¶

Siblings are shown in this order:

by Sort Order, when set (lower first);
then by Code, in natural outline order: 1.2 comes before 1.10, 2 before 10;
then by Name.

So in most cases you only need consistent codes; use Sort Order when you want a different order from the codes.

The WBS tab (WBS Tree Grid)¶

The WBS tab of the project shows the whole tree as an expandable grid.

Column	Leaf nodes	Parent nodes
Name (with code)	Click to open the node form	Click the arrow to expand/collapse; click the name to open the form
Start / End	Editable inline	Earliest start / latest end of the nodes below (grey, rolled up)
Budget Hours	Editable inline	Sum of the nodes below
Labour, Materials, Other	Editable inline	–
Budget Total	Calculated	Sum of the nodes below
Progress %	Green bar from 0 to 100; click the percentage to edit it inline	Budget-weighted progress of the leaves below, as a bar

Amounts are shown in the currency of the project.

The last row shows the Total of hours and budget for the whole project. Rolled-up values are shown in grey; hover over them to see the "Includes child nodes" tooltip.

Button	What it does
New node	Opens a new WBS node form for the project (top level)
New child node	Opens a new node under the selected row (click a row first to select it)
Expand all / Collapse all	Opens or closes every branch
Refresh	Reloads the tree (use it after you changed nodes in another window)

Editing inline¶

Click a cell of a leaf node (dates, hours, labour, materials, other, progress).
Type the value. Decimal numbers can use comma or dot.
Press Enter or click elsewhere to save; Esc cancels.

The change is saved immediately, the budget total of the node is recalculated and the project's Budget Total and Progress % are updated. If a value cannot be saved, a message "The change could not be saved" shows the reason.

If the project has not been saved yet, the grid shows "Save the project to build its WBS."

Building a WBS quickly¶

Create the top-level phases with New node (code 1, 2, 3...).
Select a phase, click New child node and create its tasks (1.1, 1.2...).
Fill in dates, hours and budget directly in the grid.
Open the nodes that need dependencies or allocations and add them in their tabs.

How the budget and progress roll up¶

flowchart BT
    L1["2.2.1 Electrical<br/>Budget 10,000 · Progress 50%"] --> S["2.2 Systems<br/>Budget 25,000 · Progress 70%"]
    L2["2.2.2 Plumbing<br/>Budget 15,000 · Progress 83.3%"] --> S
    S --> P["Project<br/>Budget Total = sum of all nodes"]

Budget Total of a node = Budget Labour + Budget Materials + Budget Other, recalculated on every save.
Project Budget Total = sum of the budget totals of the nodes.
Progress of a summary node and of the project = progress of the leaf nodes weighted by their budget total: (10,000 × 50% + 15,000 × 83.3%) ÷ 25,000 = 70%. If no leaf has a budget, the weights are the budget hours; if there are no hours either, a simple average is used.

Type budget amounts on leaf nodes only. A budget typed on a parent node is still added to the project total, which may count it twice if its children also have a budget.

Dependencies¶

A dependency says that the successor can start only after the predecessor has finished.

Field	Meaning
Predecessor	The node that must finish first
Successor	The node that waits
Dependency Type	Finish-to-Start
Lag Days	Calendar days to wait after the predecessor finishes (0 = the successor can start the day after)
Project / Name	Filled in automatically ("Predecessor → Successor")

Create dependencies from the Dependencies tab of a node: + New WBS Dependency in Predecessors (this node waits for another) or in Successors (another node waits for this one).

The application checks every dependency when you save:

Rule	Message
A node cannot depend on itself	"A WBS node cannot depend on itself."
Both nodes must be in the same project	"Predecessor and successor must belong to the same project."
No loops (A → B → C → A)	"This dependency would create a cycle in the plan."
The same pair only once	A duplicate key error

When you delete a node, its dependencies and all its child nodes are deleted too.

The Gantt tab (Gantt Chart)¶

The Gantt tab draws the WBS on a time line.

gantt
    dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
    axisFormat %d %b
    title Example plan with a finish-to-start chain
    section 1 Design
    1.1 Survey             :done,   s1, 2026-03-02, 5d
    1.2 Executive design   :crit,   s2, after s1, 10d
    section 2 Construction
    2.1 Demolition         :crit,   s3, after s2, 5d
    2.2.1 Electrical       :crit,   s4, after s3, 8d
    2.2.2 Plumbing         :        s5, after s3, 6d
    2.3 Finishes           :crit,   s6, after s4, 7d

What you see:

Left column: the WBS tree (expand/collapse with the arrows; click a name to open the node).
Summary bars (dark) for parent nodes, from the earliest start to the latest end of their children.
Task bars for leaf nodes, with the progress shown as a darker fill.
Arrows for finish-to-start dependencies.
Critical path in red: the chain of tasks with zero float, i.e. the tasks whose delay would delay the end of the project. It is computed from the planned dates and the dependencies (with lag).
Pushed bars: when the dependencies force a task to start later than its planned start, the task is drawn dashed at the date where it can actually start ("Pushed by dependencies to ...").
Baseline bars: thin bars under each task with the dates of the selected baseline.
Today line: a vertical line on today's date.
Tooltip: hover over a bar to see dates, progress, float (days), whether it is on the critical path, and the baseline dates.

Toolbar¶

Control	What it does
Weeks / Months / Quarters	Changes the time scale
Baseline	Chooses the baseline to compare with. The reference baseline is preselected; No baseline hides the comparison
Critical path	Shows or hides the critical path highlighting
Refresh	Reloads nodes, dependencies and baselines

Messages:

"No WBS node has start and end dates yet." — fill in dates in the WBS tab.
"Some dependencies form a loop and were ignored." — the critical path ignores tasks on a loop; this can happen only with data imported outside the application, because loops are refused on save.

Baselines¶

A baseline freezes the budget hours, budget total, start date and end date of every active WBS node at a moment in time. Typical baselines are "Offer", "Contract", "Re-plan after variation 1".

Saving a baseline¶

On the project form click Save Baseline in the command bar.
Confirm. The current WBS is copied into a new baseline, named "Baseline yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm UTC", which becomes the reference baseline.
The Gantt and the Baselines list (Gantt tab) are refreshed and a "Baseline saved." notification appears.

Open the baseline from the list to rename it or add a Description. Its Nodes section lists the frozen values of each node.

Reference baseline¶

Each project has at most one reference baseline: the one the Gantt preselects for comparison. Saving a new baseline makes it the reference. To choose another reference, open that baseline and tick Is Reference: the previous reference is cleared automatically.

sequenceDiagram
    participant PM as Project manager
    participant OP as ProjectIQ
    PM->>OP: Save Baseline ("Offer")
    OP-->>PM: Baseline 1 = reference
    PM->>OP: Changes dates and budget
    PM->>OP: Save Baseline ("Contract")
    OP-->>PM: Baseline 2 = reference, Baseline 1 kept
    PM->>OP: Gantt: choose Baseline 1 in the drop-down
    OP-->>PM: Bars compared with the offer dates

Baselines are never changed by later edits to the WBS. Nodes created after a baseline do not appear in it; deleted nodes stay in it.

Good practices¶

Keep codes consistent (1, 1.1, 1.1.1): ordering, readability and reporting all benefit.
Put budget, dates and progress on leaves; let summaries roll up.
Add dependencies only where they really exist: the critical path is only as good as the links.
Save a baseline at each formal milestone (offer, contract, approved variation) and give it a meaningful name.
Update progress weekly: it drives the project progress and the estimate at completion in the cost summary.

Messages you may see¶

Message	Meaning
"Save the project to build its WBS." / "Save the project to see its Gantt."	The project is new and not saved yet
"The WBS could not be loaded" / "The plan could not be loaded"	A network or permission problem; use Refresh, then check your access to the project
"The change could not be saved"	The inline value was refused (for example progress outside 0–100, or no write access)
"Save the project before saving a baseline."	Save Baseline was clicked on a new project
"The WBS node belongs to another project."	A time entry, material usage or request pointed to a node of a different project