Capture and compare baselines

A baseline is a frozen snapshot of the project at a moment in time: its tasks, dates, dependencies, and progress as they stood when you captured it. Without one, “are we on track?” is a debate; with one, it’s a number. The teams that get re-approved for budget at the end of phase one are not the ones with the prettiest plans, they’re the ones whose plan vs reality variance is honest and visible. Baselines are how Onplana keeps that variance honest.

Capture a baseline

1. Open the project and select the Baseline tab in the Plan section.

2. Select Save Baseline and give the snapshot a name. Naming it after the event helps later: “Approved plan”, “After scope change”, “Q3 replan”.

3. The snapshot appears in the list with its capture date and who took it. Capture as many as you need; each is independent.

Capturing a baseline requires an Owner or Manager role on the project. This keeps the reference plan an explicit act by someone accountable for the schedule, not something that shifts casually.

Tip

Capture the first baseline the moment the plan is approved, before any work starts. A baseline taken after three weeks of slippage can only ever tell you about drift from an already-late plan.

Compare on the Baseline tab

Select any snapshot in the list to open the variance report next to it. It compares the baseline against the live schedule, including how far the projected project end has slipped and how individual tasks have moved against their planned dates.

Overlay on the Gantt chart

On the Gantt tab, tick the Baseline checkbox and pick which snapshot to show. Each task gets a grey ghost bar underneath its live bar, showing where it was planned to sit when the baseline was taken. Hovering a ghost bar labels it as the planned schedule, and the legend carries a matching swatch.

The ghost bars are read-only: you cannot drag them, and rescheduling live tasks never alters a captured baseline.

Note that the Gantt chart itself is a Pro plan feature, so the overlay view requires Pro. See Plan on the Gantt chart.

Best practices

1. Capture the first baseline at plan approval, not project start. “Approval” is the moment someone signed off; “start” is days or weeks later, after the first changes already happened. The baseline taken at approval is the one stakeholders agreed to; that’s the honest reference.
2. Name baselines after events, not dates. “Approved plan”, “After scope change”, “Q3 replan” reads instantly six months later. “Baseline 1”, “Baseline 2”, “Baseline 3” requires archaeology. The name lives in the variance report alongside the snapshot date anyway.
3. Capture a new baseline after every legitimate scope change. Scope creep happens; pretending it didn’t makes future variance reports useless. The right pattern: when a real change of scope is approved, capture a new baseline with the new agreed plan, and label it accordingly. Old baselines stay as historical reference.
4. Limit to one baseline per planning event, max ~5 total. More than five baselines starts feeling like archaeology rather than reference; pick the canonical “Approved plan” plus the latest replan, and delete the rest. The Baseline tab makes the deletion two clicks.
5. Use the baseline overlay in every status meeting. Five seconds to toggle it on, and the conversation becomes “here’s the ghost vs the bar” instead of “we are tracking… approximately… on time?” The team learns the discipline by seeing the overlay weekly.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

• The Baseline button is greyed out. Capturing requires Owner or Manager role on the project. If you should be able to capture but can’t, check your role on the project’s Members tab, the project role is independent of org role.
• The baseline overlay isn’t showing on the Gantt. Three causes: (a) you don’t have a baseline yet (capture one first); (b) the overlay toggle is off (tick it in the Gantt toolbar); (c) you’re on Free or Starter and don’t have the Gantt at all (baselines work on every plan; the overlay needs Gantt).
• My baselines list shows ten entries; how do I prune? Pick the snapshots that no longer represent reality and use the delete action on the Baseline tab. Old baselines kept for historical context are fine; old baselines kept “in case” are noise.
• The variance report says “no changes” but I see the tasks moved. The variance shows date and progress changes; description, title, and assignee changes are not part of the variance because they don’t affect schedule risk. If you added or removed tasks, those count as variance, check whether the new task has a baseline counterpart (it won’t if added after capture).
• The ghost bar lines up under the live bar. That’s the good outcome, it means the task is exactly where it was planned. The overlay is most informative when ghost and live diverge; the matched case is silent confirmation.

How this combines with other features

• Baseline + Gantt + Dependencies. The schedule-management trio. Wire dependencies first, then capture the baseline; the baseline records the dependency graph along with dates, so the Gantt overlay reflects both. See Plan on the Gantt chart and Link task dependencies.
• Baseline + Earned Value. The Finance tab’s earned-value math uses planned costs from the baseline (Budget at Completion is read from the baseline). If costs change with a replan, capture a new baseline so the EVM numbers reflect current commitment. See Read the EVM dashboard.
• Baseline + Imported MS Project plan. Capture a baseline immediately after import. The imported plan IS your baseline , the moment of import is your “before” reference, and every change you make afterward is drift. See Import from Microsoft Project.
• Baseline + Reports. Cross-project Reports can display baseline variance per project, useful for portfolio-level drift detection. See Run cross-project reports.

Coming from another tool

Tool	Baseline mapping
Microsoft Project	Baseline ≈ Baseline (Project supports up to 11 baselines; Onplana practices ≤5)
Microsoft Project Online	Baselines come across with the OData import; see Migrate from Project Online
Primavera P6	Baseline projects in P6 ≈ Onplana baselines; .xer import preserves them
Asana	No direct baseline equivalent; Asana relies on milestone-based comparison
Jira	No native baseline; teams use sprint planning + version history as the comparison surface

FAQs

Can I edit a baseline after capturing it? No, and that is the point. A baseline is immutable evidence of what was planned. If the plan legitimately changes, capture a new baseline and name it after the change.

How many baselines should I keep? One per planning event works well: initial approval, each major scope change, each replan. You can delete snapshots that no longer matter from the Baseline tab. Most healthy projects end up with three to five baselines over their lifetime.

Do baselines need the Pro plan? Capturing baselines and comparing them on the Baseline tab work on every plan. The ghost-bar overlay lives on the Gantt chart, which is a Pro feature.

Does a baseline include task descriptions and attachments? A baseline records the schedule: tasks, dates, dependencies, planned costs, and progress at capture time. Descriptions and attachments are not part of the variance comparison because they don’t affect schedule risk.

Can multiple baselines be active at once on the Gantt overlay? You overlay one baseline at a time on the Gantt. The Baseline tab lets you switch between snapshots; the Gantt overlay shows whichever one you picked. Comparing multiple baselines at once is on the roadmap.

What happens to baselines if I delete and restore a project? Project deletes go to the Recycle Bin, where the full structure is preserved, including all captured baselines. Restore brings them back intact with their original capture dates and authors.

Can I capture a baseline from a template-instantiated project? Yes, instantiating from a template creates a new project, and you capture its baseline the same way as any other. The template itself isn’t a baseline; the project you make from it is what gets baselined.

Related

• Plan on the Gantt chart, where the overlay lives visually
• Link task dependencies, wire these before capturing the first baseline
• Read the EVM dashboard, Budget at Completion comes from the baseline