Date dependencies in Airtable

Understanding date dependencies in Airtable

This article covers using date dependencies to streamline your team's and organization's work. Date dependencies are a project management feature that allow automatically cascading updates of datetimes between dependent records.

These updates work by allowing the base creators to designate specific fields for a table(s), such as start date, end date, duration, and predecessor fields. Once those fields are designated, Airtable automatically updates any/all dependent record(s).

NOTE

Date dependencies differ from the Gantt view date dependency behavior because date dependencies use the data layer for all view types and interfaces.

The following date dependency behavior is supported within Airtable records:

• Supported behavior within records:

  • Automatically recalculate start dates, end dates, and modified field durations.

  • Date dependencies' rules are similar to the calendar app date time ranges limitations:

    • Updating the start date moves the end date forward or backward while the duration is unchanged.  

    • Updating the end date will update the duration accordingly. 

    • Updating the duration will update the end date accordingly. 

  • If "Omit weekends and holidays" is enabled, recalculation behavior takes those days into account.

• Supported behavior across records - Airtable supports 3 options for rescheduling logic across Airtable records: Flexible, fixed and none:

  • Flexible - Define Finish-to-start (FS) dependencies between records.

    • Shift record dates when they otherwise violate a dependency relationship — also known as “consume buffer” in Asana or “ flexible buffer” in Monday.

    • Tasks are shifted when their dates begin to overlap. The distance between tasks possibly still decreases.

  • Fixed (Business and Enterprise Scale plans only) - This approach allows you to shift record dates to maintain a fixed buffer distance between dependent records – also known as “maintain buffer” in Asana and “strict mode” in Monday. Use the buffer field to set “lead” or “lag” for a dependency. A positive value corresponds to lag, and a negative value to lead. Set a dependency type and buffer value by selecting a dependency arrow in a Timeline view with Gantt layout enabled. Define dependencies between records with any of the 4 dependency types:

    • Finish-to-start (FS)

    • Start-to-start (SS)

    • Finish-to-finish (FF)

    • Start-to-finish (SF)

  • None (Business and Enterprise Scale plans only)

    • Define Finish-to-start (FS) dependencies between records.

    • Never automatically shift record dates, even when dependent records overlap.

Using date dependencies in Airtable

To use date dependencies, your table will need the following field types:

To create date dependencies:

1. Visit your Airtable homepage.

2. Create or open your preferred base.

3. Click the + icon next to “Add or import.”

4. Click Create blank table, then Save.

5. Click the ⌄ icon next to your table’s name and select Configure date dependencies.

6. Click the ⌄ icon under the “Predecessor field” section and select your preferred field (optional).

7. Click the ⌄ icon under the “Start date field” section and select your preferred field.

8. Click the ⌄ icon under the “End date field” section and select your preferred field.

9. Click the ⌄ icon under the “Duration date field” section and select your preferred field.

10. Click Save.

Understanding potential date dependency errors

Records can contain invalid date dependency values, preventing them from recalculating correctly when dependent values change.

Date dependencies errors:

• Missing required values

• End date is before start date

• Inconsistent duration period

• Finish-to-start (FS) dependency violations

• Looping dependencies

NOTE

When errors are present, they are displayed as a floating bar in the bottom left corner of the view displaying rows, including date dependency data. Clicking the floating bar opens a modal that directs you to fix the errors manually or allows Airtable to address them automatically. Airtable attempts to fix all errors described above, except for looping dependencies. — which needs to be resolved by the user.

Understanding date dependencies and record templates

Date dependencies work alongside record templates. Instead of hardcoding specific dates or defining them relative to a date on the parent record, child record dates can be defined relative to their dependencies.

When date dependencies are enabled for a table, the configuration UI appears slightly different and only allows start dates and duration values to be defined because the end date value is calculated from the other 2 field values.

Only the duration value can be defined if a record has a dependency because its start date is determined from the dependencies.

Once the record template use is initiated, all child records are assigned dependency-aware dates defined relative to each other.

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