# Schedule and Milestones

A working-day schedule with chained milestones, a draggable timeline, and dates that cascade.

The dates that drive a job (order-by, ship, FAT) usually live in a spreadsheet on someone's desktop, and when FAT slips, someone retypes every date after it. Here the schedule is on the project, and a slip moves the chain by itself.

## Build the chain

Open **Schedule** from the project's Logs & lists band.

1. Add a milestone with a name, an optional section for grouping, and a **duration**.
2. Pick its predecessor in the **After** field, with an optional lag.
3. Dates work themselves out from there. Slip one milestone and everything chained after it moves with it.

Durations and lags count **working days**, so weekends stop hiding inside "10 days of fabrication". On an empty schedule, **Start from the standard sequence** takes one kickoff date and lays down Kickoff through Substantial Completion, already chained with typical spacing; drag it into your contract's shape from there.

## The timeline

Above the table, a Gantt timeline draws the plan as bars you can drag and resize, with week, month, and quarter views and a today line. The chain that decides the finish date gets a heavier outline, milestones that drive purchasing say so on their row, and dragging a bar shows the date it will land on. Dragging a dependent bar adjusts its lag behind its predecessor, so the chain stays honest.

![The schedule timeline and milestone table](https://submittalkit.com/static/images/help/schedule-and-milestones-timeline.webp)

## Actuals, undo, and history

When a milestone actually happens, record its **actual date**. That pins it where it really landed and the rest of the plan flows from reality instead of the estimate. Every edit that ripples shows an **Undo**, and a history keeps who moved what, when.

## What reads from it

The schedule is one plan, not three. [Procurement need-by dates](/help/coverage-and-lead-times) and the [Submittal Log's](/help/submittal-log) proposal hint read from it, the [dashboard's](/help/dashboard) schedule rail shows its dated items with PAST and SLIP chips, and project followers get an email when one edit moves the finish date a week or more (see [Project settings](/help/project-settings)).

## In and out

**Export XLSX** and **Export PDF** produce a spreadsheet and a Gantt for anyone who wants familiar paper. **Import schedule from XLSX** accepts the export's own columns back; note that importing replaces the whole schedule.

> Seed the standard sequence on day one even if half the dates are guesses. A rough chain that cascades beats precise dates that go stale.

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Submittal Kit · Projects & Schedule · Updated 2026-08-15
Canonical: https://submittalkit.com/help/schedule-and-milestones