Compare Lookahead to Master Schedule

Background

When you work in a Lookahead, you are managing a granular field plan that lives "on top" of the master schedule. To ensure the field team stays aligned with the project's overall goals, Procore uses Shadow Bars. These allow you to see the original master schedule dates behind your active field tasks, making it immediately obvious if your current plan is deviating from the master timeline.

Things to Consider

  • Color Logic:

    • Colorful Bars: Represent your active field plan (the lookahead tasks).

    • Light Gray Shadow Bars: Represent the dates currently set in the Master Schedule.

  • Dynamic Updates: If the Master Schedule is re-imported (Option 1) or edited, the gray shadow bars will shift automatically, while your colorful field bars remain in place for comparison.

Updating Existing Schedules

When updating an existing schedule file in your third-party scheduling software (e.g., Microsoft Project, Primavera P6, Phoenix):

  • Always use Save to update your file. This preserves the internal activity IDs needed to map existing Lookahead activities in Procore.

  • Do not use Save As. Using Save As creates a brand new schedule file with new internal IDs. Attempting to upload a Save As copy into Procore will trigger an error because it breaks the associations with your project's Lookahead activities.

Steps

Enable Variance Visibility

  1. Navigate to the Lookahead tab.

  2. Ensure you have "fetched" activities from the Master Schedule.

  3. Look at the Gantt chart. Each activity will display two bars: the editable Colorful Bar and the Light Gray Shadow Bar underneath it.

Interpret the Variance

Observe the alignment between the two bars:

  • Aligned: The field team is working exactly according to the master schedule.

  • Colorful Bar is to the Right: The field plan is slipping (starting or finishing later than the master schedule).

  • Colorful Bar is to the Left: The field team is ahead of schedule (finishing earlier than the master schedule).

  • Extended Bar: If the colorful bar is longer than the shadow bar, the task duration in the field is taking longer than originally estimated.

Analyze Deadline Variance (Optional)

If you have set hard deadlines on your activities:

  1. Locate the Deadline Variance column in the grid.

  2. A positive number indicates the number of days the current finish date has slipped past the locked deadline.

  3. Use the Filter icon on this column to show values "Greater than 0" to quickly see all late tasks.

See Also

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