How to add and reschedule milestones

A milestone is a single dated checkpoint inside a project: "samples approved", "factory confirmed", "goes live". It marks a moment rather than holding work, which is what separates it from a task. Milestones belong to a project, so start at How to start a project if you have not made one yet.

Before you start

Adding, editing and removing milestones is usually a lead's job, resolved through the project's own department.

How do you add one?

Open the project's Overview and use the + on the Milestones card. The New milestone dialog asks for a Milestone name, an optional description and a Date.

They appear on the card in date order, with undated ones last.

A milestone with no date is legitimate. It is how you record that a checkpoint exists before anybody has committed to when, and the roadmap gives those their own tray so they do not get forgotten.

Where do milestones appear?

Three places, which is the reason to use them rather than a task with a due date.

• On the project's Overview, in the Milestones card.
• On the roadmap, as a violet diamond on the project's bar. See How to use the roadmap.
• On the company calendar and a department's calendar, as a violet flag on its date. See How to work a list, a board and a calendar.

A milestone is visible to everyone who can see the project, without being assigned to anybody or appearing in anybody's task list.

How do you move one to a new date?

Two ways, and the roadmap one is faster.

On the roadmap, drag the diamond to a new date. On the Overview, or by clicking the diamond, you get a panel where you can change the date from a calendar.

That panel also lets you rename the milestone, jump to its project, or delete it. Deleting asks for confirmation first.

What does a rose diamond mean?

That the milestone is at risk: its date has passed while the project is still unfinished.

It is a reading rather than a state you set. Finish the project or move the date and it stops being at risk, which is the point of surfacing it on a timeline.

Milestones have no completion tick of their own. Whether one is done is inferred from the project's status, which keeps a project from having two disagreeing answers to "is this finished".

How do you find milestones with no date?

On the roadmap, below the chart, in a No date set list. Clicking one opens the same panel, where giving it a date puts it on the timeline.

This is worth a look before a planning meeting. An undated milestone is usually a decision nobody has made yet.

When is a task the better fit?

When somebody has to do something. A milestone marks that a thing has happened; it does not carry an assignee, a description of the work, sub-tasks, or comments.

The usual pattern is both: a milestone for "samples approved" as the visible checkpoint, and the tasks that get you there underneath it in the same project.