Project Snapshots and Baselines Overview – Kantata Knowledge Base

Project snapshots and baselines help you capture and refer back to what was originally sold, analyze historical project performance compared to the plan, and identify areas of improvement in your estimating.

Project Permissions Needed: View Financials, Edit Financials

Overview

The scope, budget, and timeline of a project can change throughout its lifecycle. Project snapshots and baselines help you capture and refer back to what was originally sold, analyze historical project performance compared to the plan, and identify areas of improvement in your estimating. You can save a project’s current financials, hours, timeline, and other information to compare the project progress and performance to the baseline you set.

Snapshot Data

The following data is saved when you take a project snapshot:

For each task:
- WBS
- Type
- Title
- Description
- Task budget
- Task estimated hours
- Resource estimated hours
- Priority
- Billable
- Start date
- Due date
- Status
- Archived
- % Done
- Estimated cost
- Estimated fees
- Scheduled hours
- Scheduled hours per resource
- Assignees *
- Custom fields †
For each resource:
- Cost rate *
- Bill rate *
- Total resource allocation *
For the project:
- Status
- Duration (based on the earliest start date and latest due date of tasks)
- Total resource estimated hours
- Total estimated cost
- Total estimated fees
- Total task budgets
- Project budget
- Remaining budget
- Estimated margin
- Estimated margin %
- Start date *
- Due date *
- Currency *
- Custom fields †
For the snapshot:
- Snapshot creator *
- Snapshot created date *

* This data is not displayed as an individual column in the snapshot viewer.
† This data is not available in Insights.

TIP

Snapshot data is available in Insights and can be used to build custom dashboards and reports such as side-by-side comparisons of current project performance and the baseline, comparisons of project snapshots over time, and more. You can leverage Insights to analyze how your projects perform compared to the plan and refine estimates to be more accurate.

How to Capture a Project Snapshot

Note: You can take up to 50 snapshots per project, and the project must have less than 10,000 tasks. Edit Financials project permission or above is required to capture a snapshot.

In the left navigation, hover over Projects, then select All Projects.
In the Project List, select a project.
In the project workspace, select Task Tracker or Overview.
Select the Capture Snapshot (“ ”) icon from the Summary Bar at the bottom of the Task Tracker or the top of the Overview.
Note: If the Summary Bar is collapsed, select the Sigma (“ ”) icon to expand it.
In the modal that opens, set the snapshot Name and Description. By default, the name is “Snapshot” + the current date and time.
Check whether to Set this snapshot as the project baseline. A baseline is typically used to represent the official agreed-upon plan. There is no difference in functionality between a snapshot and the baseline.
Note: The first snapshot taken of a project is automatically set as the baseline.
Click Capture Snapshot.

The snapshot is saved and can be accessed from the Summary Bar.

How to View Snapshots

Note: View Financials project permission or above is required to view snapshots.

In the left navigation, hover over Projects, then select All Projects.
In the Project List, select a project.
In the project workspace, select Task Tracker or Overview.
Select the View Snapshots (“ ”) icon from the Summary Bar at the bottom of the Task Tracker or the top of the Overview.
Note: If the Summary Bar is collapsed, select the Sigma (“ ”) icon to expand it.
In the new window that opens, use the drop-down menu in the upper-left to select the snapshot you would like to view. The baseline will load first and have a comparison (“ ”) icon to the left of the name.

The page refreshes with the selected snapshot’s data.
The Tasks tab displays task information—including task custom fields, which can be added to the view using the Configure Columns option—while the Project Data tab displays project custom fields. A Summary Bar appears at the bottom of the page and includes the project status.
Select the Configure Columns (“ ”) icon to the upper-right to select and reorder the columns you want to include in the view.

How to Edit Snapshots

Note: Edit Financials project permission or above is required to edit snapshots.

You can edit a snapshot’s name and description or mark it as the baseline.

In the left navigation, hover over Projects, then select All Projects.
In the Project List, select a project.
In the project workspace, select Task Tracker or Overview.
Select the View Snapshots (“ ”) icon from the Summary Bar at the bottom of the Task Tracker or the top of the Overview.
Note: If the Summary Bar is collapsed, select the Sigma (“ ”) icon to expand it.
In the new window that opens, use the drop-down menu in the upper-left to select the snapshot you would like to view. The baseline will have a comparison (“ ”) icon to the left of the name.
Select the Edit (“ ”) icon.
In the modal that opens, update the snapshot name and description, or mark it as the baseline.
Click Save Snapshot.

How to Export Snapshots

Note: View Financials project permission or above is required to export snapshots.

In the left navigation, hover over Projects, then select All Projects.
In the Project List, select a project.
In the project workspace, select Task Tracker or Overview.
Select the View Snapshots (“ ”) icon from the Summary Bar at the bottom of the Task Tracker or the top of the Overview.
Note: If the Summary Bar is collapsed, select the Sigma (“ ”) icon to expand it.
In the new window that opens, use the drop-down menu in the upper-left to select the snapshot you would like to view. The baseline will have a comparison (“ ”) icon to the left of the name.
Select the Export (“ ”) icon to the upper-right of the table. The export is downloaded to your computer.