Add and baseline work packages

Work packages are the coarse, business-level units of scope that carry an investment’s budget and schedule. They sit above the line and do not mirror your Jira backlog. This guide covers creating them and locking their baselines.

Before you start

• You need edit rights on the project.
• Keep work packages coarse: a few per investment, one per stream of work. See Work Package ↔ delivery linkage.

Add a work package

1. Open the project’s Tollgate tab and select Work Packages.
2. Choose Add work package.
3. Complete the form:
   • Name (required, unique within the project).
   • Owner and Progress.
   • Planned start / Planned end, Actual start / Actual end, and Forecast end.
   • Status: Not started, In progress, Blocked or Complete.
   • RAG: Red, Amber, Green or None.
   • Budget: the working figure, plus forecast and actual. You do not type a baseline (see below).
   • Commentary and Linked Jira work items (see Link a work package to a Jira issue).
4. Choose Save work package.

Repeat for each work package. The project’s budget totals and Cost RAG on the dashboard roll up from these figures.

When the forecast end runs past the planned end, the register marks the package Behind baseline. The badge flags a slip from the plan, and it can appear on a package whose dates are still in the future.

Where baselines come from

In Standard mode the plan is the baseline. Each package’s Budget is what cost is measured against, and earned value spreads it across the package’s Planned start and Planned end. Nothing needs approving first. The register and timeline show no separate baseline dates in Standard. (Before v6.7.1, Standard used only the budget, so planned value read 0.)

In Advanced mode no “Set baselines” control exists. Approving the business case is the baseline moment: it snapshots each work package’s budget and planned dates as the baseline. Until then a package reads Not baselined in the Approved plan column, and contributes nothing to the committed total.

Caution

Approval is the moment these numbers become the commitment. Once set, a baseline only moves through a Change Request. You cannot edit it directly.

Keep actuals and forecasts current

Baseline values are locked. Actuals and forecasts (actual and forecast dates, budget forecast and actual) stay editable. Edit them day to day to keep the record current. Edits update the dashboard and Portfolio reporting.

Edit these inline, in the register cells. Select a cell, type or pick a value, then press Enter or click away to commit. Escape cancels. RAG edits inline the same way. Status changes through the edit form. These everyday edits commit directly, with no confirmation dialog. Tollgate reserves confirmation dialogs for the moves that change a commitment: baselines, change requests and phase gates.

Read the Timeline view

Select Timeline at the top of the register. The view shows the same work packages as bars on a month axis. An eyebrow names the period, for example Timeline · Jun 2026 — Dec 2026. A heading states what the bars say, for example 2 of 3 slipping — worst +14 days. End date holds.

Every bar uses one set of encodings, and the legend lists them. Earned is solid and shows the value earned so far. Forecast is hatched. Baseline is an outline from the approved plan. Slip is red and shows where the forecast runs past the baseline. A red vertical line marks today.

The package name and its N% complete sit in a label column on the left. The Slip column on the right gives each package’s slip in signed days. +14d in red means late. 0d means on plan. — means not started. The axis starts at the first baseline month. A flag on the axis header marks the last dated gate, normally Go-live. When that gate falls close to today, the flag drops to a second row so both labels stay readable. Select Fit, Quarters, Months or Weeks to change the scale.

The interactions did not change:

• Drag a bar to move its forecast.
• Drag either edge to change a date.
• Drag across empty space to add a package.
• Use the handle to reorder, and rename in place.

The bar of a complete package does not move. The earned-value panel and S-curve sit below the chart. A project with no budget on any package sees Schedule progress instead, which plots planned against actual % complete. Earned value and the S-curve gives every calculation and every condition under which earned value does not calculate.

Next steps

• Link each work package to its delivery epic in Jira.
• Update status, RAG and confidence.