Create a project and set the start date in Microsoft Project

Every schedule rests on one date you type in before anything else: the project start. Get it wrong and every task, every forecast and every month-end report inherits the error. This lesson walks through creating a new file in Microsoft Project desktop, the Project Information dialog box, and the question owners skip too often: which start date belongs in which schedule.

Learning outcomes

• Create a new Microsoft Project file from a blank project or a template, and save it with a clear name and properties.
• Set the start date, calendar and scheduling direction in the Project Information dialog box, and explain what each field controls.
• Explain the difference between scheduling from the project start date and from the project finish date, and why construction schedules almost always use the start date.
• Choose the right start date for an owner's master schedule versus a contractor's construction schedule, using the Northgate case study.

The lesson

Which Microsoft Project are we using?

This track uses Microsoft Project desktop on Windows: the Project Online Desktop Client that comes with a Project Plan 3 or Plan 5 subscription, or the one-time-purchase Project Standard or Professional 2024. (Project 2016 and 2019 reached end of support on October 14, 2025, and Project 2021 on October 13, 2026.) The steps here are the same in all of them, and none depend on Project Online, which Microsoft retired on September 30, 2026. The desktop app was not affected (see lesson 1).

Step 1: create the file

Open Microsoft Project and go to File > New. You will see a Blank Project tile and a gallery of templates. You have three practical choices:

• Blank Project. An empty file built on the default global settings. This is the right choice when you are learning, and it is what we use for Northgate in this lesson.
• A template. A file that already holds a calendar, views, custom fields and sometimes a starter task list. Organizations that schedule a lot should have their own template, so every project starts with the same calendar, the same WBS levels and the same reporting fields. The Microsoft templates are generic; treat them as examples, not standards.
• A copy of an existing project. Useful for a repeat building type, but a copied file carries old baselines, actuals and constraint dates. Strip those out first.

Save the file straight away (File > Save As) with a name that will still make sense in a year. A good pattern is project code, schedule type and date, for example NDC_OwnerMaster_2027-01-11.mpp.

Step 2: open Project Information

Go to Project > Project Information. This small dialog box controls the whole file. Figure 1 shows its fields as a diagram; the numbered notes below explain each one.

1. Start date. The date Project schedules forward from. It is only editable when the project is scheduled from the start date. It defaults to today's date, which is almost never the date you want.
2. Finish date. Calculated by Project from the start date, the tasks, their durations and their logic. You cannot type in it while scheduling from the start, and that is a feature: the finish is an output of the plan, not an input.
3. Schedule from. Either Project Start Date (the default) or Project Finish Date. A project schedules one way or the other, never both.
4. Current date and Status date. The current date defaults to your computer's clock. The status date is the "progress measured up to" date used for earned value, progress lines and the Update Project command. While you are only planning, leave the status date at NA. You will set it at every monthly update (lesson 22).
5. Calendar. The base calendar used as the project calendar. Project ships with three: Standard (Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a one-hour lunch), 24 Hours and Night Shift. Standard gives an 8-hour day, which matches Northgate's work week, but it knows nothing about Ontario statutory holidays. Lesson 4 builds a proper Northgate calendar.
6. Priority. A number from 0 to 1000 that tells resource levelling how willing it should be to delay this project's tasks when several projects share resources. Leave it at 500 unless you run a shared resource pool.

The Statistics button opens a summary of scheduled, baseline and actual start, finish, duration, work and cost. It is a handy one-screen check before every report.

Start date or finish date: the scheduling direction

When you schedule from the start date, Project places every task as soon as its logic allows (the As Soon As Possible constraint) and calculates the finish. When you schedule from the finish date, the logic runs backwards: Project gives new tasks the As Late As Possible constraint and calculates the latest start that still meets the finish. Figure 2 shows the difference.

Microsoft's own guidance is to schedule from the start date whenever you can, and to use the finish date only when the deadline is known and the start is not. There are good reasons for construction teams to follow that advice:

• Backward scheduling hides risk. With every task pushed as late as possible, there is no buffer between the last activity and the deadline. Any slip is a late finish.
• It changes how Project behaves. Microsoft notes that in a finish-scheduled project, dragging a Gantt bar sets a Finish No Later Than constraint, and levelling adds delay after tasks rather than before them. Switching a start-scheduled file to finish scheduling also removes existing levelling delays and splits.
• It does not match how sites work. Crews start when the predecessor work is done, not as late as they can.

So what about a hard contractual date, such as a Substantial Performance date? Keep the project scheduled from the start, and add the contractual date as a deadline on the matching milestone. A deadline flags a slip with an indicator and lowers float, without fixing the task in place. Lesson 12 covers deadlines and constraints in detail.

Step 3: title, properties and the project summary task

Two small settings make the file easier to read, print and report:

• Title and properties. Go to File > Info > Project Information > Advanced Properties. On the Summary tab, enter the Title, Company and Manager. The title feeds headers, footers and the project summary task name.
• Project summary task. On the Gantt Chart view, go to the Format tab and tick Project Summary Task. Row 0 now rolls up the whole schedule: its start, finish, duration and, later, cost and percent complete.

Step 4: check two defaults before you type a single task

Task mode. In a new file, Project creates tasks as Manually Scheduled by default. A manually scheduled task ignores logic: it sits wherever you put it. That is useful for a rough sketch and harmful for a real schedule. Go to Task > Task Mode > Auto Schedule so new tasks in this project are auto-scheduled. Lesson 10 explains the two modes properly.

Default start and end times. Under File > Options > Schedule, the default start and end times tell Project what time to use when you type a date without a time. They should match the project calendar: 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. for the Standard calendar. If they do not match, Project can apply constraints at odd times of day, which causes one-hour mysteries later. To make the setting stick for future files, choose All New Projects in the Calendar options for this project list.

Screenshot to come

What if the start date changes later?

Dates move. If the start date changes after you have built tasks, you have two tools. Typing a new start date in Project Information moves unconstrained tasks, but it does not move deadlines, date constraints or tasks with actual progress. Project > Move Project shifts the whole plan, including deadlines and constraint dates, by the same offset, and it warns you before moving tasks that already have actuals. For an unstarted schedule, Move Project is usually the cleaner choice. For a schedule with progress, update progress first, then decide (lesson 24).

Northgate worked example

Northgate Distribution Centre (fictional) is a 12,000 m² tilt-up warehouse with an office mezzanine in Vaughan, Ontario, built for Northgate Logistics Inc. (fictional) under a CCDC 2-2020 stipulated price contract with Halvorsen Builders Ltd. (fictional). The owner keeps a master schedule in Microsoft Project desktop. The contractor submits its construction schedule in Oracle Primavera P6.

The owner's PM opens a blank project and has to pick a start date. Three dates on the fact sheet compete for the job, as Figure 3 shows.

View the data

Date	Event	Role in the schedules
Tue 2026-12-08	Tender closed	History; record as a note, not a start date
Mon 2027-01-11	M0 Contract executed	Start date of the owner's master schedule
Tue 2027-01-19	M1 Kickoff meeting	Owner milestone
Fri 2027-02-26	M2 Building permit issued	Owner milestone, predecessor to mobilization
Mon 2027-03-01	M3 Site mobilization	Start of the contractor's P6 schedule
Fri 2028-01-14	M9 Ready-for-Takeover / Substantial Performance	Milestone with a deadline in Microsoft Project
Fri 2028-03-31	M11 Final completion	Last milestone in the owner's file

• Tue 2026-12-08, tender closed. Too early. The procurement phase is history, and starting there would load the file with weeks of completed work before day one of the contract.
• Mon 2027-03-01, site mobilization. Too late for the owner. It is the right start for the contractor's construction schedule, but the owner has seven weeks of work before then: the kickoff on January 19, the building permit expected on February 26, early submittals, insurance and bonding certificates, and the long-lead approvals that let mobilization happen at all.
• Mon 2027-01-11, contract executed (M0). The right answer. It is the first event the owner controls under the contract, it is a fixed fact, and everything the owner must deliver flows from it.

The decision rule generalizes. Figure 4 turns it into a flow you can reuse on any project.

Here are the settings the owner's PM enters for Northgate:

Later in this track, the contractor's milestones (M3 onward) are linked into the owner's file from the contractor's P6 updates. The owner's file does not copy the contractor's start date. It shows mobilization as a milestone that depends on the permit and the pre-start submittals, which is exactly where an owner wants visibility.

Screenshot to come

Screenshot to come

Screenshot to come

Owner's move

An owner rarely builds the contractor's schedule, but the owner sets the rules for it and keeps its own master file. At this first step:

• Demand that the contractor's schedule starts on the contract start or mobilization date set out in the contract, schedules forward from that start, and shows the contractual completion dates as milestones that can slip and show negative float, not as locked finish dates.
• Check the project start date and the scheduling direction in every schedule submission. In Microsoft Project, that is one look at Project Information; in P6, it is the project's planned start and must-finish-by settings (lesson 4 of the P6 track). A start date that quietly moves between updates is a red flag.
• Reject a baseline that is scheduled backward from the completion date. It will show every task as just in time, with no float, and you will not see trouble coming until it arrives.
• Keep your own master schedule starting from the first owner-controlled event (contract execution, or earlier if you track design and procurement), so permits, owner approvals, owner-supplied equipment and occupancy are visible alongside the contractor's milestones.

A schedule is evidence. If the start date or scheduling direction cannot be explained in one sentence, it will be harder to defend if a dispute arises. Our guide on setting and locking a schedule baseline covers the next steps.

Common mistakes

1. Leaving the start date at today. Project Information defaults the start to the current date. Build a schedule in November and forget to change it, and every date is wrong by months.
2. Scheduling from the finish date because the deadline matters. The deadline matters, so model it as a deadline on a milestone. Backward scheduling removes the float that would warn you of a slip.
3. Typing start dates on tasks instead of linking them. In an auto-scheduled task, typing a start date sets a Start No Earlier Than constraint. Do this a few dozen times and the schedule stops responding to logic.
4. Building in manual mode by accident. New tasks default to Manually Scheduled. Switch to Auto Schedule before the first task, not after the hundredth.
5. Copying last year's file without cleaning it. Old baselines, actuals and constraint dates come along. Start from a clean template instead.

Quick quiz

1. Where do you set a project's start date in Microsoft Project desktop?

   1. File > Options > Schedule
   2. Project > Project Information
   3. Task > Task Mode
   4. Format > Project Summary Task

2. When a project is scheduled from the project start date, what does Project do with the finish date?

   1. Lets you type it as a fixed date
   2. Copies it from the calendar
   3. Calculates it from the tasks, durations and logic
   4. Sets it equal to the status date

3. What constraint does Project give new tasks in a project scheduled from the finish date?

   1. As Soon As Possible
   2. Must Finish On
   3. Start No Earlier Than
   4. As Late As Possible

4. For the Northgate owner's master schedule, which start date is the best choice?

   1. Tue 2026-12-08, tender closed
   2. Mon 2027-01-11, contract executed
   3. Mon 2027-03-01, site mobilization
   4. Today's date

5. Northgate must reach Substantial Performance by Fri 2028-01-14. What is the recommended way to show this in the owner's file?

   1. Schedule the whole project from that finish date
   2. Type the date into each final task's start field
   3. Keep scheduling from the start and add a deadline to the M9 milestone
   4. Set the status date to 2028-01-14

Show answers and explanations

1. B. Project > Project Information holds the start date, finish date, Schedule from, status date and calendar. File > Options > Schedule sets default times, not the start date.
2. C. In a start-scheduled project the finish is an output. The Finish date box is unavailable until you switch to scheduling from the finish date.
3. D. Microsoft documents that finish-scheduled projects give new tasks the As Late As Possible constraint, which removes the buffer before the finish.
4. B. Contract execution is the first owner-controlled contract event. Mobilization is the contractor's start; the tender date is history; today's date is the default trap.
5. C. A deadline flags a slip and affects float without pinning the task. Backward scheduling would hide float, and typed dates would add constraints.

Key terms

Project Information dialog box

The dialog box (Project > Project Information) that holds the project's start or finish date, scheduling direction, current date, status date, base calendar and priority.

Schedule from Project Start Date

Forward scheduling. You enter the start; Project places tasks as soon as possible and calculates the finish. The default and the norm in construction.

Schedule from Project Finish Date

Backward scheduling. You enter the finish; Project places tasks as late as possible and calculates the latest start.

Status date

The date progress is measured up to. Used for updates, progress lines and earned value. Set to NA while planning.

Project calendar

The base calendar chosen in Project Information that defines working days and hours for the project unless a task or resource calendar overrides it.

Project summary task

Row 0 of a project, shown from the Format tab, which rolls up the dates, duration, work and cost of the whole schedule.

Deadline

A target date on a task or milestone that shows an indicator when missed and affects float, without constraining the task's dates.

Move Project

A command (Project > Move Project) that shifts the whole plan, including deadlines and constraint dates, by the same offset.

References

1. Microsoft Support, Set the start date or finish date for your project in Project desktop (applies to Project Online Desktop Client and Project 2016 to 2024; only the subscription client and Project 2024 are still supported).
2. Microsoft Support, Project Information dialog box.
3. Microsoft Support, Create a new project.
4. Microsoft Support, Change default times for entered start or finish dates.
5. Microsoft Support, Task Mode (task field).
6. Microsoft Support, Show the project summary task in Project desktop.
7. Microsoft Project team blog (archived), Handling changes to the project start date (2011; behaviour of Move Project).
8. BRC Insights, How to set and lock a construction schedule baseline: an owner's guide.

Verified on November 4, 2026.

Next lesson in this trackCalendars and Ontario statutory holidays