Frequently Asked Questions
Got any confusions?
These questions will help you get answers.
Negative lag (also called “lead”) is an artificial time offset applied between two schedule activities that causes the successor activity to start before the predecessor has finished. For example, saying “start utilities three weeks before earthwork finishes” uses negative lag to create that overlap.
Negative lag creates a logical inconsistency: it bases the start of one activity on a future finish date that hasn’t happened yet. Since you can’t know or control when a predecessor actually finishes until it does, you’re scheduling against an unknown. This hides true driving logic, distorts float calculations, and makes the schedule harder to status, update, or defend.
Most major scheduling standards and owners discourage or prohibit it, including:
It can trigger flags in schedule quality reviews, reduce the credibility of your critical path, and in some cases lead to outright rejection of your baseline or updates during audits or forensic delay analysis.
Replace the negative lag with a scope-bearing coordination activity. For example, instead of an FS relationship with −3 weeks lag between Earthwork and Utilities, use this logic:
Because it makes your logic transparent and auditable. Reviewers can see exactly what drives the Utilities start, the project team can track whether coordination is on track, and progress can be measured properly. It also assigns responsibility to a real activity — rather than leaving an invisible time offset buried in the logic.
Turn hidden negative lags into visible, manageable scope activities whenever possible — especially for overlaps that represent real coordination or preparation work. Your schedule will be stronger, more defensible, and far less likely to be flagged in a review.
Schedule Validator requests a ZIP / Postal Code to geographically localize the project. This supports mapping, filtering, and future analytics tied to geography.
If United States is selected as the country, a valid U.S. ZIP Code is required.
This ZIP Code is validated to ensure it matches standard U.S. formats.
If you select any country other than the United States, the ZIP / Postal Code field does not enforce validation.
You may enter a local postal code, a regional identifier, or any descriptive value that makes sense for your project.
The system does not attempt to validate non-U.S. postal codes.
No. A blank value is not considered valid, regardless of country selection.
This is intended to ensure consistent project records and avoid incomplete data.
Put in your best guess, try to get as near to the project location as possible for best results/mapping.
Schedule Validator only uses the Unique ID to reference all items in a schedule. It does not use Line Numbers, which are simply visual references that can change at any time and carry no functional meaning in our system.
The Line Number is a visual reference shown in the first column of your task table — it reflects the current position of a task and can change whenever activities are added, removed, or reordered. The Unique ID, on the other hand, is permanently assigned to a task when it is created and never changes, regardless of what happens to the schedule.
Right-click on the column header area in your task table, select Insert Column, and choose Unique ID from the list. Once added, you’ll be able to see the Unique ID alongside the Line Number for each activity.
When a schedule is first created with a single activity, both the Line Number and Unique ID may show the same value (e.g., “1”). However, as soon as you start modifying the schedule — adding, deleting, or reordering tasks — the two numbers diverge. The Unique ID stays fixed; the Line Number simply reflects the task’s current visual position.
By design, Schedule Validator is the easiest to use and most informative. It is a powerful analytics tool — its scoring system makes it much easier to manage and more useful in setting standards. Identify hidden risks and schedule quality issues before they become a problem. The pricing is also a benefit to organizational budgets, both for individuals and enterprise users.
There is no limit to the number of projects you can create. Likewise, each project can accept any number of schedules. You can set the status of a project to either “Active”, “Inactive” or “Archived” using the gear icon next to the project name. A slider button at the top of the project list allows you to hide or show “Archived” projects — keeping your active list neat while retaining all history.
Yes. The narrative text and layout for reports can be customized on a project-by-project basis. Click the gear icon next to the project name to go to the Project Settings page. Near the bottom you will find expandable areas containing the narrative text for each report. You can customize it to your liking, and a “reset” button will restore the original text if needed.
Every time you do an update and move the scheduled or data date forward. Weekly is the most common update frequency. The real power of Schedule Validator is realized when you can see how your schedule performs over time — the Comparison and Trend reports show this graphically and in report format.
A “Published” schedule is an uploaded schedule (the latest for any particular schedule date) used for measuring progress and other schedule scores. The Essentials (free) version automatically publishes the last schedule with a particular data date. Enterprise users can select which project schedule was published or submitted to be included in enterprise dashboard statistics.
The Critical Path Slip is a windows analysis of progress on the critical path in the window between selected schedules. The Critical Path Comparison report breaks down and shows you these details.
Enterprise is ideal when you have 10+ individuals involved in the construction process — owners, executives, project managers, schedulers, field personnel, subcontractors, and others. You can establish an organizational chart of who can see what information and how it rolls up across your organization. Enterprise dashboards present information that would otherwise be very difficult to collect and analyze for stakeholders up the chain. Contact us for a guided personal demonstration.
Schedule data is held in secure cloud-based storage. Schedule Validator is also a good repository for your native schedule data.
There are three icons: #1 Edit, #2 Download, and #3 Attachments.
Edit — Allows you to edit the description of the schedule within Schedule Validator. If the schedule originated from Microsoft Project, you may also edit the Data Date.
Download — Allows you to download the schedule file you originally uploaded.
Attachments — Allows you to upload and maintain any documents you’d like associated with this schedule
Schedule Validator reads the Data Date directly from the XER file. If you hit “Schedule” (F9) in P6 with “All Projects Use their own data date” selected, the Data Date is not updated — creating a mismatch that is hard to detect. The full solution is to reschedule (F9) and select “Apply selected data date to all projects,” which ensures the P6 displayed Data Date and the exported XER Data Date match.
The Data Date field is genuinely blank. This is most commonly seen with a schedule converted from MS Project where the Data Date was never set. To fix it, modify any activity, reschedule (F9) with “Apply selected data date to all open projects” selected, then export to XER and re-import into Schedule Validator.
No. Each schedule must be imported separately by project. This ensures accurate Data Date management, prevents conflicts from duplicate IDs and codes, avoids calendar complications, and maintains overall scheduling compliance and integrity.
No. Schedule Validator is intentionally designed as a read-only system. It analyzes source data without making any changes or performing any calculations, preserving data integrity and eliminating discrepancies between the original schedule and any potential recalculations.
No. Due to the stringent maintenance and compliance protocols required by P6 databases (schedule selection, versioning, status management, and database maintenance), Schedule Validator requires users to back up and upload a selected schedule manually. This approach enforces compliance, eliminates inherent P6 database issues, and provides a clean repository for project schedules.
Whether you're evaluating the platform for your organisation, have a support question, or want to talk enterprise — we're reachable.
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Supports P6 (.XER), MS Project (.mpp), and Asta Powerproject
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