Link tasks with real dependencies — Finish-to-Start and the other three types — and your timeline stops being a drawing. When one task slips, everything downstream moves, the critical path recomputes, and the end date tells the truth.
Dependencies are what turn a task list into a schedule. Axioplan supports all four types — you'll use Finish-to-Start most of the time, but the other three exist for the plans that genuinely need them.
Task B can only start after Task A finishes. The workhorse — "Design must complete before Development begins." Most schedules are 90%+ FS.
Task B can only start once Task A has started. For parallel streams that must kick off together — "Testing can begin when Development begins."
Task B can only finish when Task A finishes. Common for review cycles — "Documentation finishes when QA finishes."
Task B can only finish once Task A starts. Rarely used — mostly just-in-time handovers where the old thing runs until the new thing is live.
A Gantt chart without dependencies is a picture of your plan. With them, it becomes a model — one that answers questions instead of just displaying bars.
The chain of dependent tasks that determines your end date is highlighted automatically. A slip on the critical path moves the deadline; a slip anywhere else gets absorbed by slack.
Drag a task, add a dependency, or change an estimate and the whole schedule recomputes in real time — including on a client call, when the scope question actually lands.
Because every task carries a PERT estimate, the end date isn't one number — it's a P50 and a P85. You know which date to aim for and which one to commit to.
Planning people as well as tasks? Dependencies pair with resource allocation on the same Gantt so a schedule that's technically feasible is also staffable.
Yes — and not a hollowed-out one. Most tools put dependencies behind a paywall or a 14-day trial. Axioplan's free plan is a real plan: dependencies, critical path, and probabilistic estimates included, forever.
If your task list lives in a spreadsheet today, the free Excel to Gantt converter gets it onto the chart in about a minute. Prefer to stay in the spreadsheet? Our guide to building an Excel Gantt chart with dependencies covers the formula approach — and where it stops scaling.
Common questions about Gantt charts with task dependencies.