Deadline Chains help you stay on top of all of your deadlines. Deadline chains are used for important deadlines, ensuring that you never have to worry about remembering what's due next. Once an initial date, like a court date or the date of incident, is entered, prerequisite deadlines and/or subsequent deadlines will automatically calculate based on that date.

All deadlines appear on the project's calendar and the calendars of any follower of that project. Deadlines will also send reminders to all project followers, according to the chosen reminder schedule.

Setting up Deadline Chains requires Org Admin privileges and that the Customs Editor Advanced tool be unlocked.

Creating a Deadline Chain

The first step to creating a Deadline Chain is to add a new chain in the Deadline Chain Advanced tool. After you create and name the Deadline Chain, you can begin adding deadlines. 

1. Navigate to the Deadline Chain Advanced tool. Click on the hamburger menu in the top lefthand corner, and select “Advanced” from the dropdown. Then, in the lefthand menu, select “Deadline Chains.”
2. Add a new Deadline Chain. Choose your Org, if applicable, and select “Create a Deadline Chain.” If you have already created a Deadline Chain for this Org, you will see a field in which you can enter already-created chains and a gray plus button to add new Deadline Chains.
3. Fill out the fields. In the “Edit Deadline Chain” window, choose a name of up to 50 characters, choose the default Calendar behavior, and, if desired, select the jurisdiction. You can also add notes and a URL the Deadline Chain. If added, the link and notes will appear in the project underneath the Deadline Chain name.
4. Save. When you have filled out all fields to your satisfaction, click the blue “Save” button in the bottom right corner.

Publishing

Before you can use a Deadline Chain in a project, you need to publish your Deadline Chain. Making a Deadline Chain published means that it can be added to any project, so make sure that your Deadline Chain is ready before publishing.

To publish your Deadline Chain, find the Deadline Chain in the Advanced tool, and click on the vertical ellipses to the right of the Deadline Chain name. In the dropdown menu, click “Publish.” Once a Deadline Chain is published, the yellow circle outline next to it will change to a green filled circle. 

Creating Deadlines

Once you have created a new Deadline Chain, you can begin adding deadlines to the chain. As you add deadlines, you can create dependencies between the different deadlines. 

Follow the steps below to create a deadline.

1. Find the Deadline Chain. In the Deadline Chains Advanced tool, find the Deadline Chain where you’d like to add your deadline. You can do this by entering the name of the Deadline Chain in the field to the right of the Org name, and clicking on the correct Deadline Chain.
2. Click “+ Add a Deadline.” In the Deadline Chain, you will see an  “+ Add a Deadline” button. If your Deadline Chain already has deadlines, this button will be at the bottom, underneath the deadlines. Click this button to begin adding a deadline. 
3. Fill out the fields. In the card that opens up, enter the name of the deadline up to 255 characters and choose a reminder schedule. If desired, you can also add a URL and notes to this deadline, which will appear in that deadline in a project when you click the “i” for more information. Making the deadline dependent on another will be discussed in the next section.
   
   
4. Save. When you have finished filling out the field, click the blue “Save” button in the bottom right corner of the card.

Making Deadlines Dependent

Once you have created one deadline, you can begin creating other deadlines and building dependencies between them. Create a new deadline by following the steps above, and then add a deadline dependency by following steps below. 

For clarity’s sake, we will call the deadline you’ll be working in “Deadline 2” and the deadline you would like this deadline to be dependent on “Deadline 1.”

1. Click “Dependent on another deadline.” In Deadline 2’s card, click the checkmark next to “Dependent on another deadline.” This will open up additional options.
2. Choose Deadline 1. Click the “deadline” field and choose the deadline that you would like Deadline 2 to be dependent on from the dropdown. In the project, Deadline 2 will not appear until Deadline 1 is either completed or gets a due date. 
3. Choose “completed” or “due date.” Click the dropdown “completed” and determine when this deadline should appear. Should this deadline be visible as soon as the first deadline has a due date, or does it not need to be visible until the first deadline is completed?
4. Choose the dependent date. Choose how many days either earlier or later this deadline should be due compared to when Deadline 1 is completed or gets a due date (depending on what you’ve chosen). Use the dropdown menus to choose a number of days, weeks, etc. and then choose later or earlier. You will also have the option of choosing your calendar if you have added any judicial calendars. The calendar will be set as the default you chose for this Deadline Chain when creating it.
5. (Optional) Hide in calendars. If this deadline needs to be part of the chain, but you do not want it on your calendar, you have the option to “Hide in Calendar.” This option is usually used for deadlines that are part of the chain but are not dependent on you.
6. Save. When you’ve input all deadline dependency information, hit the blue “Save” button in the bottom right.

Editing and Adjusting Deadlines

Changes made in the Deadline Chains Advanced tool will be reflected in any Deadline Chains in operation in a project, so be careful when making changes to Deadline Chains which are already being used.

Editing Deadline Chains

Deadline chains can be edited in the Advanced tool. To edit a Deadline Chain, click on the vertical ellipses next to the Deadline Chain name and select “Edit.” This will open the “Edit Deadline Chain” window, where you can edit the name, default calendar, jurisdiction, URL, and notes for the Deadline Chain. Changing the default calendar for the Deadline Chain will adjust the calendar of any deadlines using the default calendars to the new default.

Adjusting Deadlines

Deadlines can be edited or removed in the Advanced tool. Renaming or changing other information in a deadline will not affect other deadlines using that deadline as a dependency. If a deadline is renamed, the dependencies using that deadline will reflect the name change. 

However, getting rid of a deadline that is being used as a dependency for other deadlines will affect those deadlines. They will no longer show a dependency. If you need to take out a deadline that is being used as a dependency, you will need to adjust the dependencies in your chain to make sure all deadlines are connected with one another correctly.