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Getting started

This page walks you from an empty report to a working Gantt Chart. No prior experience with custom visuals is required.

1. Add the visual to Power BI​

The Gantt Chart is distributed through Microsoft AppSource, the marketplace built into Power BI. You can view the listing here: ChartPad Gantt Chart on AppSource.

  1. In Power BI Desktop (or the Power BI service), open the report you want to add the visual to.
  2. In the Visualizations pane, select the ⋯ (Get more visuals) button.
  3. Search for ChartPad Gantt Chart.
  4. Select Add. The Gantt Chart icon appears at the bottom of your Visualizations pane.

The Power BI Visualizations pane with the "Get more visuals" menu open and the ChartPad Gantt Chart shown in the AppSource dialog

tip

The Gantt Chart is a Microsoft-certified visual, so it shows a blue Certified badge in Power BI. When browsing "Get more visuals", you can turn on the Power BI Certified filter to find it (and other certified visuals) quickly. See Certified by Microsoft below for what this means.

note

Your organization may restrict AppSource. If you can't add visuals, ask your Power BI administrator to allow the ChartPad Gantt Chart, or to import it as an organizational visual.

Certified by Microsoft​

The ChartPad Gantt Chart is a Microsoft-certified Power BI visual. Certification means Microsoft has reviewed and tested the visual's code and confirmed that it does not access any external services or resources — your data stays inside Power BI and never leaves your tenant.

For report authors, certification brings practical benefits:

  • Safe for enterprise and regulated environments — because nothing is sent to outside services, the visual is suitable for organizations with strict data-governance requirements.
  • Export to PowerPoint and PDF — reports using the Gantt Chart export correctly to PowerPoint and PDF.
  • Email subscriptions — the visual renders in the images delivered when users subscribe to report pages.
  • Easy to find — use the Power BI Certified filter in "Get more visuals" to locate it.

You'll see a yellow PBI Certified badge on the AppSource listing and a blue Certified badge inside Power BI.

2. Place it on the canvas​

Select the Gantt Chart icon in the Visualizations pane. An empty visual is added to your report canvas, showing a landing page that lists the fields you can add.

The landing page has three tabs:

  • Required — the three fields the chart needs to draw anything: Category, Start date, and End date.
  • Optional — everything else: progress, legend, milestones, extra columns, owner, and tooltips.
  • Dependencies — the two fields used to draw dependency arrows: Task ID and Predecessor ID.

The Gantt Chart landing page on the canvas, with the "Required" tab selected showing Category, Start date, and End date rows

3. Prepare your data​

The Gantt Chart expects one row per task. At minimum you need a task name, a start date, and an end date. Here is a small sample you can reproduce:

ProjectTaskStartFinish
Website relaunchDiscovery2026-01-052026-01-16
Website relaunchDesign2026-01-192026-02-13
Website relaunchBuild2026-02-162026-03-27
Website relaunchLaunch2026-03-302026-04-03
tip

Start and Finish must be a Date or Date/Time data type in your model — not text. If they show up as text, change the column type in Power Query or the model view first.

4. Assign required fields​

With the visual selected, drag your columns into these three data fields:

  1. Category ← Project, then Task. The order matters: the first column is the top level of the hierarchy, the next column nests underneath it. (See Fields → Category.)
  2. Start date ← Start.
  3. End date ← Finish.

As soon as all three are populated, the landing page disappears and your Gantt renders.

The Fields/Build pane with Project and Task in the Category well, Start in Start date, Finish in End date — and the resulting two-level Gantt on the canvas

5. Add optional details​

Now enrich the chart by dragging in any of the optional fields:

  • Progress bar — a % complete measure (0–100) to fill the bars.
  • Legend — a field to color tasks by (e.g. Status or Team).
  • Owner — a name column, shown as initials.
  • Task milestones — one or more date columns to plot as markers.
  • Tooltip — extra fields to show on hover.

See Fields for the full list and what each one does.

The same Gantt after adding a Progress measure and a Legend field — bars now colored by category with progress fill

You're set​

You now have a working Gantt Chart. From here: