If it says "HAVE" an elemental altar or whatever then you can craft in advance, that's what I did, I crafted and placed mine two days early while waiting for the next chapter to start. If it says "CRAFT" whatever the item is then you need to wait until prompted or you have to just do I tall over again.
Kinda like one of the achievements was to "HAVE" the Noble Crystal.....got that months ago so it counted right away.