Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. Generally, the described techniques provide for using different configurations for downlink or uplink transmissions associated with different transmission configuration indication (TCI) states (e.g., transmitted on different beams). In one example, a base station may use different configurations for downlink transmissions to a user equipment (UE), and the base station may indicate the different configurations to the UE. For instance, the base station may transmit downlink control information (DCI) indicating a baseline configuration and other configurations as a delta of the baseline configuration. In another example, a base station may dynamically indicate a timing advance to a UE (e.g., in DCI or flow control feedback) for an uplink transmission from the UE associated with a TCI state, and the UE may use the dynamically indicated timing advance for uplink transmissions associated with the TCI state.