Actual work not matching timesheet

[Dan]

I am comparing Actual work on a task with what was entered
in the time sheet of a ressource through PWA (Project
Web Access) and the're out of synch.

Is there a way to get a report that would tell me how many
of these cases we have? Is there some kind of SQL query
that I would run on the WEB database and Project database
to find the "no match" cases?

If not, can someone tell me at least in what database I
can find the actual work keyed in by the ressource in PWA.

Thank you.

 

[RonSo]

Are you aware that you can re-synch to the project schedule by choosing Republish Assignments and checking the 2nd check box titled "Overwrite actual work entered by resources"

This only works if you are NOT using protected timesheets.

 

[DanS]

-----Original Message-----
Are you aware that you can re-synch to the project

schedule by choosing Republish Assignments and checking
the 2nd check box titled "Overwrite actual work entered by
resources"?

This only works if you are NOT using protected timesheets.
.
I know about that. I do not want the time from the

project to override the values keyed by the ressource
since these values are the good one! The actual work in
the project is not good! I do not want to key back the
time in the project.
Any other clues? Thank you very much.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Dan:

You'll need to write a query against the MSP_WEB_WORK table. You can use the
pjsvrdb.htm document provided with your installation to understand the table
structure and how data is stored and you can find plenty of information on
TechNet and MSDN to help guide you in writing your queries.

 

[Ivor Davies]

Gary - I am having somewhat of a similar problem

My manager has created an administrative time project for our department that contains several NON-PROJECT tasks and summary tasks. This project has been saved and published to the project server

For some reason the project start and finish date is different in the timesheet view that what is actually displayed in the project plan and the project view (these two are in sync!). The admin time template spans our fiscal year which runs from April 1st 2004 to March 31st 2005 (both the project plan and the project view display this correctly) - but for some reason the dates of some of the tasks in the timesheet view are showing the current week in 2004 (May 2nd to 8th 2004)

Our staff report their hours worked every day into this project and any other projects that they are assigned to

Do you have any idea what could be causing this inconsistency

Please advise

Ivor Davies

 

[ITG_Mike]

Dan

Yeah, we have experienced the same issue with time getting out of sync between the timesheets and the project files. There are a couple things that can cause this to happen. The most common is a PM adjusting the %complete of a task in MSP. This will create or remove actual work (as %complete is increased or reduced). The second way we see this happening is if a resource enters time on the wrong task, and the PM approves and updates the project. Later, when the resource realizes their error, they go back to their task list and delete the incorrect entries. Even after updating, this change (deletion) does not propagate to MSP

Gary is correct that comparing the MSP_WEB_WORK table with the MSP_TASKS is the right way to approach things, though this is not a simple thing to do. First, you will need to join the MSP_WEB_WORK table to MSP_WEB_ASSIGNMENT in order to get the project and task info. I think you will need to do some joins on the MSP side to get the right resource info (but I can't check that right now). Second, and more difficult, is the issue of internal storage format. The MSP_WEB_WORK table does not store one entry per day / per assignment. Instead, multiple days with the same hours are stored as start, end, hours/day. So if I work 8 hours a day on a task this week, what gets put into MSP_WEB_WORK is Start=5/3/04, End=5/7/04, Value=480000 (8 hours * 60000). This is a single entry, not five entries for five days. Moreover, if I work Monday and Tuesday, then update my time, then Wed-Fri. I will end up with two entries. One for 5/3-5/4 and another for 5/5-5/7

Because of the problems with the updates (and the fact that, as you noted, the Web side is the CORRECT data), we do all of our important reporting using the timesheet data. In order to simplify this reporting, I have created a new table for time entries and I have a procedure that reads and "expands" the MSP_WEB_WORK table into that table. This expanded data is simplified to one entry per day per assignment (my five days of work example above would be five entries). If you want to do any kind of compare (other than manually), I think you will need to do something similar

Hope this helps

Mik