Entering Actual Work entries

E

Earl Forrence

Hi everyone,

Simple question ...

Just getting to production with MS-P Enterprise -- 2002
(long time in works). My need is to have Task Assignees
be able to enter their time in the Tasks / Timesheet View
(Web Access) ... not just % Work Complete and Remaining
Time which is on the Left-Hand side of the display.

So,

... while I have found where I can get Act. Work to
display in the Timesheet view on the Right Hand side, and

... while I can see from Project Inside Out where Act.
Work should be enterable there,

... I unfortunately can not find where I can make them
available for entry.

Any help appreciated ... thanks ... Earl
 
D

Dale Howard

Earl --

To set the tracking method for your organization, you will need to do the
following:

1. Log into PWA with Administrator permissions
2. Click the Admin menu
3. Click the Customize Microsoft Project Web Access link
4. In the first section, select "Hours of Work Done Per Day or Per Week"
5. In the second section, select the "Force project managers to use..."
option, but only if this is your company's standard method for tracking
progress in every project
6. In the third section, you'll probably want to select the "Weekly" option
7. You'll probably also want to set the "Number of Weeks Spanned" option to
either 2 or 4 weeks
8. You'll probably also want to select the "Resources should report their
hours worked every day"
9. Set the Define Current Tasks value to your company's definition of a
"Current task"
10. Click the Save Changes button

Once you have done this, you will need to ask EVERY project manager to open
EVERY project they are managing and to republish their task assignments.
They must do this by specifically clicking Collaborate - Publish - Republish
Assignments. This final step will "push" the new method of tracking out to
each user's timesheet in PWA. Hope this helps.
 
E

Earl Forrence

Two things ...

1. A "big thanks" Dale for you directions ... that
certainly did work.

2. One follow-up though. When the projects are
published and assignments republished; I've found
that the tasks which were underway when the plan was
published (they were all overdue as well) only have
places for entry of the %-Complete and Remaining
Work on left side on screen.

The other tasks -- those that had 0 (zero) Actual
Work have places to enter the actual time worked
on right hand side.

Quite curious ... any thoughts?


Thanks again ... Earl
 
D

Dale Howard

Earl --

What you are seeing is default behavior. If a task is underway and has
actuals entered for it, and then you change the method of tracking progress,
those tasks will maintain their original method of tracking progress.
That's why it is so important for a company to establish its method for
tracking progress BEFORE anyone begins work on a project. Sorry for the bad
news. Hope this helps, however.
 
E

Earl Forrence

Dale,

I believe I understand what you are saying; but ...

Placing time worked on task information into Task Usage
IS ACTUALLY the way that the PM's have been entering the
info into their stand-alone plans before those plans were
imported into Enterprise.

Further, I can still do an "Open In MS-Project" and I
can see both:
#1 the entries that were made in the past; and,
#2 where I'd be able to record "Act. Work".

It's just that web access is not giving me the same
option (#2 above) I expect. Am I missing something or
being naive or ??

And thanks very much for your help; and especially for
being patient ... Earl



Earl Forrence, PMP
Project Management Process
Identix, Inc.
5600 Rowland Road, Suite 205
Minnetonka, MN 55343
952-852-8756 - Office
612-801-1773 - Cell
 
D

Dale Howard

Earl --

Once actuals have been entered for a task assignment in PWA, that particular
method of tracking is maintained for the remainder for the life of that
task, even if the PS Administrator changes the company's method of tracking
progress. In a standalone Microsoft Project plan, however, that restriction
is not maintained. In fact, in a standalone Microsoft Project plan, I could
begin tracking progress on a task using % Work Complete, then switch to
Actual Hours Worked + Work Remaining, and then finish the task using Actual
Hours Worked on a Daily Basis. Hope this helps.
 
K

Kelly

Are you seeing this problem manifested by a user not being able to
enter values in the daily columns on their timecard? We have some
users whose manager was entering their time for them directly in the
project plan. We've now declared that an unacceptable way to enter
time. One of the impacted resources subsequently tried to enter time
via his timecard but, while he can clearly see the tasks in his time
card, the time capture fields on the right will not accept data.
 
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