D
DMW
Can MS Project automatically update the finish date to the date 100%
completion was entered or approved?
completion was entered or approved?
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H
Haris Rashid
hi,
you can use the "Actual Finish" column, this field shows the date and time
when a task or assignment was actually completed. The Actual Finish field
contains "NA" until there is zero remaining work or you set the task's %
Complete field or the task or assignment's % Work Complete field to 100. When
the work complete reaches 100 percent, Microsoft Office Project sets the
Actual Finish field to the status date or scheduled finish date.
When you specify that a task is 100 percent complete, Project automatically
adjusts the actual finish date based on either the current status date or the
scheduled finish date. The date that is used depends on your calculation
preferences. To examine and set these preferences, click Options on the Tools
menu, and then click the Calculation tab. Based on your calculation
preferences for this project, select or clear the four check boxes starting
with the Move end of completed parts after status date back to status date
check box.
Regards,
Haris
you can use the "Actual Finish" column, this field shows the date and time
when a task or assignment was actually completed. The Actual Finish field
contains "NA" until there is zero remaining work or you set the task's %
Complete field or the task or assignment's % Work Complete field to 100. When
the work complete reaches 100 percent, Microsoft Office Project sets the
Actual Finish field to the status date or scheduled finish date.
When you specify that a task is 100 percent complete, Project automatically
adjusts the actual finish date based on either the current status date or the
scheduled finish date. The date that is used depends on your calculation
preferences. To examine and set these preferences, click Options on the Tools
menu, and then click the Calculation tab. Based on your calculation
preferences for this project, select or clear the four check boxes starting
with the Move end of completed parts after status date back to status date
check box.
Regards,
Haris
D
DMW
Thank you so much. That was just what I needed.
Haris Rashid said:hi,
you can use the "Actual Finish" column, this field shows the date and time
when a task or assignment was actually completed. The Actual Finish field
contains "NA" until there is zero remaining work or you set the task's %
Complete field or the task or assignment's % Work Complete field to 100. When
the work complete reaches 100 percent, Microsoft Office Project sets the
Actual Finish field to the status date or scheduled finish date.
When you specify that a task is 100 percent complete, Project automatically
adjusts the actual finish date based on either the current status date or the
scheduled finish date. The date that is used depends on your calculation
preferences. To examine and set these preferences, click Options on the Tools
menu, and then click the Calculation tab. Based on your calculation
preferences for this project, select or clear the four check boxes starting
with the Move end of completed parts after status date back to status date
check box.
Regards,
Haris
S
Steve House [Project MVP]
So I finished a task on Wednesday but didn't get around to actually entering
that info into the plan until Friday. You're saying you want it to show the
task finished on Friday rather than the date it really happened????? Why
would you intentionally enter incorrect and misleading information into the
project records?
If you simply check off the task as completed or enter that it is 100%
complete, Project will show an actual finish date equal to whatever the
scheduled finish date was. If it finished on a different date, enter the
date that work on the task was finally put to bed into the finish date
field. But IMHO it should always reflect the physical reality of when the
last bit of work on the task was done, NOT when you just happened to get
around to updating the records, which might not be for days or even weeks
after the event.
that info into the plan until Friday. You're saying you want it to show the
task finished on Friday rather than the date it really happened????? Why
would you intentionally enter incorrect and misleading information into the
project records?
If you simply check off the task as completed or enter that it is 100%
complete, Project will show an actual finish date equal to whatever the
scheduled finish date was. If it finished on a different date, enter the
date that work on the task was finally put to bed into the finish date
field. But IMHO it should always reflect the physical reality of when the
last bit of work on the task was done, NOT when you just happened to get
around to updating the records, which might not be for days or even weeks
after the event.
J
jhalterm
I have tried and tried and tried the four different check boxes but still
doesn't seem to work for me. Let me explain. My company has lots of
estimated durations and most of the time when we mark a task to be 100%
complete the "actual finish" date is not the date it was scheduled to finish.
In order for us to maintain actuals, we can not trust the resources to
update that finish date, so we need the "actual finish" date to be the date
it was entered.
Ex: If I have a task sheduled to end 04/25/05 but actually ended on
04/27/05, I need the "actual finish" date to be marked 04/27/05 automatically
when I enter 100% in the "% Complete column. Can someone tell me in what
configuration I need to have those 4 check boxes marked. I can not make it
work. Also the status date in project information is marked with N/A.
The remaining schedule depends on the dates put in "actual finish" and if it
doesn't work right we loose all reliablitly of MS Project.
doesn't seem to work for me. Let me explain. My company has lots of
estimated durations and most of the time when we mark a task to be 100%
complete the "actual finish" date is not the date it was scheduled to finish.
In order for us to maintain actuals, we can not trust the resources to
update that finish date, so we need the "actual finish" date to be the date
it was entered.
Ex: If I have a task sheduled to end 04/25/05 but actually ended on
04/27/05, I need the "actual finish" date to be marked 04/27/05 automatically
when I enter 100% in the "% Complete column. Can someone tell me in what
configuration I need to have those 4 check boxes marked. I can not make it
work. Also the status date in project information is marked with N/A.
The remaining schedule depends on the dates put in "actual finish" and if it
doesn't work right we loose all reliablitly of MS Project.
S
Steve House [Project MVP]
All durations in MS Project are estimates until the work is actually done -
you're not unique in that.
You have task that was estimated to finish the 25th but actually finished
the 27th but the person responsible for updating the data slacks off and
doesn't get around to updating the files until the 1st of May - what then?
What you're asking to do would have the Actual Finish showing May 1st, not
the real finish of the 27th of April. At any rate, there's no way to do
what you want automatically, at least not wity signifigant VBA development.
The check boxes you're referring to don't have any effect on that behavior -
it simply doesn't exist in vanilla Project. You need to train the people
posting progress into the plan in the correct way to do it - if the work was
completed as estimated and took the same amount of time and work to complete
as originally estimated, they can just mark it 100% complete and be done
with it. But if it deviates from the scheduled plan they MUST manually
input the actual dates work and ended and the work they put in, or actual
start date and actual duration while setting the remaining duration to zero
if it's done. Simply checking 100% complete won't cut it.
This is one of the big reasons that I don't like the idea of resources
having write access to the plan, BTW. Leave them to do whatever they do
best and then report their hours to your office to report progress. Someone
whose job includes direct project management and oversight responsibilities
should be the one who actually updates the plan. And a spin-off of that
approach, if the actual dates work was done causes problems downline due to
delays or what not, you see it right then and there and with that early
warning you may be able to head off developing problems before they become
severe. Project is best used as a tool for proactive managment instead of
simply passively documenting what has happened and keeping everything that
affects the plan as it unfolds front-and-centre in the eyes of the manager
helps make sure potential problems don't fall through the cracks.
you're not unique in that.
You have task that was estimated to finish the 25th but actually finished
the 27th but the person responsible for updating the data slacks off and
doesn't get around to updating the files until the 1st of May - what then?
What you're asking to do would have the Actual Finish showing May 1st, not
the real finish of the 27th of April. At any rate, there's no way to do
what you want automatically, at least not wity signifigant VBA development.
The check boxes you're referring to don't have any effect on that behavior -
it simply doesn't exist in vanilla Project. You need to train the people
posting progress into the plan in the correct way to do it - if the work was
completed as estimated and took the same amount of time and work to complete
as originally estimated, they can just mark it 100% complete and be done
with it. But if it deviates from the scheduled plan they MUST manually
input the actual dates work and ended and the work they put in, or actual
start date and actual duration while setting the remaining duration to zero
if it's done. Simply checking 100% complete won't cut it.
This is one of the big reasons that I don't like the idea of resources
having write access to the plan, BTW. Leave them to do whatever they do
best and then report their hours to your office to report progress. Someone
whose job includes direct project management and oversight responsibilities
should be the one who actually updates the plan. And a spin-off of that
approach, if the actual dates work was done causes problems downline due to
delays or what not, you see it right then and there and with that early
warning you may be able to head off developing problems before they become
severe. Project is best used as a tool for proactive managment instead of
simply passively documenting what has happened and keeping everything that
affects the plan as it unfolds front-and-centre in the eyes of the manager
helps make sure potential problems don't fall through the cracks.
J
jhalterm
Hello Steve,
Thanks for the answer and kind of stinks that it won't at least give you the
option of doing it that way. I work for a door company who gives out
incentives to the door engineers if the work is completed on time as
scheduled and without errors. The problem I have is that if we allow all the
project managers to update actual finish dates that can put any date they
want in that field and then they are always on schedule. Does that make
sense? We are using professional with the web access and server and I'm
trying to figure out how I can do this so that when they complete a task and
update the project they are not skewing the dates to get the incentive.
Baselines won't work either because we have too many tasks that rely on
customers to get information back to us and the longer or shorter time they
take will completely re-adjust the schedule for the remaining part of the
project. Plus you can save baselines over previous baselines to fix dates.
The only other thing I can think of is to not give them write access to the
files and just update the % complete on web access and make the supervisor
update the files but again the bad thing about that is that we have 3 or more
dozen door jobs going at one time so the supervisor would be spending all his
time updating plans instead of doing his supervisor work.
If you have any other ideas I am open for suggestions.
Thanks!
Thanks for the answer and kind of stinks that it won't at least give you the
option of doing it that way. I work for a door company who gives out
incentives to the door engineers if the work is completed on time as
scheduled and without errors. The problem I have is that if we allow all the
project managers to update actual finish dates that can put any date they
want in that field and then they are always on schedule. Does that make
sense? We are using professional with the web access and server and I'm
trying to figure out how I can do this so that when they complete a task and
update the project they are not skewing the dates to get the incentive.
Baselines won't work either because we have too many tasks that rely on
customers to get information back to us and the longer or shorter time they
take will completely re-adjust the schedule for the remaining part of the
project. Plus you can save baselines over previous baselines to fix dates.
The only other thing I can think of is to not give them write access to the
files and just update the % complete on web access and make the supervisor
update the files but again the bad thing about that is that we have 3 or more
dozen door jobs going at one time so the supervisor would be spending all his
time updating plans instead of doing his supervisor work.
If you have any other ideas I am open for suggestions.
Thanks!
S
Steve House [Project MVP]
There really is no way to do that that I can see. There is no automated
process that would allow Project to know the true finish date of a task -
you are ALWAYS going to be dependent on the honesty and reliability of the
people inputting the data. Even if there was some way to get it to pick up
the status date and use it for the actual finish, there's nothing that would
stop someone of changing the status date to whatever they wanted it to be
prior to entering their task updates. Even if it picked up the system date
from the computer itself, one of the first things anyone learns in computer
basics is how to set its clock and calendar. It boils down to you either
trust the engineers to be honest with you when they enter their completions
or you take away their ability to enter data and assign the responsibility
to collect and enter progress information over to someone whom you can
trust. There's always going to be some way anyone who has write access to
the file will be able to fudge their data.
One of the problems is that you may be making project management too low
level a function in your organization. The engineers out doing the jobs are
not project managers even though they may have supervisory duties on the job
site. Even their supervisors may not be the project managers. Project
planning, managment, and monitoring is more appropriately the role of the
supervisor's supervisor. That's the person, or his/her assistant, is who
should be creating and maintaining the project plans IMHO and nothing should
ever enter that data file without their prior knowledge and sign-off.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
process that would allow Project to know the true finish date of a task -
you are ALWAYS going to be dependent on the honesty and reliability of the
people inputting the data. Even if there was some way to get it to pick up
the status date and use it for the actual finish, there's nothing that would
stop someone of changing the status date to whatever they wanted it to be
prior to entering their task updates. Even if it picked up the system date
from the computer itself, one of the first things anyone learns in computer
basics is how to set its clock and calendar. It boils down to you either
trust the engineers to be honest with you when they enter their completions
or you take away their ability to enter data and assign the responsibility
to collect and enter progress information over to someone whom you can
trust. There's always going to be some way anyone who has write access to
the file will be able to fudge their data.
One of the problems is that you may be making project management too low
level a function in your organization. The engineers out doing the jobs are
not project managers even though they may have supervisory duties on the job
site. Even their supervisors may not be the project managers. Project
planning, managment, and monitoring is more appropriately the role of the
supervisor's supervisor. That's the person, or his/her assistant, is who
should be creating and maintaining the project plans IMHO and nothing should
ever enter that data file without their prior knowledge and sign-off.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
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