How do I enter actual hours without affecting the Actual Finish D.

[jonathan_blanton]

I want to track the actual number of hours worked in my plan and I also want
to track the Actual Start and Actual Finish Dates. Many of my projects are
not full-time, so I am working on multiple projects simultaneously. But
Project must assume that I am dedicated full-time to the given Project, since
when I change the Actual Work, it modifies the Actual Finish Date, and if I
modify the Actual Finish Date, it modifies the Actual Work. For example, I
want to capture the fact that I:
- planned that the task would take 20 hours, start on January 7th, and
finish on January 14th
- actually completed the task in 10 hours, but I started on January 7th and
finished on January 20th
This tells me that I had to spend less overall time than expected, but, for
whatever reason, finished the task on a later date than expected.

Basically, why is Project forcing a link between the Actual Hours and the
Actual Dates? Is there a way to separate these?

 

[JulieS]

Hi Jonathan,

If you create your task as a "Fixed Work" task type I believe you will
achieve what you are looking for.

By entering the actual work of 10 hrs. and then entering zero for remaining
work. project calculates the actual finish date based upon the original unit
% assigned (around 42%). However, if I then change the actual finish date,
Project will recalculate the unit % to approximately 13%.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie