I am getting decimals for my duration.

[Noel]

When I entered my project information, the start and finish dates were not
matching the duration which was in days. So I went into Tools>Options,
Calendar tab and fixed that information to 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week,
and the week starts on Monday. This fixed my start and finish day but once I
changed this information, the duration changed to decimals. For example, 3
days changed to 2.73, 6 days changed to 5.45.
Why does it change the duration to decimals and how can I fix it?

Thanks for your help

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

The original durations entered were converted into minutes by Project
(minutes are the ONLY unit Project uses internally). When you change the
definition of "a day" in terms of number of minutes, Project couldn't but
recalculate the duration in days.

If your Project isn't very large probably the fastest way to solve is by
resetting the urations manually.
If you can install a VBA macro you could use this:

sub resetduration()
dim job a task
for each job in activeproject.tasks
If not job is nothing then
if not job.summary then
job.duration=job.duration* (new day value)/(old day value)
end if
end if
next job
end sub

And run this macro after having replaced old value and new value in the
statement.

But before you go any further CHECK WORKING TIMES - are they consistent with
hoursperday value?
HTH

 

[JulieS]

Hi Noel,

When you enter a task and duration, Project immediately looks at the
definition of a "day" and a "week" in the Tools > Options, Calendar tab
to determine the schedule (start and end dates and times) based upon how
many hours are in a day *and the working time set up in the project
calendar*. If there is a mis-match between the project calendar
definition of working time (Tools >Change Working time) and the
definition of the number of hours in a day, you'll see odd Start and
Finish dates.

When you went to Tools > Options, Calendar tab and changed the number of
hours per day after you had entered tasks and durations, Project will
not recalculate the start and end dates but now will reflect the
duration based upon your new definition.

For additional information, take a look at FAQ #5 at:

http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[Noel]

When we change the working hours to match on both the Tool<Change Working
time and Tools>Options, Calendar Tab it doesn't recalculate the duration. Do
we have to manually change the durations to what they need to be? Do I need
to install a VBA macro as Jan indicated?
Also, we have our hours as 8:00am to 4:30, 8 hours, 40 hours a week. 8 -
4:30 is actually 8.5 hours, will this throw the calculations off?

Thanks

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Noel,

As the FAQ says: as changes to Tools > Options generally apply to the future
entry of data and not what has already been entered, you will have to
re-enter all the Durations again - just over-write them.

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials

 

[JulieS]

Hi Noel,

Does you calendar (Tools > Change Working Time) have 30 minutes break
for lunch? If so, the 8.00 hours per day should be fine.

As I mentioned, changing the definition *after* tasks have been added
does not recalculate the duration of the task. If you entered "1 day"
duration and the definition of a "day" was 7.5 hours, then Project
schedules the task for 7.5 hours (well, actually 450 minutes). So, if
you want the task to now be 8 hours (1 day), you'll need to re-enter the
duration manually.

You do not need to install the VBA macro. Jan was just giving you an
alternative to correcting the durations manually.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie