Q: Report tasks with actuals between 2 dates?

[David A. Cheslow PhD]

It's easy enough to report what tasks are SUPPOSED to be worked on between
to dates... but I've had a request for a report of tasks that have actuals
recorded between 2 dates... 'What did we really work on last week?' I've
been able to cobble together an answer using the COM+ add-in that exports to
Excel but it seems like there should be a better way.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

P.S. please email (e-mail address removed) as I do not read this group
much anymore.

 

[Karen]

David -
I'm replying here because it's a question of interest to
many, and I have only just recently found a reasonable
solution to reporting actuals on timescaled data.

Launch a project file (I recommend starting with one
project file if you manage more than one, and launch it
from MS Project rather than via the "update tasks"
feature in Web Access). Go to the Resource Sheet view.
Right click on the upper toolbar and choose
the "analysis" toolbar (you can also get there by going
through the view - toolbar menu).

A button should pop up below your other nav buttons
called "analyze timescaled data in excel." Push it and
follow the prompts.

You could also do some SQL reports, there are a few
reasonable starting points on the MS Knowledge base -
stored procedures for analyzing timescaled or timephased
data. This feature is a little flaky for me still, but
it's pretty good.

Good luck!
Karen

 

[Dale Howard]

David --

If it were me, I would crank out a macro that would consolidate all of my
projects in the portfolio into a Master project...TEMPORARILY...and for
reporting purposes only. I would not attempt to save this master project in
the Project Server database. Then the macro would spin through the master
project and identify every task that has had Actual Work hours entered
during the required time period. Finally, the macro would pump a list of
those tasks to an Excel workbook, along with the resources assigned to those
tasks and the Actual Work hours for each resource. And finally, because I
used to write Excel VBA code for a living, I would format the Excel workbook
to make it look pretty for my executives! HA!

Many people ask for a report similar to what you want, with variations. It
is a very common request. And David, I think you have said it well: there
should be a better way...and I don't think there is. Unless somebody knows
how to write VBA code for both MS Project and Excel, they are probably
limited to using the Analyze timescaled data in Excel" option as Karen
proposed in her response to your message. Hope this helps a little.