Sync to Protected Actuals

[Robert]

Hello,
What is the purpose of the following menu in Project Pro 2007:
Tools / Tracking / Sync to Protected Actuals
Thanks for your help

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Robert --

This option is only used if you organization uses the Managed Time Periods
feature in Project Server 2007 and sychronizes the project data with the
data in PWA. The Managed Time Periods feature, by the way, prevents project
managers from manually entering progress in the Microsoft Project plan,
except for Milestone tasks. Hope this helps.

 

[Robert]

Thanks a lot Dale,
I guess that the Managed Time Periods feature is in the Create Period
section of the Timsheet Periods page in PWA where we can set the status to
Closed.
So, when we select this option : Sync to Protected Actuals, the actuals
entered in the Timesheets are uploaded to Project Pro. Is it right?
Another question : where is the Actual Work Protected field that the Help is
speaking of?
Thanks again

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Robert --

Neither of your assumptions are even close. The answer is "No" to both of
them.

To set up Manged Time Periods you must certainly set up timesheet periods,
as you have done. But you must also select the "Restrict updates to Project
Web Access" option and the "Time entry by Timesheet only; Users will sync to
update tasks" option on the Task Settings and Display page in PWA. When you
select the first option, you prevent project managers from manually entering
progress against tasks in their Microsoft Project plan, except for Milestone
tasks. This means that all progress must come from PWA. When you select
the second option, resources enter time and task progress on the My
Timesheet page, and then import the progress to the My Tasks page by
clicking the Import Timesheet button. After a resource imports timesheet
data to the My Tasks page, the resource cannot edit time on the My Tasks
page. That is what constitutes Managed Time Periods.

When you have Managed Time Periods enabled, the PM can use the "Sync to
protected actuals" feature to make sure that he/she has not accidentally
entered actual progress in the Microsoft Project plan, but instead, has
accepted all progress into the project from PWA. Now, here's my question
for you: Do you really need the fucnctionality described above? It creates
a very restrictive environment for everyone involved. Hope this helps.

 

[Robert]

Thanks a lot Dale for these detailed explanations which make everything
clearer.
But where is the "Actual Work Protected" field described in the Help?
Here is an excerpt of the Help:
"Best Uses : Add the Actual Work Protected field to any task sheet view to
review or filter the uneditable actual work hours on tasks that have been
submitted by team members. This field can be especially useful for billing
and accounting purposes for tasks."
Thanks again

 

[Roxane Cabile]

Hi Dale,

Good day!

We are using MSP 2010 and our resources are entering their actuals via Timesheet.

The challenges that we are encountering now are:

1. Burnt hours in the timesheet are not reflecting in the work plans.
2. If we recall a timesheet, the timesheet will reflect the hours in from the work plan but there are cases that the hours were spreading so it will capture incorrect hours.

Our PWA is set to "Only Allow task udpates via Tasks and Timesheets.We published the work plan in the approval center right after we accepted all the timesheets.

Please advise on how we can capture the correct data in the timesheet.

Thank you so much.

Roxane

 

[sanket]

EPM Timesheet Import in Task

I am facing some issues while importing timesheets under Task(s).

Problem :

In the PWA browser application, I choose "My Tasks", then the "Import timesheet" button. A drop-down list of timesheets appears.

Is there any way to get the drop down list of timesheets to be imported to be a little more sensible?

The timesheets appear in no particular order, and include timesheets which have already been imported. This seems to mean that the list will keep growing, and it will be extremely difficult to locate timesheets which need to be imported. Is there a way of ensuring that the list by default appears in one or more of the following formats:
a) Sorted by date (preferably showing the latest first)
b) Showing only those which have not yet been imported.
c) As a less acceptable alternative to (b) above, showing only "recent" ones (say in the last 4-5 weeks)

Also, if I make a mistake and import a timesheet more than once, is any harm done?

I need to answer the above questions for my users.

Hope that you can help me out to resolve the same.