Timesheets all of a sudden pending approval for many people

R

robert.b.walden

Hello,

I'm working on a clients server which has Project Server 2003 installed
on it. I was doing a training session at their location and we went
through a lot of changes in permissions and the RBS. Now all of a
sudden all of the project managers and administrators have a ton of
pending time sheets and alerts of unsubmitted time sheets on their
homepage. I''m sure it has something to do with something we changed,
but I am not sure what it is. So my question is, can someone tell me
if this was caused by moving people to different groups or something
with the RBS? Is it safe to delete these pending approval time sheets?
Please advise. Thank you.
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Robert --

Curiosity begins the question, "Well, what changes did you make precisely?"
Without knowing what changes you made, it's difficult to diagnose the source
of your client's problems. Beyond this, the only sage advice I can give you
is that you should never do a training class on a client's production
Project Server system, for the exact reasons you describe. You can use the
EditSite tool to create one or more new Project Server instances that can be
used for training, testing, etc. Hope this helps.
 
R

robert.b.walden

Dale,

Thanks for the suggestion about the EditSite Utility. I had suggested
this to them prior to my training with them. They did not take my
advise however and wanted to redo everything on their production
server, so that's what happened. Specifically we changed all of the
security templates to have the permissions they wanted, moved users to
the correct groups, and edited the RBS to reflect their organization.
Any other suggestions on what may have caused this? I can give you
specifics, if you tell me what you need to know. I appreciate your
wisdom.
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Robert --

If you enabled Managed Time Periods, and then changed security permissions
and the RBS structure, then that would undoubtedly cause the timesheet
approval messages. Given your current situation, I think your client forced
you into an intolerable situation. These changes should have occurred on a
test instance of Project Server so that you could have shown the client the
consequences, and then they could decide whether the changes produced the
desirable effect. In the future, I would strongly recommend that you don't
let the client tell you what to do in situations like this. If you are
their consultant, YOU tell THEM what they need to do, and then do it. Hope
this helps.
 
R

robert.b.walden

Dale,

You are right about the situation. I'm definetly charging for my time
to figure this out. They already had Managed Time Periods defined.
But we did change certain permissions and the RBS structure. I'm sure
this is what caused the anomaly but I was wondering what the next
course of action would be. Will I have to delete all time sheet
approval and unsubmitted messages and have people resubmit their time
sheets?
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Robert --

Has the client upgraded Project Server to SP2a and Microsoft Project
Professional to SP2? If not, I would recommend that, as I believe that
should eliminate the phantom timesheet approval messages. Let us know.
 
R

robert.b.walden

Dale,


Thanks for the reply. The Service Packs are all up to date yes. I
believe I even installed the Post SP2A hotfix. Still no good. Any
more suggestions? I'm out of ideas.
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Robert --

I'm fresh out of ideas. Sorry. Perhaps someone else has some thoughts for
you.
 
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