Enter Actual Finish for a Milestone and Actual Work is populated?

[Lbrown11]

I am statusing milestones (zero duration) in MS Project 2003 Professional by
entering the Actual Finish date field. When I enter the Actual Finish date,
even if it is the same as the Baseline Finish - Project is changing the
Duration to 1 day, which is then, in turn, causing Actual Work to be
populated with 8 hours. With no resources loaded in those milestones, how is
actual work being automatically populated and how do I stop this? It is
making my Actual Work numbers incorrect in reports.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Lbrown11,

Well, that is certainly odd. I cannot reproduce what you are seeing, so
I can't hazard a guess as to why. If you look at the tracking table, is
the Actual Start date populated? If so, it's likely that there is a one
day difference between your Actual Start and Actual Finish. If the
Actual Start is blank, what happens if you enter the Actual Start Date
for the milestone -- is the Actual Finish automatically populating?


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

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Lbrown11]

The Actual start is populated and matches Actual Finish, and it is still
changing to 1 day duration and adding the 8 hours. If both fields are blank
and I enter Actual Start, it does not populate anything else, but as soon as
Actual Finish is entered - the same thing occurs.

Could I possibly send you the mpp I am working with (sample data) so that
you could view what I am up against?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Lbrown11,

I think that entering Actual Finish defaults to 1700 on that day thus
creating 8 hours. Try entering the date plus time of 0800 -
Tools/Options/View tab/Date format and select one that has the time might
help.

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

 

[JulieS]

Hi Lbrown11,

You're welcome for the help. It looks as though Mike has weighed in
with a very likely answer. I suggest changing the Date format as Mike
suggested to show time as well as date.

I am about to take off for a bit of R & R, but I will check back into
this newsgroup while I am out. Post back if Mike's answer didn't solve
the problem.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Mike Glen]

Hey, Julie, have a well deserved break!

Mike

Hi Lbrown11,

You're welcome for the help. It looks as though Mike has weighed in with
a very likely answer. I suggest changing the Date format as Mike suggested
to show time as well as date.

I am about to take off for a bit of R & R, but I will check back into this
newsgroup while I am out. Post back if Mike's answer didn't solve the
problem.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[JulieS]

Thanks Mike. A little time in D.C. where it's a bit warmer is just the
ticket.

Julie

 

[Lbrown11]

Thank you Julie and Mike - that did it!! I changed the date format to
include the time and then changed the time to 8am. I did also take a closer
look at my actuals cost field and because the milestones had no resources
loaded, there was no rate to calculate costs. So my actual cost was correct,
but the actual work is where it was off.

Thanks again!
Lauren

 

[JulieS]

Hello Lauren,

You're welcome for the small assistance I gave and thanks for the
feedback.I'm glad you were able to sort it out and thanks for letting us
know.

Julie
Project MVP

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, Lauren

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

 

[Lbrown11]

Ok - this is a follow-up to my original question. Now we have a milestone
that has a baseline finish of 8/31 and the actual finish of 9/28. the actual
work is populating with 160 hrs. While this isnt affecting the total cost,
since there are no resources applied to this milestone - it is affecting my
overall actual work totals.

Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Lauren

 

[JulieS]

Hi Lauren,

Sorry for the delay. What is the actual start of the milestone? What is
the actual duration populating to? I assume 4 weeks? Usually milestone
tasks are zero duration. If the actual finish is 9/28/07, set the
actual duration to zero and remaining duration to zero.

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

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Lbrown11]

Thank you - that did it! I think I have the hang of it now...

 

[JulieS]

You're welcome Lauren and thanks for the feedback. Do let us know if
you have additional questions.

Julie
Project MVP