How to Complete a task early and record Actual Work

[adidistyle]

What is the correct method to mark jobs as Complete, when they are completed
in less than the planned time?

In our manufacturing business we frequently complete tasks with less Actual
Work than planned. We also may not timesheet anything at all against a task,
although that task has been completed. The time has probably been incorrectly
booked on another task somewhere.

If I record the Actual Work the task does not appear complete, and the Gantt
chart is misleading. It becomes downright confusing after a reschedule!

If I say it is 100% complete then the Actual Work increases to the planned
value, which distorts reporting and costs, but the Gantt chart looks correct.

At the moment I am thinking that if a task is completed in less than the
planned time, then I need to change the "Work" value to equal the final
"Actual Work" value.

If a task has been magically completed with no recorded Actual Work, should
I just delete it from the project and adjust links accordingly? This is OK
but is sort of ignoring the problem. We also recycle our charts into new
projects so it is not ideal.

All help/advie welcome.

Thanks,

Adam

 

[adidistyle]

Using MSP2007 Standard

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Enter Actual Work and set Remaining Work to 0.
Hope this helps,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[adidistyle]

OK. I forgot about "remaining work". This is a good suggestion as I planned
to implement an update/feedback table/view as recommended in Mike's tutorials.

Thank You.

 

[Cassandra Lee]

Adam's workaround:
At the moment I am thinking that if a task is completed in less than the
planned time, then I need to change the "Work" value to equal the final
"Actual Work" value.

is equivalent to Jan's solution:
Enter Actual Work and set Remaining Work to 0.

Both end up changing Work = Actual Work.

If the intent is to compare Actual Work to 'planned' work, the way to do it
is to save a baseline (i.e., Baseline Work) after the plan has been approved.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Cassandra,

You've not quoted the previous threads, so we really cannot
address what Adam, nor Jan has said.

I am guessing you are trying to track data and compare actual
work to planned work. If so, yes, save a baseline before
tracking. You may then view Work Variance to see the difference
between baseline and actual work.

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

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
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