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FAQ › Category: How do I...? › Scheduling
How can I set a specific start/finish time for a task?
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In order to set a specific time for a task, click on the duration cell to open the date picker and click on the "Time" button. Select the time and then exit edit mode for the changes to take effect.
What is a Project Manager?
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A person responsible for accomplishing the expected project objectives, having responsibilities such as creating clear and attainable project objectives, building the project requirements, and managing constraints such as time, costs, scope and quality. A project manager can have the responsibility of planning, execution and closing of any project in a specific field and they represent the bridging gap between production team and the client. Typically project managers are users that create or edit project plans and they are the authors of the project plan.
I need a Gantt chart to show 70 years [by year] to track an historical project.
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We are sorry, but we don’t support dates out of the range. Dates must be between January 1, 1984 and December 31, 2149.
What does the little calendar icon stand for in the Indicators column?
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Because you manually changed the Finish Date / Start Date that icon specifies that you have a constraint applied on that specific task. To remove the icon, go to Task Information dialog and in Advanced tab set the constraint type to As Soon As possible.
When should I use Early Start and Early Finish date fields?
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Add the Early Start and Early Finish fields to a task view, along with the Late Start and Late Finish fields, to analyze slack time in your schedule.
How can I see the Actual and Remaining Cost?
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The Actual and Remaining Cost columns are available for various views, like Gantt Chart, Task Sheet, Resource Sheet, Resource Usage or Task Usage etc., allowing you to easily track and compare Actual and Remaining Costs with the Cost values for either Tasks, Resources or Assignments.
How the Remaining cost for a task is calculated?
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How the Remaining cost for a task is calculated?
How the Actual cost for a task is calculated?
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  1. In the actual cost calculation, we will be using for resource assignment: CostPerUseOnUnits which is CostPerUse*Units if the resource type is “work” and CostPerUse if the resource type is “material”. StandardRateWithWork = StandardRate * Work
  2. Actual Cost for a task will be: ActualCost = CostPerUseOnUnits of each resource assignment + StandardRateWithWork * PercentComplete of each resource assignment + ActualCost for resource assignments with cost resource + FixedCost * PercentComplete
How the Remaining cost for a resource assignment is calculated?
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The remaining cost is calculated by Project Plan 365 for an Assignment, a Resource or a Task by simply subtracting Actual Cost from Cost: RemainingCost = Cost – ActualCost 
How the Actual cost for a resource assignment is calculated?
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  1. If the resource type is "work": ActualCost = CostPerUse * Units + Work * StandardRate * PercentComplete
  2. If the resource type is "material": ActualCost = CostPerUse + Work * StandardRate * PercentComplete
  3. If the resource type is "cost": Actual cost will be:
    1. if the task has assigned only cost resources, ActualCost = Cost * PercentComplete
    2. if the task doesn't have assigned only cost resource, ActualCost = 0
How the Actual Cost of an Assignment is calculated?
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The Actual Cost of an Assignment is calculated using a formula similar to the cost formula. The main difference is that instead of the assignment Work field, the Actual Work field value is used. Project Plan 365 calculates this value when you adjust a task's percentage complete field. Actual Work is calculated using the formula:Assignment Actual Work = Work * Assignment's Task Percent Complete
How a cost for a task assignment is calculated?
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  1. Cost for a task is the sum of the cost of each resource assignment + Fixed Cost.
  2. If the task is a summary, the cost will be the sum of the cost of each subtasks.
How a cost for a resource assignment is calculated?
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  1. If the resource type is "work":
Cost = CostPerUse * Units + Work * StandardRate 
  1. If the resource type is "material":
Cost = CostPerUse + Work * StandardRate
  1. If the resource type is "cost":
Cost will be the assigned cost
What is the Actual Cost of a task?
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The actual cost of a task is the added actual costs of all assigned resources (or the added costs of all child tasks, in the case of a summary task), plus any fixed costs set for the task, weighted by the task percent complete value.
What is the Actual Cost of a resource?
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The actual cost of a resource is the added actual costs of all assignments that the resource has.
When should I use the Start Slack and Finish Slack fields?
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Add the Start Slack and Finish Slack fields to any task view when you want to review how free slack was calculated.

What is Finish Slack?
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The Finish Slack field contains the duration between the Early Finish and Late Finish dates. The smaller of the finish slack and start slack amounts determines the amount of free slack available, that is, the amount of time a task can be delayed without affecting the start date of a successor task or the project finish date.
What is Start Slack?
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The Start Slack field contains the duration between the Early Start and Late Start dates. The smaller of the start slack and finish slack amounts determines the amount of free slack available, that is, the amount of time a task can be delayed without affecting the start date of a successor task or the project finish date.
When is best to use the Active field?
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The Active field is useful when various proposals are being presented for a plan and ultimately one course of action will be selected. The Active field is also useful when a task or set of tasks is being cut because of a scaling back of project scope. With the Active field, you can experiment with inactivating and reactivating tasks to see the resulting schedule effects. 
What is an inactive task?
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An inactive task is a task that stays in the plan, but does not affect resource availability, the project schedule, or how other tasks are scheduled. They appear dimmed with a strikethrough.

What does the “Set the scheduling units for duration” functionality do?


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The Set the scheduling units for duration functionality, as the name describes it, allows you to set the units the duration is entered in.
When is best to use the Max. Units field?
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Use the Max. Units field in a resource view to indicate whether the work resource is full time or part time on this project, or whether multiples of this resource are consolidated into one. For example:
  • If you want to indicate that all the person's time is devoted to your project, type 100% in the Units field on the Resource Sheet view. If the person works 8-hour days, he or she will be overallocated if any combination of assignments exceeds 8 hours (100%) of the available workday.
  • If you want to indicate that only a part of a person's time is devoted to your project, type a number less than 100% in the Units field on the Resource Sheet view. If the person works 8-hour days and has 75% of his or her time devoted to your project, he or she will be overallocated if any combination of assignments equals more than 6 hours (75%) of the available workday.
  • If you want to indicate that a resource group, such as three carpenters, will work on the project full time, type 300% in the Units field on the Resource Sheet view.
Can I manually change the Max. Units?
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When you enter a resource in your project, by default the Max. Units’ field for this resource is set to 100%, which can be thought of as one full-time equivalent of the resource for the number of hours in a day (by default, 8). However, you can change the value at any value, below or above, the current max units. 
What is “Max. Units” field used for?
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The Max. Units field contains the maximum number of units, representing the maximum capacity for which a resource is available to accomplish any tasks during the current time period. Typically, by specifying the Max. Units field for a resource we express the total working condition for the resource, or the portion of his/her time set off for the overall project.
What steps should I follow in order to track the progress of my project?
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When you track the progress of your project, two things will help you the most:
  • Create a baseline before your project gets started.
  • Use the right views to see how things are going.
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