Entering a Task’s Completion Percentage
After work has begun on a task, you can quickly record its
progress as a percentage. When you enter a completion percentage other
than 0, Project changes the task’s actual start date to match its
scheduled start date. Project then calculates actual duration,
remaining duration, actual costs, and other values based on the
percentage you enter. For example, if you specify that a four-day task
is 50 percent complete, Project calculates that it has had two days of
actual duration and has two days of remaining duration.
Here are some ways of entering completion percentages:
-
Use the 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% Complete buttons in the
Schedule group of the Task tab. -
Enter any percentage value you want in the Update Tasks
dialog box (to access this dialog box, on the Task tab, in the
Schedule group, click the down arrow to the right of the Mark on
Track, and then click Update Tasks).
Tip
If you can collect the actual start date of a task, it is a
good practice to record the actual start date (described in the next
section), and then record a completion percentage.
-
In the Task Name column,
select the name of task 5, Design and order marketing
material.
This task has some progress reported against it from the
previous exercise, but has not yet been set as complete. -
On the Task tab, in the
Schedule group, click 100% Complete.
Project records the actual work for the task as scheduled
and extends a progress bar through the length of the Gantt
bar.
Next you’ll record that the completion milestone for the
Planning Phase and the first task of the Internal Launch Phase are
complete. -
In the Task Name column,
select the name of task 6, Planning complete!
and while holding down the Ctrl key, select the name of task 8,
Kickoff book launch meeting. -
On the Task tab, in the
Schedule group, click 100% Complete.
Next, you’ll get a better look at how progress is
displayed in a task’s Gantt bar. You will enter a completion
percentage value for a different task. -
Click the name of task 9, Prepare book P&L
statement. -
On the Task tab, in the
Schedule group, click 50% Complete.
Project records the actual work for the task as scheduled
and then draws a progress bar through part of the Gantt
bar.
Note that although 50% of the work on task 9 is completed,
the progress bar does not span 50% of the width of the Gantt bar.
This is because Project measures duration in working time but
draws the Gantt bars to extend over nonworking time, which in this
case includes Thursday, January 19, the nonworking day.
Tip
By default, Project shows Gantt bars in front of
nonworking time (such as weekends), as you see in this section.
However, Project can show nonworking time in front of task bars,
visually indicating that no work on the task will occur during
the nonworking time. If you prefer this type of presentation,
right-click any shaded nonworking time in the chart portion of
the Gantt Chart view, and click Nonworking Time in the shortcut
menu. In the Timescale dialog box, click the “Non-working time”
tab. Next to Draw, click “In front of task bars.”
-
In the chart portion (on the right) in the Gantt Chart view,
hold the mouse pointer over the progress bar in task 9’s Gantt
bar. When the mouse pointer changes to a percent symbol and right
arrow, a Progress ScreenTip appears.
The Progress ScreenTip informs you of the task’s
completion percentage and other tracking values.
Tip
You can also set percent complete by pointing to a Gantt
bar (or progress bar within a Gantt bar). When the mouse pointer
changes to a percent symbol and right arrow, drag the mouse
pointer from left to right within the Gantt bar. As you do so,
note the “complete through” date value that appears in a
ScreenTip.
So far, you have recorded actual work that started and finished
on schedule. While this might prove true for some tasks, you often
need to record actuals for tasks that lasted longer or shorter than
planned, or occurred sooner or later than scheduled. This is the
subject of the next topic.
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