Microsoft Project Tips

How to implement overtime rates

When you set up resources in the Resource Sheet of your project plan, you can specify an overtime rate as well as a standard rate of pay. To tell Project to calculate hours worked as overtime hours, go to Task Usage view. In the sheet area, right-click on the Work column header and choose Insert Column, then select Overtime Work from the Field list.

Now that you have the Overtime field in view, for any task where you specify a number of Overtime hours, that part of the total Work hours will be calculated at the overtime rate. Note! the Work column contains a total number of hours of work, and the Overtime Work column says how much of that total was overtime.

Security settings to allow Visual Reporting and Excel export

If you have difficulty using Visual Reports or exporting data to Excel, you may need to adjust your security settings in Project. Select Tools, Macro, Security and check what level is set. Medium level will ensure that you get the option to start Excel or save that file format, whereas High or Very High will block this. Low level will go ahead with these operations without asking you, and is not recommended.

Working with Split Screen

When you are working in Project you always need to make the most of the screen space you have, and sometimes you still can’t bring together all the information you need.

Working with a split screen can help to give you more complete information by allowing you to use 2 linked views.

When you are working in the Gantt Chart view (the default view), select Window, then Split, and you will see a grey divider in the middle of the screen. The view that shows below the divider is called the Task Form, and it gives all the details of the task you have currently selected. If you move to another task, the Task Form refreshes to show the details of the current task.

You can use the split screen to show any pair of views, with the selection in the top view filtering the bottom view. To set this up click anywhere in the top window then select the view you want to see here, then click in the bottom window and select the view you want to see here.

For example, if you display the Gantt Chart in the top, and Task Usage in the bottom, then for any task you select in the Gantt Chart, the bottom window will show a breakdown of the hours that the individual resources are booked onto that task.

Remember you can drag the divider bar up or down to the best position for the views you have chosen. To return to a single window view, select Window, Remove split.

Viewing multiple baselines

If you have saved a baseline for your project, and used that as a point of reference for seeing planned versus actual, you might find you need to record another baseline when circumstances have changed in your project. To save another baseline go to Tools, Tracking, Set Baseline and select the next one on the list. However to view your new baseline you will need to do one of the following:
Select Views, More Views, Multiple Baselines Gantt. This will show you all the baselines you have saved.
If you prefer the Tracking Gantt view, you could tell it to show you Baseline1 instead of Baseline. Select Format, Bar Styles. Scroll down to the Baseline entry in the field list. Edit the From and To columns using the drop down list to select Baseline1 Start and Baseline1 Finish. Click OK, and your new baseline will be displayed.

I have imported a project plan from Excel and can’t reschedule the tasks. What’s wrong?

If you import Microsoft Project task information from Excel or from another version of Project, you will see your tasks listed with all their start and finish dates, and depending on your source information you may also have links in place between the tasks. However, your plan may not behave as you would expect when you make adjustments to it, because the tasks have been scheduled with Must Start On constraints, so they cannot be moved.

You can clear this type of constraint on individual tasks by going to the Task Information box, Advanced tab, and selecting Constraint Type: As Soon As Possible. You also need to clear the Constraint Date box.

To do this for a number of tasks in an imported plan, in the Task list display the Constraint Type field as follows:

Right-click in the column headers, and select Insert Column.

From the Field Name list, select Constraint Type and click OK.

The column will be displayed with Must Start On showing as the type. Change the top entry to As Soon As Possible, then select the remaining cells in the column, right-click on them and select Fill Down. This will populate the whole column with As Soon As Possible.

Beware that you may have some tasks which genuinely need to have fixed dates, however to get your plan working you need to remove the Must Start On constraints from the flexible tasks.