Microsoft Project Tips Weekly

- Hi, Bunny BF4 here. In this tip, I'll show you how to set up a view that shows progress in a project. From the previous reporting period to the end of the current one. We're going to use baselines to help compare values. In this project the actuals are updated through the end of a reporting period. To see that period, go to the project tab and head to the status section. The status date is set to January 15th, 2021. So that's the end of the previous reporting period. Now what we're going to do is set a baseline to store the data through that date. So we have a snapshot of the previous progress. On the project tab click set baseline and choose set baseline. In the set baseline drop down list, I'm going to choose baseline 10. And then save that for the entire project. Now let's create a custom view. I've got the Gantt chart displayed. But I want to use the tracking Gantt. So I'm going to go to the task tab, click the bottom half of the Gantt chart button and down near the bottom of the menu choose tracking Gantt. Then let's go back to the Gantt chart button. Click it again and choose save view. I'm going to call it C_Progressrpt for report. And then click okay. Now the reason that I want to use a tracking Gantt, is because in the timescale it has gray bars to show a baseline and then blue and red bars to show the current schedule. Now let's set up some custom fields for our variances. We're going to head back to the project tab and click custom fields. The first thing we want is cost variance. So I'm going to click the type drop down and then choose cost. I'm going to rename Cost1. And I'll call it cost progress and then click okay. We need a formula for this. Beneath the list of fields, click the formula button. And we're going to start with the cost field. So click the field button, point at cost and choose cost. Now this is the cost of the current schedule. Then we're going to click the minus sign. Click field again, point at cost, point at the baseline cost category and choose baseline 10 costs. So we're going to subtract the baseline 10 cost which is our snapshot of the previous progress. We're going to subtract that from the current schedule. Go ahead and click okay. When you see this message about existing data, just go ahead and click okay. Next, we're going to look at the variance in the finish dates and we're going to use duration for that. In the type drop down choose duration. Then click rename to rename duration one to finish progress. And click okay. We need a formula for this as well. Click the formula button. And in this case, we can use a built-in function. Click function, point at date time. And what we want is this project date diff. Select that and it gets added to the box. Now we're going to fill in our variables. Double click date one to select it. And we're going to start with the baseline 10 finish. Click field, point at date. Then go to baseline finish. And down at the bottom of that sub menu choose baseline 10 finish. Date two is going to be the finish date. Click field, pointed date and choose finish. What we're doing here is we're going to subtract the finish date from the baseline 10 finish. And we'll see why later. Finally, double click calendar. And we're going to use the project calendar for this project. Which is the standard calendar. It has to be in double quotes. Go ahead and click okay. Then click okay to dismiss the existing data message. And finally, click okay to close the custom fields dialog box. The last thing we're going to do in this view is we're going to change the baseline that's displayed. And to do that, we have to head to the format tab. In the bar style section, click baseline and choose baseline 10. Notice that when you do that, the gray bars and the blue and red bars match because we've done a snapshot of this current progress in the project. So, everything is the same. And that's how you set up a custom view to compare progress between reporting periods. And part two, we'll evaluate progress with this view.