Actual % bar in Gantt view which is based on budget mhrs in Project Plan

Hi there

If I'm correct, Smartsheet only provide the "Time Duration (i.e. Days)" as the basis for Porgress Measurement in Project Plan. It's good in a way, but not that professional.

For now, I have to set up a column for uploading the budget mhrs for each tasks (say 200 to 300 tasks for a classic project) and use it as the weight factor, i.e., the basis for the progress measurement. And the actual % is based on the hours as well. Say, I spent 50% of the time of the task, I may achieved 80% of the budget mhrs or vice versa 40% of the budget mhrs.

So, the question is: how could I show this type of Actual % in the bar in Gantt View rather than the default one based on duration?

Thanks

Regards

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Accepted answers

Matthew Flebbe

Hi KJ,

If you hop into the the Project Settings, you can choose your "Actual %" column as the "% Complete column":

All comments

kj61152

Hi there

As the default setting, Smartsheet use the time duration as the basis for project progress % measurement. It's good in a way, but may not be that professional to all the projects.

Normally, we measure the % based on budget mhrs for each activities in the plan, and use the physical units as the basis for actual % (such as document qty, drawign qty, pc mark of fabrication, etc). I managed to get several columns in the project plan to do this.

Now the question is re the Actual % bar in the Gantt chart. Is that possible to show the Actual % based on a specific column's value rather than the defaul one from Smartsheet by using days/duration?

Thans

Regards

Matthew Flebbe

Hi KJ,

If you hop into the the Project Settings, you can choose your "Actual %" column as the "% Complete column":

kj61152

@Matthew Flebbe

Thanks for the feedback. But, the problme is that this "Actual % Complete" will be changed into Value after I make it as the basis for the Actual Bar. This is not exactly what I'm after. I would like to keep the formula still activate.

Is there any way to do so?

Thanks

Matthew Flebbe

@kj61152 I see what you are saying now. I will do some testing.

Update: I would recommend using an automation to update the value of a "cheater" column for % Actual in increments depending on how many automations you are willing to set up. According to the Smartsheet Help & Learning pages when using the update cell value automation:

You must specify the exact value that you want to input in a cell. At this time, it is not possible to add a formula to a cell, reference the value in another cell, or reference the value in a sheet summary field.

Because you must select an exact value, I would recommend you update your % Actual Complete cheater column in increments of 20% or 25%. You can use your calculated column as a reference point with the "Change Cell Value" automation.

Something like this:

You can use the conditions to evaluate your calculated column and update the % Actual Bar column. It will not be extremely precise unless you add many automations, but I hope getting into the ballpark will suffice until Smartsheet is able to use calculated values as inputs for automations.

-Matt

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