Can the ”actual start time” be set to any time?

[RyoyaFukuda]

Hi all.

What are the "actual start time" and "actual end time" of project tasks?
I have confirmed that I can change the date to any date, but when I try to change the time as well, it is set back to the original time.
For example, if I change the "Actual Start Time" from 16:30 to 9:00 in the image, the "Actual Start Time" is set back to 16:30 and the "Actual End Time" is set to 2023-12-29 09:30:00, which is only ahead of the "Actual duration".
What is the cause?

[Jaspal Singh]

Hi,

It is well documented on doc. Please follow link for a check.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @RyoyaFukuda 

If i speak from experience, Actual Start /end time is mainly used to track the actual efforts , means as soon as your record move to In progress or in case of change move to Implement, actual start time populated 

Changing it manual is not and never be a good or best practice. What I can suggest, make this field read only and auto populate base on the condition. 

You can refer to below image