When planning a project, if a task or set of tasks are scheduled to start immediately upon project start (meaning that their time constraints are set to Start ASAP and they have no other start dependencies), the actual start dates of those tasks change to the current date. The planned start dates of all other tasks adjust accordingly based on the time you started the project.
The new planned start dates depend on several factors, including dependent relationships with other tasks, the duration for each task, and the parent-child hierarchy. Recalculation of those dates is the core of project planning.
Key things to know about project dates:
- Dates are rolled up from child nodes to parent.
- After a node has children, its date can't be modified through the UI (except that you can modify the planned start date of the top project).
How Project Dates Are Derived
The logic used for recalculating dates is:
- Node in Pending/Open states: Planned End Date = Planned Start Date + Planned Duration
- Node in WIP state: Planned End Date = Actual Start Date + Planned Duration
- Node in Closed state: Actual Duration = Actual End Date - Actual Start Date
Troubleshooting Date Recalculations
The article KB0621203 - Recalculations in Project Management provides information about how to do the following checks:
- Determining whether recalculation is working correctly
- Triggering recalculation yourself
- Checking whether recalculation is completing properly.
- Debugging recalculation from forms or lists
If you're still having trouble figuring out why recalculation isn't happening:
Check the calculation_type field in Project and all sub-Projects/Project Tasks. These fields should be set to Automatic or Manual. Note that Manual projects do not honor relationships between nodes.
Verify whether the project schedule in the project record is valid. The schedule should be valid for the dates of the project. For example, a schedule defined for year 2025 might not work properly today. It's okay, however, to leave the schedule blank.
Related Information
- KB article by yoyotikka, Recalculations in Project Management
- Basics of Project Management
- Recalculate SLA times automatically
- Question by kc99, Recalculation of SLAs after missing scheduled bank holiday (over Xmas)
- sergiu.panaite provides information about reactivating a deactivated business rule on the planned_task table
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