Setting Actual Start and End Date

[Raymond Coates]

I know there are a lot of posts about the Actual Start and End Date on a project task but I'm not sure how to get things working the way I need.

What I would like is when a project task is moved to Work in Progress the actual start date is set to the current date and time.  Correspondingly when the project task is closed the actual end date is set to the current date and time.

I see the ubiquitous scenario of the actual start and end dates being set to the planned start and end dates.

Derive time component from planned dates is unchecked.

How can I get the behaviour that I am looking for?

[Namita Mishra]

Hi @Raymond Coates ,

Thanks for connecting with community.

Your expected behaviour is out of the box behaviour as well. This means when a project task is moved to Work in Progress the actual start date is set to the current date and time and when the project task is closed the actual end date is set to the current date and time.

Please check if there is any customization on your instance.

Thank You!

Namita Mishra

[Raymond Coates]

Hi Namita,

Thank you kindly for your reply.  I created a PDI, and deployed the PPS Standard plugin, and tested this using the Project Workspace.  I didn't experience this expected behaviour.  I experienced the same behaviour that I am getting in my company's instance.  That is the Actual Start Date is being set to Planned Start Date when I set the project task to Work in Progress, and the Actual End Date is being set to the Planned End Date when I set the project task to Closed Complete.

I have confirmed that the project has the Derive time component from planned dates unselected.

Perhaps there is additional configuration or another plugin that I must install.  Would you have any further insight on this?

[kaushal_snow]

Hi @Raymond Coates ,

you can create two before update Business Rules on the pm_project_task table: one that triggers when the task state changes to Work in Progress and sets current.work_start = new GlideDateTime();, and another that triggers when the task's state changes to Closed Complete and sets current.work_end = new GlideDateTime();. Additionally, ensure that the Derive time component from planned dates option is unchecked to prevent the system from automatically copying the time component from the planned dates to the actual dates......

If you found my response helpful, please mark it as ‘Accept as Solution’ and ‘Helpful’. This helps other community members find the right answer more easily and supports the community.

[Raymond Coates]

@kaushal_snow, thank you for taking the time to reply, I think this will stack nicely with the other replies.

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@Raymond Coates 

so what did you start with and where are you stuck?

If my response helped please mark it correct and close the thread so that it benefits future readers.