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FAQ › Category: How do I...? › Scheduling
When to apply a deadline?
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Apply a deadline to a task when you want to track a deadline for a specific task, but don't want to lock your schedule by setting an inflexible constraint such as Must Finish On or Finish No Later Than. Such constraints affect scheduling, while the Deadline field simply causes an indicator to show if a task has not been completed by its deadline. Certain tasks in your project should finish by specific target dates. However, you don't want these dates to actually affect how Project Plan 365 schedules the tasks; you just want to be alerted if the tasks are not completed by these dates. Add the Deadline field to the Entry table of the Gantt Chart view, and set the deadline dates for these tasks.

By setting a task deadline, instead of imposing an inflexible constraint for a task to mark its finish date, you can achieve a more flexible and dynamic project schedule. A dynamic schedule is properly sequenced and is free of any task constraints. The benefit is that the project manager can assess changes to the project end date (via the critical path) without experiencing constraint errors.

Deadlines can be added to any task in the project schedule. You may want to add specific deadlines based on the tasks on the critical path or on important milestones. The deadline gives you flexibility in setting a commitment date that isn’t tied directly to a baseline finish date.

Can I have a resource assigned to the task and the resource availability would drive the calculation of the finish date?
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You need to make the changes on the resource calendar. Then, you need to set the task type to Fixed Units or Fixed Work depending on your needs. The app will automatically calculate the duration of your task based on the resource calendar.
Why I can’t see the “Set Baseline” button in ribbon on the Mac platform?
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If the “Set Baseline” button is not visible in ribbon, please press  "More" button. You should be able to find in the dropdown the button that doesn't fit inside the ribbon because of the small window size.
Why I can’t see the “Move Project” button in ribbon on the Mac platform?
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If the “Move Project” button is not visible in ribbon, please press  "More" button. You should be able to find in the dropdown the button that doesn't fit inside the ribbon because of the small window size.
Why I can’t see the “Critical Path” button in ribbon on the Mac platform?
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If the “Critical Path” button is not visible in ribbon, please press  "More" button. You should be able to find in the dropdown the button that doesn't fit inside the ribbon because of the small window size.
How can I set a specific start/finish time for a task?
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In order to set a specific time for a task, click on the duration cell to open the date picker and click on the "Time" button. Select the time and then exit edit mode for the changes to take effect.
What is a Project Manager?
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A person responsible for accomplishing the expected project objectives, having responsibilities such as creating clear and attainable project objectives, building the project requirements, and managing constraints such as time, costs, scope and quality. A project manager can have the responsibility of planning, execution and closing of any project in a specific field and they represent the bridging gap between production team and the client. Typically project managers are users that create or edit project plans and they are the authors of the project plan.
I need a Gantt chart to show 70 years [by year] to track an historical project.
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We are sorry, but we don’t support dates out of the range. Dates must be between January 1, 1984 and December 31, 2149.
What does the little calendar icon stand for in the Indicators column?
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Because you manually changed the Finish Date / Start Date that icon specifies that you have a constraint applied on that specific task. To remove the icon, go to Task Information dialog and in Advanced tab set the constraint type to As Soon As possible.
When should I use Early Start and Early Finish date fields?
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Add the Early Start and Early Finish fields to a task view, along with the Late Start and Late Finish fields, to analyze slack time in your schedule.
How can I see the Actual and Remaining Cost?
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The Actual and Remaining Cost columns are available for various views, like Gantt Chart, Task Sheet, Resource Sheet, Resource Usage or Task Usage etc., allowing you to easily track and compare Actual and Remaining Costs with the Cost values for either Tasks, Resources or Assignments.
How the Remaining cost for a task is calculated?
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How the Remaining cost for a task is calculated?
How the Actual cost for a task is calculated?
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  1. In the actual cost calculation, we will be using for resource assignment: CostPerUseOnUnits which is CostPerUse*Units if the resource type is “work” and CostPerUse if the resource type is “material”. StandardRateWithWork = StandardRate * Work
  2. Actual Cost for a task will be: ActualCost = CostPerUseOnUnits of each resource assignment + StandardRateWithWork * PercentComplete of each resource assignment + ActualCost for resource assignments with cost resource + FixedCost * PercentComplete
How the Remaining cost for a resource assignment is calculated?
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The remaining cost is calculated by Project Plan 365 for an Assignment, a Resource or a Task by simply subtracting Actual Cost from Cost: RemainingCost = Cost – ActualCost 
How the Actual cost for a resource assignment is calculated?
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  1. If the resource type is "work": ActualCost = CostPerUse * Units + Work * StandardRate * PercentComplete
  2. If the resource type is "material": ActualCost = CostPerUse + Work * StandardRate * PercentComplete
  3. If the resource type is "cost": Actual cost will be:
    1. if the task has assigned only cost resources, ActualCost = Cost * PercentComplete
    2. if the task doesn't have assigned only cost resource, ActualCost = 0
How the Actual Cost of an Assignment is calculated?
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The Actual Cost of an Assignment is calculated using a formula similar to the cost formula. The main difference is that instead of the assignment Work field, the Actual Work field value is used. Project Plan 365 calculates this value when you adjust a task's percentage complete field. Actual Work is calculated using the formula:Assignment Actual Work = Work * Assignment's Task Percent Complete
How a cost for a task assignment is calculated?
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  1. Cost for a task is the sum of the cost of each resource assignment + Fixed Cost.
  2. If the task is a summary, the cost will be the sum of the cost of each subtasks.
How a cost for a resource assignment is calculated?
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  1. If the resource type is "work":
Cost = CostPerUse * Units + Work * StandardRate 
  1. If the resource type is "material":
Cost = CostPerUse + Work * StandardRate
  1. If the resource type is "cost":
Cost will be the assigned cost
What is the Actual Cost of a task?
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The actual cost of a task is the added actual costs of all assigned resources (or the added costs of all child tasks, in the case of a summary task), plus any fixed costs set for the task, weighted by the task percent complete value.
What is the Actual Cost of a resource?
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The actual cost of a resource is the added actual costs of all assignments that the resource has.
When should I use the Start Slack and Finish Slack fields?
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Add the Start Slack and Finish Slack fields to any task view when you want to review how free slack was calculated.

What is Finish Slack?
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The Finish Slack field contains the duration between the Early Finish and Late Finish dates. The smaller of the finish slack and start slack amounts determines the amount of free slack available, that is, the amount of time a task can be delayed without affecting the start date of a successor task or the project finish date.
What is Start Slack?
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The Start Slack field contains the duration between the Early Start and Late Start dates. The smaller of the start slack and finish slack amounts determines the amount of free slack available, that is, the amount of time a task can be delayed without affecting the start date of a successor task or the project finish date.
When is best to use the Active field?
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The Active field is useful when various proposals are being presented for a plan and ultimately one course of action will be selected. The Active field is also useful when a task or set of tasks is being cut because of a scaling back of project scope. With the Active field, you can experiment with inactivating and reactivating tasks to see the resulting schedule effects. 
What is an inactive task?
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An inactive task is a task that stays in the plan, but does not affect resource availability, the project schedule, or how other tasks are scheduled. They appear dimmed with a strikethrough.
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