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Dates & Status

Apply Actuals Posts Progress and Moves the Data Date

Apply Actuals posts plan or timesheets and moves Data Date; not Store Period

P6 status bar showing Data Date 01-May-11 and Baseline City Center Office Building Addition - B1.
The Data Date is labeled on the status bar. It is the as-of, not today.

What a planner means

Apply Actuals (Tools > Apply Actuals, or Actions in EPPM) is a job. It posts progress into the live project and sets a new Data Date. It is not typing Actual Start on the Status tab, not Schedule, and not Store Period Performance.

Oracle: decide the method before you run it — Auto Compute Actuals or P6 Team Member timesheets. The run invokes both. Auto Compute acts on activities, resources, and expenses that have Auto Compute Actuals marked. Timesheets act on assignments for resources with Timesheets access, using approved timesheets whose period is ≤ the New Data Date.

Oracle caution: if you auto-compute an activity, actual and remaining units/costs update for all of its assignments and overwrite timesheet actuals those resources already reported. Turn Auto Compute off on the activity (and on timesheet resources) if you collect timesheets. You can auto-compute some assignments and not others only if the activity flag is off.

Unapproved timesheets: Professional prompts; you can skip them. Hours after the current timesheet period wait for the next period.

Remaining-duration option when actuals come from timesheets: recalculate from the activity duration type, or always recalculate (Oracle: all activities treated as Fixed Units and Fixed Units/Time for that calculation).

Auto Compute also honors resource lag and resource curves. Example (Oracle): activity planned 18–27 Jun, assignment lag +5 days, new data date 20 Jun → activity can update; the lagged assignment does not.

This is as-planned progress when Auto Compute is on: Actual Start = Planned Start if planned start < new data date; Actual Finish = Planned Finish if planned finish < new data date.

XER

ColumnOracle label
TASK.auto_compute_act_flagAuto Compute Actuals
RSRC.auto_compute_act_flagAuto Compute Actuals
PROJCOST has the same idea on expensessee Expenses and Accrual (PROJCOST) — Not Resource Units
PROJECT.apply_actuals_dateLast Apply Actuals Date

Apply Actuals is a command. It is not an XER table. After it runs you see dates, units, and a new last_recalc_date / data date. Do not invent an APPLYACT table.

vs Store Period / vs typing actuals

Apply ActualsStore PeriodStatus-tab actuals
What it writesActual dates/units from plan or timesheets; new Data DateThis Period into FINDATES, then zeros This PeriodThe dates/hours you type
Data DateYes, you pick New Data DateNo (you pick a period)No

See Store Period Performance Posts This Period, Then Zeros It and Actual Start/Finish vs Remaining Duration.

Microsoft Project

Update Project / status-date options can move remaining work around the Status Date. There is no Auto Compute flag and no timesheet Apply Actuals job in desktop MSPDI. Do not map Apply Actuals to Set Baseline or to Update Project and call them the same command.

Don't

  • Treat Apply Actuals as Store Period, as Calculate schedule, or as a stored XER table.
  • Treat Auto Compute as “the schedule is progressing” without a run and a new Data Date.
  • Auto-compute an activity that has timesheet actuals (Oracle: those actuals are overwritten).
  • Map Apply Actuals to MSP Update Project as the same calculation.

Sources

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