P6 Remaining Duration vs Percent Complete

Remaining duration

Oracle: Remaining Duration is total working time from remaining start to remaining finish, using the activity calendar. Before start = planned duration. After finish = 0. Stored on TASK as remain_drtn_hr_cnt (hours).

Three (now four) percent-complete types

TASK.complete_pct_type selects which formula fills Activity % Complete. Oracle: Units, Duration, Physical, or Scope.

Duration % Complete — linked to remaining duration

Oracle formula:

Duration % Complete = (Planned Duration − Remaining Duration) / Planned Duration × 100

Always 0–100. P6 always calculates Duration % Complete from Planned Duration and Remaining Duration, even if you type Duration % Complete. Example from Oracle: planned 25.57h, enter 90% → remaining becomes 2.55h and Duration % Complete is corrected to 90.03%.

So remaining duration and Duration % Complete are a pair. Remaining duration is the duration-side quantity; Duration % Complete is derived. Typing the percent updates remaining duration, then P6 re-derives the percent.

Duration % Complete does not use actual duration / at-completion duration (the "intuitive" formula). Plan Academy documents that mismatch; the Oracle formula above is the one to implement.

Physical % Complete — does not drive remaining duration

Oracle: user-entered, or calculated from activity steps if the project option "Calculate Activity % Complete from activity steps" is on. Independent of remaining duration. Stored as TASK.phys_complete_pct (Oracle HTML left the column label blank; the field name is in the TASK map).

Units % Complete — units, not duration

Oracle: Actual Units / At Completion Units × 100 (0–100). Activity % Complete uses labor+nonlabor actuals / (actuals + remaining) when the type is Units. This drives remaining units, not remaining duration.

Scope

Oracle: calculated by Oracle Primavera Cloud; cannot be modified in P6. Ignore for a standalone XER viewer unless OPC integration is in scope.

Which one drives remaining duration?

Duration % Complete is the type that is algebraically tied to remaining duration. Physical and Units do not, by Oracle's formulas, recompute remaining duration. If Activity % Complete type is Physical, remaining duration is still its own field.

Do not invent a single "percent complete → remaining duration" formula that ignores complete_pct_type.