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Planview Customer Success Center

Milestone task Actual Date start /finish behavior

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QUESTION:
Milestone tasks behave differently, how is the actual start and finish date calculated? Also does this work differently if there has been a task assignment?

ANSWER:
If a milestone is assigned to a resource, there are 3 methods of updating status:

1. If time is booked against the milestone task, the actual start and finish date will be determined by the date of the first and last time record on the task when the task is set to complete.

2. If no time has been booked and task completion is done at the task level (not assignment status level), then the actual completion date will always be set to the date the checkbox is checked and saved (current date), the same behaviour as if the task is not assigned.

3. If the task completion is done by updating task assignment status to 100% (either by setting 100% complete or checking the status complete checkbox), then

a. If the forecast finish date is equal to or earlier than the current date, the actual start and finish will be set to the forecast finish date. This allows the resource to set the actual finish date of the milestone, as long as it is not in the future.

b. If the forecast finish date is later than the current date, actual start and finish will be set to the current date, i.e. you cannot set an actual completion date in the future. It would be a bad practice to set an actual finish date in the future anyway, even if it was possible.

Therefore, the best solution for setting the actual finish dates on milestones is to assign them to a resource and have them status as complete on or after the actual completion date.

If the milestone is not assigned, mark it complete in the project worksheet, and it takes today’s date as the actual finish date (i.e. the date you mark it as completed). Same as #2 above.