Update progress and the data date

By the end of this workflow your project's dates reflect what really happened on site up to the data date, and you can see how far it has moved from the plan.

Who does this#

The project's scheduler or project manager: an Editor or an Admin. Field accounts report percent complete and work status from the field; starting a task there stamps its actual start, and finishing a started task stamps its actual finish. The data date is set here, and so is any actual date that needs entering or correcting. See Who can see and do what and Report progress from a phone or tablet.

Before you start#

• The project's schedule is built and linked (see Create a project and build its schedule).
• For the first update, save a baseline first (step 1). Without one there is nothing to measure slippage against.
• Have the site's progress to hand: which tasks started, which finished, and on what dates.

Steps#

1. 1
   Save a baseline (once, before the first update). Click the project's name in the top row to open Project settings. Under Baselines, press Save baseline… and name it. The new baseline becomes the active one. You can keep up to five, and mark any one active later.

2. 2
   Enter percent complete. In the grid's % Comp. column type each task's percent complete. You can also type it on the Projects page, in the This week pane, for a project you don't have open.
3. 3
   Open Update progress. Choose Tools ▾ → Update progress….
4. 4
   Set the data date. In Data date (status as of) pick the date your update runs to, usually today or the end of the period. The table lists the tasks that are not complete and were scheduled to have started by that date.
5. 5
   Record the actual dates. For each task, fill in Actual start and, if it finished, Actual finish. Use scheduled start and Use scheduled finish copy the planned date across when the task ran to plan. Type Remaining in working days (3 or 3d) for a task still underway. Leave a field blank to keep what is there.
6. 6
   Apply it. Press Apply progress update. Finished work stays on its actual dates, work in progress carries on from the data date, and work not yet started is scheduled from the data date forward, all still following their links. A blue line marks the data date on the chart. One Ctrl+Z undoes the whole update.

7. 7
   Log weather and other lost days. In Update progress press Contract-day ledger… (see Contract days and weather days). Enter the contract's Working days allowed, any extensions, and the first chargeable date. Every working day through today counts as charged. Click a day on the month grid and mark it Weather, Suspension, Holiday or Other, with a note. That day then stops counting against contract time.
8. 8
   See what moved. Show the Start Var and Finish Var columns (right-click a column header, Add or show columns…): positive numbers are days late against the active baseline, negative are days ahead. The baseline's gray bars draw under the current ones; the toolbar's Baseline button picks which baseline is drawn.
9. 9
   Read planned against reported. Open Projects. Each row shows Planned progress (where the plan says the project should be today) beside Reported progress (the percent complete entered), with Tasks behind and Last progress update.

Good to know#

• Weather days don't move dates by themselves. Logging a day in the ledger is contract accounting only. To also reschedule, tick Mark as a non-working day on that day's entry: it adds the day to the project calendar, and removing the entry takes it off again.
• Replacing a baseline. In Project settings, Replace with current plan overwrites a baseline with today's plan. Use it only when the plan has formally changed.
• Out-of-sequence work. If a task started before its predecessor allows, the status line says so after you apply, and its tooltip flags it. Remaining work still follows the links.
• Stale progress. On the Projects page a task underway with no percent complete edit in over a week is flagged as needing an update rather than trusted.
• The monthly narrative. Each time you move the data date forward, Ganttry keeps a snapshot for the monthly narrative. See Write the monthly schedule update.
• On a phone, the Update progress dialog opens full-screen.