may appear next to the budgeted hours. You have the option to use this link to quickly create a dependency between this new task and the task immediately above it. Task dependencies are described next.
In its simplest form, a task is a project activity against which employees track their time. At a minimum, a task requires a name and a budgeted number of hours required to complete the task. Additional properties can also be applied to a task. These include dependencies, priority, description, etc.
This lengthy topic describes tasks created and used for Project Planning tool projects. It explains all the available options and highlights how the tasks created in the Project Planning tool are different from tasks created in the Project Assignments view. Assigning resources to tasks is covered in the Assigning Resources topic.
In the Task column on the left, click in an empty cell and enter the task name. The name should be clear and concise enough for the employees tracking time against the task. You can later add a full description to better detail the task (see 'Complete Task Properties' below).
In the Hours column, enter the total number of budgeted hours required to complete the task. By default, 8 hours is entered for each task added. If more than 1 employee is assigned to this task, the budgeted hours are distributed between the employees.
After entering budgeted hours for a new task, a small link icon may appear next to the budgeted hours. You have the option to use this link to quickly create a dependency between this new task and the task immediately above it. Task dependencies are described next.
The Project Planning tool uses one type of link dependency: Finish to Start. A Finish to Start dependency should be set when one task (the predecessor) must be finished before another task can start (the successor). The Project Planning tool uses the project's budgeted hours for tasks and their dependencies to determine the project's scheduled finish date.
Click on the predecessor task (Task A)- the task that must finish before the other task can start.
While holding the Ctrl key, select the successor task (Task B) - the task that cannot start before the other is finished.
Click the Link button on the toolbar.
The dependency is displayed in the Gantt area as a thin line connecting the tasks.
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Tip: By selecting multiple consecutive tasks and then using the Link button, you can easily create a chain of task dependencies. |
Use the Break Link toolbar button 
to remove a dependency.
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Notes:
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For larger projects, you can create summary tasks to better group adjacent tasks that have common characteristics or have a logical grouping, and that are scheduled in the same time frame. Summary tasks can be interpreted as project phases or milestones. Creating summary tasks can also help reduce the visual clutter and make the Gantt view more readable.
The following instructions assume that the summary task has not yet been added.
Click on the top most task you want to group together.
Click the Insert toolbar button 
. This creates the location for the summary task (above the task selected in step 1).
Enter a name for the summary task. There is no need to enter hours for summary tasks since the sum of the sub-tasks’ hours will be displayed in the Hours column.
Select the tasks to include in the Summary task. The selected tasks must be immediately below the summary task and must be consecutive. TIP: With the first task selected, use the Shift key to select the last of the consecutive tasks.
Click on the Indent toolbar button 
.
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Notes:
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Warning: If you delete a Summary Task, all indented tasks and their assignments will also be deleted. To remove a Summary Task, the better approach is to first outdent the sublevel tasks, and then delete the summary task. |
A task's properties are available for review and editing by selecting the task and clicking the Task Properties toolbar button 
. You can also right click on the task name and select Properties.
Primary details
Name: The name of the task as it appears to time entry employees tracking time on this project.
Hours: The budgeted hours required to complete this task. The budgeted hours are distributed between the employees assigned to this task.
Secondary details
Assignments tab
Priority: Used to set the priority of this task when leveling the project, with the biggest number representing the highest priority task. The default value for new tasks is 500. See Leveling for more information on how Priority is used when leveling a project.
Start at checkbox (Start Constraint) When checked, this is the forced day when this task is scheduled to begin regardless of task dependencies or resource availability. A task's Start constraint checkbox is also automatically set when the task's timeline bar is dragged right or left within the Gantt area. Enabling the Start constraint has some effects when the project is leveled and should be used with care. When leveling, you are given the option to clear all start constraints.
Starts at: When a task is added, its start date is initially set to the project's start date. It is automatically adjusted when there are task dependencies, when the project's start date is changed or when the project is leveled.
Finishes at: When enabled, you can use this field to force a fixed finish date to the task. See Fixed Star and Finish Dates below.
Hours: The number of hours estimated to complete the task - the value is initially set in Hours column in the Gantt view.
Resources: The resources assigned to the task, along with their default Allocation % (or Hours), hourly Cost (pay) and Charge (billing) rates. If enabled, each rate's currency is also displayed.
The default Allocation percentage (All. %) used is 100%. At 100%, when the project is leveled, all of the employee's available working time is used for this assignment, which leaves no free time for other projects in this time frame. This value can be modified for individual assignments or can be modified for all the project's assignments using the Employee Target Allocation option.
Hours is displayed instead of Allocation % when the task has a Fixed Finish Date.
The default hourly Cost and Charge rates (and currencies) are retrieved from each employee's profile. The currency may be different than the currency selected for the project, but when costs are calculated, the appropriate currency exchange rates will be applied when displaying costs at the project level.
General tab
Task Group: The task group to group this task for reporting purposes only. This list is generated from the list of Task Groups created in the Project Assignments view.
Prorating: The prorating value is used to assign a proportionate value to this task when billing clients for time on this task.
Description: This description can be seen by those entering time in the time entry tool's 'Task Description' field. The task description is also used as the default entry for the 'Time Entry Description' field in the time entry tool, and can be modified by the employee for each time entry.
Force description: Check this option to force the time entry user to enter a Time Entry Description when tracking time against this task. With this option checked, the task’s Description (as described above) is not entered as the default Time Entry Description.
WBS code: The Work Breakdown Structure value automatically generated from the Project Planning tool.
Custom Fields: Any task specific custom fields created using the Custom Field Template. Note that task custom fields flagged as Required are not enforced when creating tasks in the Project Planning tool.
Dependencies tab
Shows any Finish to Start dependencies created using the Project Scheduling view's Link function.
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Tip: When using the ‘Force description’ option described above, you should remove the ability from users to hide the Time Entry Description field (see Timesheet Options). |
It is possible to set both Fixed Start and Finish Dates on a task. By setting these, the task's Start and Finish dates will not change regardless of the amount of budgeted hours set for the assignment or the number of employees assigned to work on it. These dates will also not change when the project is leveled. In Microsoft Project language, this is referred to as a 'Fixed Duration Task'.
Warning: Setting a Fixed Finish Date for a task can easily cause one or more employees to become overallocated. This overallocation can only be corrected manually be assigning more employees to the task, adjusting the task's Start or Finish dates or reducing the number of budgeted hours.
Setting Fixed Start and Finish dates to a task.
Right click on the task and click Properties.
From the Assignments tab.
Check the Starts at box and set a Start Date.
Check the Finishes at box and set the Finish Date.
Click OK to accept the changes.
The Hours column replaces the Allocation % column when a Finish Date is set.
Resource are overallocated
Overallocation issues caused by using fixed Start and Finish dates.
When applying both Start and Finish dates to a task, its resources can easily become overallocated. When this occurs, a warning symbol 
is displayed to the left of the problem resource and a message is displayed at the bottom of the window. The warning symbol is also displayed in the Project Scheduling tab's left most column. This warning symbol is not displayed if only Fixed Start dates are used.
Note: When either the Start or Finish dates are set, the Priority field is still enabled but is ignored when the project is leveled.
Need to schedule xx hours
Caused by manually adjusting the total number of Hours assigned (or the assigned resource's hours) so that the assigned resource hours is less than the total hours estimated
Overbooked by xx hours
The resource has more assigned hours than are required by the task.
You can insert a new task row between existing tasks by clicking on the lower task and clicking the Insert toolbar button .
Use the Cut/Copy/Paste options 
to copy tasks and their assignments.
Use the Paste External Task toolbar button 
to paste data copied to your clipboard (from Excel, Microsoft Project, etc.).
To find a task's location in the Gantt area, select the task and click the GoTo toolbar button 
.
To delete a task, select the task and click the Delete button 
on the toolbar.
To time entry employees, there are no differences between tasks created in the Project Planning tool with those created in the Project Assignments view. However, for managers and administrators, there are differences.
They are different in the following ways:
Tasks created in the Project Planning tool are not available in the Project Assignments view to be assigned and vice versa. They may appear in the Project Assignments view when viewing assignments, but they cannot be edited in any way.
Within a Project Planning tool project, multiple tasks can have the same name.
Tasks created in a Project Planning tool project are specific to that project and cannot be 'reused' in another Project Planning tool project. This means that there is no list of available tasks as found in the Project Assignments view. For each new Project Planning tool project, you must create all the tasks. If you have a lot of similarly structured projects, you can save time by creating and using a project template.
Project Planning tool tasks do not generally appear whenever a list of tasks is displayed such as found when generating reports.