Unable to edit task dates when actuals have been posted

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

The task start date is no longer editable after actuals have been posted to that task.

Additionally, if there is no ETC hours remaining on the task (ETC = 0), the task finish (end) date will be read only as well and the system is not letting us change it.

Environment

Release: All Releases
Component: Clarity Project Management

Cause

This is working by design:

Task Start Date:

• If actuals are submitted for a task, the Start Date for the task is automatically set to the first day actuals are submitted for the task and is unable to be changed. 
• If actuals are submitted using financial transactions, even if the transaction is adjusted to a later date or reversed, the start date will remain at the original earlier date. 
• If the task start date is moved to an earlier date in MSP, once the project is saved back to Clarity, the task start date will revert to the first date of posted actuals. 

Task Finish Date:

• If there is no ETC left on the task after actuals are posted, the task Finish date is also unable to be edited.

Resolution

Task Start Date:

• The one way this date can be changed to an earlier date in this scenario is if time is posted against the task on a date that is prior to the current task Start date (it will then change to that earlier date).

Task Finish Date:

• To change the task Finish date, add any ETC amount to the task greater than 0, then you will be able to change the task Finish date to a date later than the latest actual thru date for assignments on the task. If the ETC is later zeroed out, the task Finish date will once again become read-only and will be reset to the last date of posted actuals. To get the task Finish date to remain at a later date, even after ETC hours are once again zeroed out, make the task a Fixed Duration task prior to removing the ETC hours. 
• You won't be able to change the finish date to a date earlier than the actual thru date. See Task Finish date changes to a different date than entered for more details and options if actuals were not posted for the task. 

Additional Information

If you want to use the scheduling features of Clarity to develop a resource-driven schedule, you need to make task assignments and use ETC to convey the scope of the work for a given assignment. Clarity can then use its auto-schedule algorithm to set task start and finish dates or the project manager can override the suggested dates with their own dates.

Clarity supports both models:

1. Simple time tracking against assigned and unassigned tasks without project manager intervention
2. You, as the project manager, define the scope of work using ETC with either manual manipulation of task dates or an auto-schedule algorithm.

We are always open to considering other models and encourage you to submit enhancement requests that explain how you use the product and how an enhancement could benefit you.