Symptom: Future periods are uneditable.
When a future period is not eligible for editing, the spreadsheet cell is gray.
Spreadsheet cells are uneditable when any of the following is true:
- The activity associated with the assignment has a duration type of Fixed Units or Fixed Units/Time. You can only manually enter future period values for activities with a duration type of Fixed Duration & Units and Fixed Duration & Units/Time.
- The resource or role assigned to the activity does not have any valid worktime for the time period. For resource assignments to task-dependent activities, and for all role assignments to activities, P6 determines if there is valid worktime based on the activity calendar. For resource assignments to resource dependent activities, P6 determines if there is valid worktime based on the resource calendar.
- For activities that have not started yet, the date of the timescale interval is prior to the Planned Start date (for the Planned Units field) or the Remaining Early Start date (for the Remaining Early Units field) of the activity.
- The activity associated with the assignment has an Actual Finish date (Remaining Early Units only).
- For activities that are in progress, the date of the timescale interval is prior to the Data Date (Remaining Early Units only).
- The activity associated with the assignment is a milestone activity.
- When the timescale is set to Financial Period, no financial period is defined for the time period or the first time period is not within the range of defined financial period dates.
- The Calculate average for units and costs option is selected and Divide values by does not have a value of 1 in the Usage Options dialog box.
- You have not been assigned the Edit Future Periods project privilege.
Symptom: Inability to enter differing values for Planned Units and Remaining Units.
For assignments on activities that have not started, if the Link planned and at completion for not started activities option is selected on the Calculations tab of the Project Preferences, the total values of the Planned Units and Remaining Early Units for the assignment will always be equal. If this setting is not marked, you can enter different values for the same future period in the Planned Units and Remaining Early Units fields; in this case, the total values for each field are calculated independently for the assignment.
For activities that are in progress, you can always enter different future period values in the Planned Units and Remaining Early Units fields.
Symptom: Future period values have changed since they were entered.
There are many reasons why the future period values you entered for an assignment might change to different values or be placed in a different time period. For example, remaining unit data for an assignment might change when you apply actuals, or if you change the timescale in your view.
Changes to some project, activity or assignment data can cause future period values to be respread and, in some cases, recalculated. When you enter data in future periods, the values are stored in the database. When you modify activity or assignment information which causes the values to respread across future periods, the values stored in the database do not change; only the spread of those values across future periods changes. When you modify activity or assignment data which causes the values to be recalculated, the values you originally entered are recalculated according to the distribution and stored in the database; the original values are lost. If you change the financial period calendar assigned to a project, activity or assignment data might be recalculated.
Changing values in the following fields at the assignment level might respread future period values:
- Remaining Early Start or Finish (Fixed Duration & Units activities only).
- Planned Duration (Fixed Duration & Units activities only).
- Actual, Planned, or Remaining Units.
- Budgeted or Planned Units/Time.
- Planned or Remaining Lag.
- Curve (if you assign a resource curve to an assignment on which you have edited future period values.).
Changing values in the following fields at the activity level might respread future period values:
- Actual, Planned, or Remaining Units
- Start Date
- Planned or Remaining Lag
- Suspend and Resume Date
- Activity Type (future period values can be respread if the activity Finish Date changes as a result of the the activity type being changed from Task Dependent to Resource Dependent, or from Resource Dependent to Task Dependent).
- Activity Calendar (if you edit the existing calendar or change the assigned calendar)
- Duration % (Fixed Duration & Units activities only)
Performing the following actions might respread future period values:
- Changing the Project Planned Start or Finish (Fixed Duration & Units activities only), if you then reschedule the project.
- Adding a new assignment (depending on the options you have selected for When adding or removing multiple resource assignments on activities: and When assigning a resource to an existing activity assignment: on the Global tab of the My Preferences page in the Resources section).
- Updating activity progress (see Future Period Planning: Updating Projects).
Changing values in the following fields affecting Assignments might recalculate future period values:
- Planned or Remaining Finish (Fixed Duration & Units/Time activities only)
- Planned or Remaining Duration (Fixed Duration & Units/Time activities only)
Changing values in the following fields affecting Activities might recalculate future period values:
- Planned or Remaining Finish (Fixed Duration & Units/Time activities only)
- Planned or Remaining Duration (Fixed Duration & Units/Time activities only)
- Activity Status
- Duration Type
- Duration % (Fixed Duration & Units/Time activities only)