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Spreadsheet Pane of the Project View

The Spreadsheet pane displays properties about the control accounts, work packages, and resource assignments associated with the project.

You can see project properties such as costs, dates, and codes at both the control account and work package levels, and limit the display of items in this pane using filters. You can drill down into specific control accounts to see the individual work packages assigned to these accounts. You can also see work packages from multiple control accounts at the same time.

Color Band

The Spreadsheet pane uses colors to highlight the status of work packages or control accounts that exceed predefined threshold settings.

Attention: For more information about how Cobra uses colors to identify projects, master projects, control accounts, and work packages that exceed threshold settings, see Color Band.

Keep Data in Sync

The Spreadsheet pane displays values stored in the CAWP table. Cobra updates these values when you perform manual data entry, or run a process by summing up the time-phased data.

These values are calculated and associated with the parent record (CAWP table), so they can, on occasion, get out of sync in a multi-user mode or when connection errors occur. If the values in the Spreadsheet pane seem incorrect, run the Update Totals utility to populate the values with detailed (time-phased) data. It makes sense to run the Update Totals utility on a regular basis to ensure that the summary values are always correct.

You can also display data based on formulas against the CAWP data by inserting calculated fields as columns in the Spreadsheet pane. Basically, you can insert any column from the CAWP table into the Spreadsheet pane and compare its content against the individual control accounts or work packages. Right-click the Spreadsheet pane to display a shortcut menu where you can select a task to perform such as adding control accounts and work packages and updating the forecast.

When you open a project for the first time, Cobra displays the following columns by default. Most of these columns are fields from within the CAWP table.

Column Description
Control Account Field 1 This column displays the first control account key value. Cobra creates the control account key by combining the work breakdown structure (WBS) and the organizational breakdown structure (OBS). Cobra uses this field as the primary sort key.

The column header depends on the prompt that you assigned to the Control Account Field 1, using either the Fields tab of the Project Properties dialog box or the Fields page of the New Project Wizard. For example, if you specified WBS as the prompt, the column header will be WBS.

Control Account Field 2

This column displays the second control account key value. Cobra creates the control account key by combining the WBS and OBS. Cobra uses this field as the secondary sort key.

This column displays the second control account key value. Cobra creates the control account key by combining the WBS and OBS. Cobra uses this field as the secondary sort key.

The column header depends on the prompt that you assigned to the Control Account Field 2, using either the Fields tab of the Project Properties dialog box or the Fields page of the New Project Wizard. For example, if you specified OBS as the prompt, the column header will be OBS.

Control Account Field 3 This column displays the third control account key value, for example, the Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS).
Work Package This column displays the work package key.

The column header depends on the prompt that you assigned to the Work Package field, using either the Fields tab of the Project Properties dialog box or the Fields page of the New Project Wizard. For example, if you specified WP as the prompt, the column header will be WP.

Resource This column displays the resources assign to the selected work package.
Description This column displays a brief description of the control account or work package.
Baseline Start This column displays the baseline start date that defines the initial status date for the project.
Baseline Finish This column displays the baseline finish date that defines the last date of the project.
Status This column displays the status of the selected control account or work package.
  • Planned means that it has not been started (the Start column for the Actuals field is empty).
  • In-Progress means that it has been started (the Start column for the Actuals field contains a date).
  • Completed means that it is finished (the Finish column for the Actuals field contains a date).
Class This column displays the class associated with the resource.
Note: There is always a blank row at the bottom of the Spreadsheet pane. When you add data and save your changes, a new blank row is added. Using this blank row, you can manually add a new control account or work package.

Copy and Paste

You can quickly update values by copying multiple cells from an Excel spreadsheet and paste the values in columns for a single row in the Project view panes.

Cobra only pastes the values in the editable cells and ignores the values in the read-only cells if the destination cells in the Project view pane include read-only cells. Cobra displays an error message if all destination cells are read-only.

Cobra does not allow you to paste values if some of the data types of the copied values from the Excel spreadsheet do not match the data types of their destination cells.

Cobra does not allow you to paste values if the copied values from the Excel spreadsheet exceed the available destination columns in the Project view pane.

Total Row

The Total row is located at the top of the Spreadsheet and Time-phase panes of the Project view. This row displays the project-level values for the following fields in the Spreadsheet pane when they are added as columns in the pane:

Actuals Actual Finish Hours Actuals Actual Rate BAC
BAC Hours Baseline Finish Baseline Start Budget Hours Budget
Budget Rate CPI Hours CPI CPI Performance Hours CPI Performance
CV Hours CV CV % Hours CV % Description
EAC Hours EAC Earned Hours Earned Forecast Finish
IEAC Hours IEAC IEAC 2 Hours IEAC 2 Last Update
% Complete Hours % Complete % Spent Hours % Spent Project
Sequence SPI Hours SPI SV Hours SV
SV % Hours SV % TCPI BAC Hours TCPI BAC TCPI EAC
Hours TCPI EAC User ID VAC Hours VAC Variance
Hours Variance VAC % Hours VAC %
Attention: For more information on these fields, see Spreadsheet Pane Column Definitions.

The Total row displays project-level data based on the filter applied to the Project view.

The Total row is read-only. The Total row remains on top of the panes even if you sort a column in the Spreadsheet pane.

Columns that are not defined at the project level are displayed as blank in the Total row of the Spreadsheet pane.

The Total row will only display values for Baseline Start, Baseline Finish, Actual Finish, and Forecast Finish dates as these are the dates that you see and define on the General tab of the Project Properties dialog box. If you add Actual Start as column, for example, it will only display as blank.

The Baseline Finish, Actual Finish, and Forecast Finish dates display the latest Baseline, Actual, and Forecast Finish dates of the control accounts displayed in the Spreadsheet pane. On the other hand, the Baseline Start date displays the earliest Baseline Start date of the control accounts displayed in the Spreadsheet pane.

When you edit any of these dates, the updated dates will only display in the Total row after you save the changes.