Scheduling a project

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Begin your project schedule on the Manage tab of the Project Command Center. Enter estimated start and completion dates and, as the project proceeds, update the schedule with actual dates. To manage your employee schedules on a weekly basis, use Schedule Manager.

To schedule a project

  1. If you are not already working with the project, click it in the project list at the top of window.
  2. Click the Manage tab.
  3. Review your work breakdown structure in the project tree and make any changes, if needed.

Add resources or add tasks, as needed.

About tasks:

Because you use tasks to track the progress and scope of a project, you enter hours for a task but not cost amounts or rates. When using tasks, you continue to track project costs through resources and phases. However, you can choose to roll up task hours to resources or phases, which then does update cost amounts.

  1. If you want to change the type of information that currently appears on the Manage tab, use (Customize) to select the project detail you want to view.
  2. As you schedule a project, you can work with dates as follows:

Gantt chart:

In addition to entering and changing dates directly in cells on the table, you can change dates using the Gantt chart (timeline) on the right of the window. You can also change dates by clicking and dragging them in the Gantt chart. The Gantt chart always displays actual start and completion dates if available. Otherwise, it uses the estimated dates.

To show or hide the Gantt chart, click the Hide Gantt or Show Gantt button on the bottom of the window.

Changing dates as you work:

As you change actual start dates and estimated start dates, Ajera automatically updates any higher-level dates or lower-level dates so that dates on phases are never earlier than the date of the phase or project which contains them.

Similarly, as you change estimated completion dates, Ajera automatically updates any higher-level or lower-level dates so that dates on phases are never later than the date of the phase or project that contains them. However, Ajera does not automatically update completion dates when you change a lower-level date.

You can change an estimated or actual start date in one of the following ways:

To Do this
Keep the same duration when changing a start date
  1. Right-click the date, and click Adjust start date.
  2. In the window that appears, enter the new start date, and click OK.

Ajera automatically adjusts the end date. It also adjusts the dates for a phase's subphases, resources, and tasks accordingly.
Change a start date without automatically adjusting the end date Type the new start date directly into the cell on the table.
  1. You can build a schedule in Ajera in a variety of ways, depending on what works best for you and your firm. Here are some general guidelines for a typical way you may work with a schedule at various stages of the project:
To Do this

Start a schedule
  1. In the row for the project, enter the date when you plan to start and complete work in the Est Start Date and Est Completion Date columns for the project.  

If you have already started work on the project, enter that date in the Start Date column on the row for the project.

  1. Repeat these instructions for phases and subphases, as needed.

Maintain a schedule

At regular intervals, you have probably planned to estimate the amount of work that you have completed on the project and on its phases. For the project, and for each phase:

  1. Enter the percent of work that is complete in the % Complete column.
  2. Enter the date that you are reporting the percent complete in the % Complete Date column.

Ajera displays the most recent percent and date that were last entered. If you entered a percent or date in error, be sure to highlight the information and click the Delete button in both the % Complete and % Complete Date fields, click Save, and then enter the percent and date you want.

  1. Change estimated and actual start and completion dates, as needed.

Complete a schedule

Enter the completion date for the project.
  1. When you are finished working with the schedule, click Save.