(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?
(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.
When we export (via reports) or copy time-distributed resource loading from P6 to excel, the loading data doesn't add-up correctly and have some difference from total Budgeted units (both at activity level and higher levels). Though the difference of units is quite small but when we are using this Resource Loading for Project's Cost Planning, the difference in overall Project Budget becomes evident.
One thing i know is that P6 round-off Resource Units Loading data up to maximum of 2 decimal places, which results in this small difference in decimals and the same rolls-up to overall project level in project cost.
Is there any solution through which the sum of Resource Loading data matches exactly with the Budgeted Units allocated to activities?
OR
Is there any way we can increase the limit of 'Decimals' more than 2 in 'User Preferences'?
Regards,
Umer
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Thanks Zoltan. Have tried that in Excel but it doesn't have any impact on result.
If anyone has ever contacted/interacted with Technical Department of ORACLE (P6 Division), please guide me!!
then use the trim function in excel and it wil add up
Umer,
The problem you describe about being unable to validate resource quantities is quite common, getting different answers from the resource spreadsheet and the activity layout is possible.
The resource quantity values that you pick in an Activity Layout – Budget, Actual, Remaining etc. are summaries of the underlying resource assignment records. If more than one resource is working on an activity there is a many-to-one relationship between the resource assignment records and the parent activity record. So you are looking at two different sources of what should be the same data.
One of the reasons for the excellent performance of “Group and Sort” in activity layouts is that it does NOT access any other tables. For example the value of Budgeted Labour Units in the activity layout is not constantly being recalculated by adding up all of the resource assignments associated with each activity.
It is possible that these values can differ, while clearly we would not want them to. For example when removing the last labour resource from an activity this message:
“All labor resources have been deleted on this activity. Do you want to reset labor units to zero on this activity?”
Pick “No” and there are labour units in the activity record and no resource assignments.
Any time you add, change or delete a resource assignment record it recalculates the value in the activity record. The methodology described in my first post adds a resource to every activity, and then removes it, causing all the activity records to have the same value as the sum of its resource assignments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeric_precision_in_Microsoft_Excel
As with other spreadsheets, Microsoft Excel works only to limited accuracy because it retains only a certain number of figures to describe numbers (it has limited precision). Excel nominally works with 8-byte numbers by default, a modified 1985 version of the IEEE 754 specification[1] (Besides numbers, Excel uses a few other data types.[2]) Although Excel can display 30 decimal places, its precision for a specified number is confined to 15 significant figures, and calculations may have an accuracy that is even less due to three issues: round off,[3] truncation, and binary storage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_%28computer_science%29
The error is then often magnified as subsequent computations are made using the data (although it can also be reduced).
Even if initially everything matches there is high probability you will eventually find some "minor" accuracy issues as the schedule is updated and duration spread or total duration changes.
I do not use P6 but wonder if more than two decimal places can be selected.
http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/oracle-primavera-pm6/586426/resourc...
To choose a display format for units and durations
Unit of Time - Choose the time increment you want to use for displaying resource units and activity durations.
P6 Professional and P6 calculates and stores time unit values in hourly increments, when you choose to display time unit fields in increments other than hours, P6 Progress Reporter converts durations and resource units based on the the administrative settings defined by your P6 administrator.
Sub-Units - Choose this option to display the corresponding subunit for the selected Unit of Time.
Decimals - Choose the number of decimal places to display.
Resource Units/Time - Display units per time as a percentage or as units per duration, for example h/d.
Good luck.
Dear david kelly,
I didn't get you completely. Can you elaborate your point?
Yes Zoltan, the difference is not that much significant in terms of Resource Units but when we are doing Cost Planning using the distribution of these Resource Units it results in difference at overall project level Budgeted Cost figure.
For your understanding:
Suppose we assign a resource to an activity with 100 man-hours (Budgeted Units). Now when we will see the distribution of these 100 man-hours in Resource Assignment window or in Resource Usage Spreadsheet, the distributed values would be up to 2 decimal places only (at max). But P6 do this distribution of units in more detail at backend and then round it off up to 2 decimals while showing it in its Spreadsheet. So when we copy this distributed loading to excel and add-up there, the sum doesn't match with total Budgeted Units assigned to activity. It comes up 101 or 99 sometimes but doesn't sum-up exactly equal to 100 man-hours.
I hope it clarifies you better the issue.
I am not sure I understand if you are using whole numbers how could it tbe using decimals ? why not use use the trim function or the rounding function in excel also ?
I am not sure I understand if you are using whole numbers how could it be using decimals ? Even if it does the rounding can not be that significant
The values in the activity table can be different than the values in the resource assignment table.
Assuming the resource assignment records are correct:
Backup the project
Select all Activities
Use the "resource" tool on the right hand meny to add the same resource to every activity
Use the same tool to immediately remove the resource you added
This forces the Units at the Activity record to be reset to the values in the Resource Assignment records.......
Dear Zoltan,
I have checked and verified the solution you recommended about TIMES also but it doesn't solve the problem. Actually it doesn't change the fact that P6 do its Resource Loading calculations in detail and then round it off to 2 decimal places while showing in Resource Usage Spreadsheet/Resource Assignments window. This rounding-off of data creates error when we add up this Resource Loading data of an activity and match it against total Budgeted Units value of that specific activity.
What i want is that either P6 do this calculation up to 2 decimals only (at max.) or P6 provides option to select more than 2 decimals in Units Format in User Preference window. Either of these options may solve my issue.
What say?
in the resource if your default units/time is set to 8 then it will distribute 8 hours per day for that resource. What could be happening is that a 1 day task is actually spanning 2 days. Meaning it starts on the 2nd half of the 1st day and fishes on 1st half of the 2nd day. This will cause the decimal places.
Please turn on your TIMES and make sure that all activities start at 8:00 am or the earliest hour of the calendar that the activity is assigned to. Check and make sure that all finish TIMES are 5:00 pm or the latest hour of the calendar that the activity is assigned to.
Also ALL actual start TIMES should be 8:00 am or the earliest hour of the calendar that the activity is assigned to and ALL actual finish TIMES are set to 5:00 pm or the latest hour of the calendar that the activity is assigned to. This is important for in progress activities.
Also check all constraint TIMES any start milestone TIMES should be set to 8:00 am or the earliest hour of the calendar that the activity is assigned to and ALL finish milestone TIMES should be set to 5:00 pm or the latest hour of the calendar that the activity is assigned to.
Also make sure that the data date TIME is set to 8:00 am or the earliest hour in any of your calendars being used.
Believe it or not the TIMES do make a difference.
Dear Zoltan,
Thanks for your response. Yes i got to know that 2 decimal places is the max limit for units format.
We put whole numbers in Budgeted Units value against each activity, but when P6 distributes this value on timescale (as per selected Date Interval) in Resource Usage Spreadsheet it divides the total Budgeted Units of the activity as per its duration (no. of days) and during this distribution P6 do calculations in detail but round-off the resulted distributed numbers up to 2 Decimal places; thats what produce this summation error.
Got my point?
no 2 decimal places is the maximum limit for units.
if you are using whole numbers when you input your units then you should not need to worry about rounding. If you are using numbers with only 2 decimal places when you enter your units you should not need to worry about rounding.
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
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