Allow EH to be 'frozen' so that it never changes when assignees are re-assigned.

Client:

Hi - we're currently witnessing the overall estimated hours total varying when we re-allocate resource to other staff. Even when we keep the total hours left on an activity the same, the estimated hours seems to change. Is there any way to fix or lock the estimated hours? It's crucial to knowing whether jobs over-run or not and if it changes it's difficult in the audit trail to find the original figure.

Support:

Hi,
Please provide a specific use case so that we can forward it to the production team.

what do you mean, a specific project on our system?

Support:

I mean the exact steps that result in changed estimated hours.

when 'hours left' in the 'Asignees' box are allocated to other assignees - i.e. an assignee with 10 hours left is reduced to 0 and a new assignee is given 10 hours, the overall number of 'estimated hours' reduces. There doesn't appear to be any reason for this to happen as the overall total 'hours left' remains the same.

Support:

Estimated hours (EH) are distributed among the assignees as seen in the resource loading editor, and unless you use Recalculate hours shared among assignees personal estimated hours will be deducted when an assignee leaves the task. You can see the previous overall EH value when you remove an assignee, so if you want to restore it adjust personal EH of the new assignee.
However, if you use Recalculate, then the overall value will be evenly divvied between the remaining assignees without deducting anything. This won't work for you if you distribute EH loading manually (personal EH are different).

thanks for your help - it seems to work fine except when as asignee's hours left are reduced to zero (for instance if an assignee is moved onto another job) - as soon as this is done, the overall EH changes, even if a new assignee is given the equivalent hours to complete the activity.

if we could screen share I can demonstrate what's happening

Support:

Maybe you could provide a recording? If you think it is a bug, it could be used as evidence. But it should be noted that EH and HL calculations are linked to the resource loading report so any changes to the current algorithm should be justified before they can be introduced.

it's inconsistent but I'll try

have attached screen grabs from my adjustments.

image 1 is current hours left by assignee with 48 hours overall estimated

image 2 is taking 13.5 hours from Carolann and giving them to Connor - giving him 16.5 (adding onto his already remaining 3)

image 3 shows estimated hours reduced to 36 after closing the dialogue box!

Support:

Have you used the Recalculate option at some point between reassigning users? The thing is if you use recalculate, both EH and HL are divvied between the assignees, so if you then disable the option removing a user from a team of 4 will result in EH decreasing by a quarter, removing 2 out of 4 will result in halving EH, i.e. prorata.
I explained earlier that EH also are reduced by the personal EH value when recalculate is disabled and you remove an assignee. But in your case it appears that recalculate was used at some point, hence deduction of 12 hours, i.e. a quarter of 48.

I definitely didn't use recalculate as I never do - splitting hours equally never works for us in reality so I never use recalculate. So if you're saying overall EH is reduced if an assignee is removed, we're just going to have to work around that. Is there no way this feature can be disabled? We want a scenario where the original Estimated Hours total is NEVER changed, unless manually inputted.

The request came from

Matt Green

Orme Ltd.

https://ormeltd.go.easyprojects.net

How can we help?

Allow EH to be 'frozen' so that it never changes when assignees are re-assigned.

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