Using the Tasks Page to Record Actual Work

The Tasks page allows team members to report time spent on project tasks and nonproject tasks (such as vacation or training). The project manager then approves the time on the Updates page, and, when approved, the time is automatically entered in the project schedule. The timesheet on the Tasks page also allows team members to enter estimated remaining time so that they can indicate to the project manager how much time is left on the task to complete it (also known as estimate to complete). This ability of the team member to indicate changes in original task estimates is one of the most powerful features in Project Server. However, it creates a profound challenge because most team members are not used to the concept, and many project managers are worried about how changes will affect the project schedule. You can also implement the tool without having team members use this function and capture actual work information accurately, but allowing team members to change estimated remaining time can empower them to start thinking about their time spent on tasks.

To access the Tasks page from your Home page (or any other location in PWA), click Tasks in the menu bar. You see the View My Tasks screen as shown in Figure 15.1 with the tasks you have been assigned to.

Figure 15.1. PWA Tasks page for reporting time spent on tasks.

NOTE

Make sure that you have a strong vision for training in the use of timesheets in Project Server. Team members not used to providing actual work information on tasks will need reassurance and a good understanding of how the information they provide helps the organization understand what it takes to complete a project.

You also have some choices about how you want to implement Project Server 2003 for time tracking:

• Managed Time Periods This allows you to open and close time frames in which people can enter their time. Some organizations choose this option because of the critical need for auditability, timesheet control, and integration with accounting systems. It also helps with more effective earned value performance reporting.

• Non-Managed Time Periods This allows team members to enter time during any time frame for a task assigned to them. This system is not as auditable but provides flexibility and easier administration for organizations that simply want to capture and analyze actual time for project schedules.

Before making a decision on which method to use, make sure that you understand the entire process needed and the implications of each option. The administrator sets which option you choose, and the way timesheets look and act will be slightly different based on this choice.

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You also need to make a decision about who reports time to tasks. Generally, people doing the work will report time, including the project manager, but will resource managers ever report time or any other role using Project Server? You will want to assign the Team Member group role to anyone who will report time. Note that the project manager role already has team member settings. Project managers also need to understand several things about the timesheet update cycle:

• What they enter on the project schedule when they assign tasks to team members affects the accuracy and integrity of the data, which will ultimately show in reports.

• Maintaining the update cycle keeps the data current. This is not an easy task, but it is a critical habit to create.

• Team members see the results of a project manager's schedule in the timesheet. Poorly named tasks and too many tasks can be overwhelming and can negatively affect consistent use of the Tasks page.

One more decision your organization needs to make is to choose what features the team members can use on the Tasks page. Do you want them to be able to create new tasks or add themselves to existing ones? Some organizations do not like the idea of allowing team members to perform these actions. Remember, the project manager has full authority over accepting new tasks or a team member's addition to a task into a schedule. Some organizations also do not want to allow team members to delegate tasks to others.

The Timesheet Update Cycle

The Timesheet Update cycle defines how actual work and task progress are reflected in PWA and Project Professional. Processes need to be implemented to ensure that this cycle is completed to reflect current information.

The flow for updating a timesheet and actual work into the project schedule is as follows:

• In Project Professional, the project manager publishes a project schedule with tasks and resource assignments.

• The Project Server creates PWA timesheet and assignment views and sends email messages (if activated) about the assignments to team members.

• In PWA, the team member enters actual work (usually once a week) and submits the time to the project manager.

• The project manager receives an email message about the update (if the email message is activated), and the update displays in the Updates page in PWA.

• In PWA, the project manager approves or rejects the update from the team member. If the actual work is approved and updated, Project Professional opens, and the project manager saves the actual work into the project schedule.

• The project manager should review the changes in the project schedule, make adjustments as appropriate, and publish the changes in the schedule to initiate the update cycle once again.

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Timesheet Format and Setup

The first thing you need to consider is setting up the standards for how you want the timesheet to display for the team members initially. You can set some of the formatting organizationally via a view in Admin called the Timesheet view. You may also want to recommend a few settings that the team member needs to set manually, such as adding Scheduled Work in the View Options tab.

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Different Tracking Methods for Timesheets

Your organization may select one of three time tracking methods for your projects in the enterprise environment: percent work complete, actual work, and day-by-day. The following list describes each method in more detail:

• Percent work complete For this selection, the team member enters a percent complete and, if applicable, remaining work. This selection tracks how much work is completed based on the team member entering a percentage of the work assigned to the task. This assumes that the start date planned is the actual date the work started because the team member cannot enter the actual day the task started. Microsoft Office Project 2003 calculates the actual work and remaining work as Actual Work = Work * Percent Work Complete and Remaining Work = Work Actual Work.

• Actual work For this selection, the team member enters a total amount of work for a particular period and, if applicable, remaining work. This selection tracks how much work is completed compared with how much work remains, based on the total work planned for the task. This assumes that the start date planned is the actual date the work started because the team member cannot enter the actual day the task started. Project 2003 calculates the percentage of work complete and remaining work fields as Percent Work Complete = Actual Work / Work. Remaining Work = Work Actual Work.

• Day-by-day For this selection, the team member enters time worked on the task each day of the week. This selection tracks work completed by showing actual work day-by-day and uses the first day a team member enters actual work on a task as the start date for the task. Upon saving the actual work into the project schedule, the project manager may at times see a message saying that the task has started earlier than planned if the project team member starts working on the task earlier than what the project manager originally entered on the task. Project 2003 calculates the percentage of work complete and remaining work fields as Percent Work Complete = Actual Work / Work. Remaining Work = Work Actual Work. This is the most accurate form of project time entry.

Your organization may have a circumstance where you need to support several tracking methods at the same timefor example, percent work complete and day-by-day for different departments within your organization. Although this isn't recommended for creating a true enterprise environment that standard processes encourage, sometimes you may need this choice until you can transition all your departments to one timesheet tracking method. To do this, the administrator needs to allow multiple tracking methods, and each project manager needs to publish her project schedules to indicate the tracking method she wants.

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NOTE

If the team member has been assigned tasks from different projects with different tracking methods, if even one task is using Hours of Work done per time period as its tracking method, the Timesheet view is displayed by default.

Viewing Data on the Timesheet

The main section of the timesheet is divided into two parts as shown in Figure 15.2.

Figure 15.2. Grid and Timesheet entry view on the Tasks page.

Grid Data

On the left side of the separator bar is the grid data. It shows information from the task such as name, work, start and finish dates, and so on. These fields are set by default in the Timesheet view via the Admin tab, Manage Views. You may want to add or remove some of the fields that are shown here by modifying that view.

TIP

The administrator may want to move the Baseline Work field into the Timesheet view. Because the Work field can change due to updates to Remaining Work and Actual Work, it is useful for the team members to see the original estimate. You also may want to move the Remaining Work column to the left, just after the Task Name field to allow for easy data entry.

NOTE

Do not remove the Work, Actual Work, or Remaining Work fields from the Timesheet view. They are important for calculations that will show in the view. If you remove them, the field calculations may not be accurate.

One of the most important fields in the grid data is the indicator field, the column on the far left. The field displays a number of indicators that identify the status of tasks or associated information. Placing the cursor over the icon displays a ToolTip with information relevant to each task. A large "X" in this field indicates that the task has been deleted from the project schedule.

Timesheet View/Gantt Chart

On the right side of the separator bar is where either the Gantt chart or the Timesheet view (not to be confused with the Timesheet view that the administrator sets in the Admin tab) can display. The Timesheet view is used for viewing assigned work and updating actual hours when entering time day-by-day. The Gantt chart is useful for understanding the relative timing, length, and order of the tasks to be performed.

TIP

If your organization's team members report that they can't enter their day-by-day time, it's usually because the Gantt Chart view is showing. Let them know they need to choose the Timesheet view in the side pane on the Tasks page.

The Timesheet view shows either day-by-day or actual work per week. Team members can enter time only in the day-by-day Timesheet view. Otherwise, they enter % complete or actual work in the grid data area to the left of the separator bar.

The Gantt chart does not allow any data entry. This will probably not be used very often by team members, but it may be used to understand overall task timelines. You can use the Go to Task icon to bring the Gantt bar for a particular task into view. To do so, highlight the task, and then click the Go to Task icon. The Zoom In/Zoom Out icons allow you to easily change the timeline scale, from day-by-day to week-by-week or month-by- month. Figure 15.3 shows the Zoom In/Zoom Out and Go to Task icons on the Gantt Chart view.

Figure 15.3. The Gantt Chart view with the Zoom In/Zoom Out and Go to Task icons.

The team member can choose either display by selecting Timesheet View or Gantt Chart in the upper-left corner of the side pane as shown in Figure 15.4.

Figure 15.4. View Options for the Timesheet view.

NOTE

If the timesheet tracking method is set to % Work Complete or Actual Work and Work Remaining, the Gantt Chart view is displayed by default, and team members enter their data in the grid portion of the timesheet. If the timesheet tracking method is set to Hours of Work done per time period, the Timesheet view is displayed by default.

Current Tasks/All Tasks

By default, only current tasks are displayed when you first enter the Tasks page. Current tasks are those currently in progress or scheduled to start in the near future. The administrator specifies the number of days from the current date that the current tasks view will show (10 days is a default setting). You can also choose to view all tasks, which displays every task assigned to you. Figure 15.4 shows where the team member can choose to view Current Tasks or All Tasks.

TIP

Sometimes team members say they do not have tasks in their timesheet, when the project managers know they have assigned the task. This could be due to a task not scheduled for the current time period. Make sure that the team members choose All Tasks, to confirm that the task shows in the tasks list.

View Options

You can manually set up what displays on the Tasks page via the View Options tab. Figure 15.4 shows some of the selections you have in the View Options tab when you are in the Timesheet view. What shows in this tab changes based on whether you are in the Timesheet view or the Gantt Chart view. Usually, the defaults set are sufficient, but you might be interested in instructing your team members about a few of them:

• Show Summary Tasks Turning off this selection helps reduce rows on the timesheet and especially helps with long task lists. However, if some of the detailed task names are similar or the same in different project phases (summary tasks), it is useful to see the summary task to better identify the detailed task.

• Show Scheduled Work Selecting this box shows you the work you have been originally scheduled to perform. This way, you can compare original work assignments against the actual task work. If you clear this check box, you will only see an Actual Work row, which is the default.

• Show Overtime Work If you need to record overtime work, select this option to display this row on your timesheet.

You can also set the date range to see a different range of dates in your timesheet. You can change it to just a day, a few days, a week, two weeks, or whatever time period is most useful for you to see and then record actual work.

To change the currently displayed options or dates, you can click on the View Options tab. To hide the options, click on the tab again.

Filter, Group, Search

The Filter, Group, Search tab can help you view your task list from different perspectives. One of the most useful options on this tab is Filter. You may filter out task subsets you want to see as shown in Figure 15.5. For example, you could look at just recently assigned tasks by selecting Newly Assigned Tasks, or you might use Completed Tasks to view and then remove tasks you have completed work on (using the Hide function). You may want to use the Group field to group the tasks list by whatever fields shown in the grid, such as Project, Project Manager, or Work. However, the Project grouping is the default, and you usually will not need to change the grouping. The Search For selection finds characters or words you might need to find in the grid data.

Figure 15.5. Filters for viewing tasks in the timesheet.

Sizing/Moving Columns Around on the Timesheet

You also have several options to customize the look and feel for your timesheet as described in the following list:

• Column widths can be adjusted by hovering over the column dividers and dragging the divider icon while holding down the left mouse button.

• Column position can be changed by selecting the middle of the column header and dragging the column while holding down the left mouse key.

• Sort order can be adjusted by clicking on a column header. The arrow indicates ascending or descending order.

• The separator bar between the grid data and view pane can also be moved by dragging the bar while holding down the left mouse button.

After you choose these settings, they will persist, so that when you log off and then log on to a new session, the task list will look the same as when you last saw it.

Entering Time on Tasks

You can enter actual work or day-by-day work for a given time period. In all cases, the Tasks page contains a Remaining Work field for the team member to provide a complete picture of the progress being made on the assignment. Your organization will have decided on one of three choices for entering time:

• %Work Complete and remaining effort You enter the % Work Complete value, from zero through 100%, and also enter any remaining work effort needed for specific tasks. Figure 15.6 shows how the timesheet looks for this kind of selection.

  Figure 15.6. Tasks page with percent complete timesheet view.

  
  
  

• Hours worked for the time reporting period and remaining effort You enter the summarized actual work and any remaining work for the entire report period. Time reporting periods can be for an entire week or longer periods, as established by the system administrator. Figure 15.7 shows how the timesheet looks for this kind of selection.

  Figure 15.7. Tasks page with actual work timesheet view.

  
  
  

• Hours worked per day and remaining effort for the time reporting period You can enter time for specific daily periods so that the actual work is reported at a detailed level. This is the only choice if your organization has selected Managed Time Periods, but you can use this with Non-Managed Time Periods. Figure 15.8 shows what the timesheet looks like with this view.

  Figure 15.8. Tasks page with day-by-day timesheet view.

  
  
  

To enter time for a day-by-day timesheet, follow these steps:

1.	Enter your actual work for each day for the current time reporting period. You cannot enter more than 24 hours per day, and the administrator can set a maximum limit for each day. NOTE It is easy to enter time for the wrong time period (the time period always defaults to the current week). Make sure that you check the time period and click on the right or left arrow to confirm that the correct time frame is displaying for the time entry.
2.	After you enter your time, review the totals at the end of the task row for each task on the right side by scrolling to the last column. Review how many hours you have entered for each day by scrolling to the bottom of the Task view. You will see totals for each day and for the total time period. Make corrections if necessary. When you want to remove time entered in a field, delete it; do not type in a zero.
3.	Review the Remaining Work field for each task and adjust as necessary to reflect the updated estimate to complete for that task. If you have completed a task, make sure that you set the Remaining Work field to zero.
4.	If Remaining Work increases significantly from the original estimate, it is a good idea to communicate the change to your project manager, even though it will be reflected automatically in the Updates page. The schedule for the project may change, and the project manager needs to be aware of these changes.

After you are finished entering actual task work for the current reporting period, click on one of the following buttons in the upper-right corner of the Tasks page:

• Update All Sends an update to all project managers of all projects you worked on, notifying them that the actual work was submitted for their projects.

• Update Selected Rows Sends an update to the project managers for only the selected rows. You can use the Ctrl key and select the nonsequential tasks.

• Save Changes This saves your task assignment actual work to the Project Server database but will not send the updates to the project manager.

When you enter actual work in the timesheet, the entry turns red to indicate that the actual task assignment work has been entered but not approved and saved. This remains red until the project manager approves the update, saves the project plan, and publishes the changes. If you see black in the timesheet, the project manager has accepted the time into the schedule.

Editable fields are shown in white. Time entry fields that appear in gray are closed due to your organization using the Managed Time Period feature. Tasks that have been delegated to others are highlighted in yellow.

NOTE

If a project manager rejects a task update, you will receive an email notification and an indicator icon will display in the indicator field.

Action Bar Actions

The Tasks page action bar allows you to perform the following actions on tasks, where each of the actions is performed by selecting a task in the task sheet and then clicking on the appropriate button in the menu:

• Hide You can hide rows of tasks on the Tasks page. This does not actually delete the task from the schedule, just from the timesheet. Use this feature with caution because this permanently hides the tasks. However, this may be useful to remove completed tasks from your tasks list. If you hide a task prematurely, the project manager can republish the task, and it will reappear in the timesheet.

• Reject This allows you to reject a task assigned to you that you may not be able to fulfill. You might want to insert a note to explain to the project manager why you are rejecting a task. Also note that your project manager can reject your rejection, and the task will show up in your list again. If you want to add a note to explain the rejection, you must insert a note prior to clicking Reject to send a note to the project manager. If you forget to do so, send an email to the project manager explaining why you cannot perform the task.

• Insert Notes This allows you to insert a note for the project. Multiple notes can be added. Notes can be modified and added as the assignment progresses, giving you a place to record ongoing communication regarding the task updates. The comments in the notes can be viewed by everyone.

• Link Risks You can link a risk to a task. You are taken to the Risks page to add a risk.

• Link Issues You can link an issue to a task. You are taken to the Issues page to add an issue.

• Link Documents You can link particular documents with a task as well. By selecting this, you are taken to the Documents page.

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Alert Me

The Alert Me function in the side pane takes you to the same email notification settings page you find on the home page. You can configure task-related events you want to be notified about.

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Creating a New Task

This feature is useful for team members to communicate about tasks that have been forgotten or that were unplanned. As you start working on a project, you may realize that the project manager has not created a task that you need. This may be because you have better knowledge about the tasks required to accomplish the project goal or the scope of the project changes requiring additional tasks. Some organizations also create project schedules that contain unplanned tasks, such as trouble tickets. This allows team members to add a task and then report actual work, without the project manager having to add them first in the project schedule.

When you create a new task you need to

1.	Choose Create a New Task on the Tasks page side pane. The Create a New Task page appears, as shown in Figure 15.9. Figure 15.9. Create a New Task page.
2.	Choose the project to which you want to add the new task in the Project field. Note that you only see a list of projects to which you have already been assigned.
3.	Choose the summary task (if appropriate); otherwise, use the default and create the new task at the top outline level. You might always use the top outline level and let the project manager decide where she wants to put the task in the project schedule.
4.	In the Task Name, enter the task description.
5.	In the Comment field, enter a comment to describe the task more fully or the reason why you created the new task.
6.	In the Task Start Date field, enter the date you will begin working on the task.
7.	In Work Estimate, enter the number of hours you estimate the task will take, such as "40h" or "5d." If you do not include "h" or "d" after the selection, it defaults to hours.
8.	Click Save New Tasks.
9.	The task displays in your timesheet, and you can start recording actual work immediately against the task. Don't forget to submit the new task to the project manager for approval.

NOTE

The project manager needs to carefully review new tasks. He may need to reject the new task, change the work hours planned for the new task, or move it to a different place in a task hierarchy of the project schedule. The project manager still needs to review how it affects the work breakdown structure, linking, and the critical path and end date for the project.

Assigning Myself to a New Task

At times, you need to add yourself to an existing task because you have been asked to do some work that was not originally planned, you need to take the work over from someone else, or perhaps you need to replace a generic resource skill that was assigned to a task by the project manager. To add yourself to an existing task, perform the following:

1.	On the side pane of the Tasks page, select Assign Myself to an Existing Task. The Assign Myself to an Existing Task page appears, as shown in Figure 15.10. Figure 15.10. Assign Myself to an Existing Task page.
2.	Choose the project you want to assign yourself to. Note that only those projects you have already been assigned to will appear. If you do not see the project you need to be assigned to, contact the project manager.
3.	After you select the project, a task list appears. Only those tasks you have not already been assigned to will appear. Choose the appropriate task by clicking on it. (Make sure that you do not select a summary task rowyou must pick the lowest level task.)
4.	In the Work Estimate field, enter the number of hours you believe the task will take (example: "20h" or "2.5d"). Use "h" for hours or "d" for days. If you do not include "h" or "d" after the selection, it defaults to days.
5.	In the Comment field, explain why you are adding yourself to the assignment.
6.	Click Assign Me to Task, and the task displays in your timesheet.
7.	Click OK when you see the message asking whether you want to be assigned to the task. You can start entering time immediately on the task. Don't forget to submit the task assignment to the project manager for approval when you are ready.

NOTE

The project manager needs to review the new task assignments resulting from resources adding themselves to existing tasks. She may need to adjust the hours in another resource assignment if this resource is taking over the task assignment. If this resource is helping another resource, the project manager may need to check to make sure that it will not increase the duration of the task.

Delegating Tasks

Sometimes it may be useful to transfer a task assignment to another resource using the Delegate Tasks function as shown in Figure 15.11. Some organizations use this feature when a project manager assigns tasks to a team lead, and then the team lead delegates the task to someone specific on his team. Some organizations send tasks to the resource manager, expecting him to then delegate the task to resources available in his department. When tracking delegated tasks, the actual values are reflected in your timesheet but do not require updating.

Figure 15.11. Delegating a task to another resource.

Delegate a task by selecting the task or tasks to delegate and then clicking the Delegation tab on the Tasks page, or select Delegate Task from the side pane. You need to select Delegate Tasks on the pane that then appears to see the Delegate Tasks Wizard to start the delegation process.

You may choose a summary task to select all the subtasks for delegation. If any tasks you select cannot be delegated, you see a message informing you that some of the tasks cannot be delegated. Choose the Show Details button in this dialog box to see which tasks cannot be delegated and why. You may not be able to delegate a task for one of several reasons:

• The project manager won't allow the tasks in this project to be delegated.

• Actual work has been entered on the task, and the project manager still needs to approve it.

• The team member just created the task, and the project manager still needs to approve it.

• The task is a nonproject (administrative) task.

• The task is already a delegated task.

• The project manager has deleted the task from the project schedule.

When you are ready to delegate the task, you see a wizard that lets you select what you want to do, as follows:

1.	Decide who you want to delegate the task to in the Who Do You Want to Delegate This Task To? field. Choose a resource name from a drop-down list.
2.	Decide on how you want to manage the delegated task. This allows three options: Assume the lead role Choose Yes to indicate that after the task has been updated by the resource you delegated it to, you want to see the update and then submit it to the project manager. Use this if you want to maintain responsibility for the task even though you are not performing the work. Track this task Choose Yes to indicate that the person you delegate the task to will update and submit the time to the project manager; however, you want a copy of the updates. Use this when you want to be informed of task progress without taking responsibility for the task update. No further role Choose No on both of the preceding options to remove the task from your timesheet and remove complete responsibility for the task from you.
3.	Add a note about the task in the Notes field if you need to.
4.	Click Next to see your delegation selection. You can once more decide how you want to manage the delegation by selecting to assume the lead role, only track the task, or delegate the task completely using the check boxes next to the task. When you are ready, choose Send to delegate the task.

Email notifications inform everyone about what has happened to a task that is being delegated. When you delegate a task, an email notification goes to whom you have delegated the task and to the project manager of the task. If the project manager rejects the delegation, you and the delegated resource will be notified, and you retain responsibility for the task. If the delegated resource rejects the delegated task, you and the project manager will be notified.

Requesting the Status of a Delegated Task

If you have the lead role in tracking a delegated task, you can request an update from the resource that's been delegated the task. To do so, select the task and click the Request Task Status button on the Delegation tab.

Viewing and Reporting on Your Tasks from Your Outlook Calendar

If your organization uses Outlook heavily and some of your users prefer working from Outlook, you can download the timesheet update function to work within Outlook. You can select to download the Outlook add-in from here or from the home page to update Tasks and view PWA dashboards or links from Outlook instead of using PWA.

Before this add-in will work, the PWA administrator must allow the Integration with External Timesheet System permission. When you use the Outlook download, make sure that you have permission as the local administrator, or that your Windows policies allow you to perform this installation.

Notifying Your Manager of Nonproject Time

If your organization chooses to use administrative projects to record nonproject time, you will be assigned to tasks such as administration, vacation, training, and so on, in a special project. These tasks display at the bottom of your timesheet.

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This feature allows you to notify your manager of upcoming time you will not be available via this special administrative project. Then, you will be shown as not available to work during that time in the future, just like any other project in the enterprise environment. When you in fact need to report the actual time, you will just enter the time into the Actual Work field of the timesheet for the task. To notify your manager of time you are taking off in the future, follow these steps:

1.	Select Notify Your Manager of Time You Will Not Be Available for Project Work in the Tasks page side pane. The Notify Your Manager of Time You Will Not Be Available for Project Work page appears, where you request your time off (see Figure 15.12). Figure 15.12. Notify your manager of time you will not be available page.
2.	Make sure that you set the correct time period you need to record using the arrows in the time period control on the action bar. Record the future time you will be unavailable for project time for the appropriate administrative tasks.
3.	When you are finished, click Submit. You may need to click it twicemake sure that you see the message, Administrative Time Updated Successfully and click OK.
4.	To return to your Tasks page, select View My Tasks on the side pane or Tasks on the menu bar.

This request is submitted to your resource manager for approval and saved into a special project that records your request for future time off, training, or other nonproject activity. The time you have requested shows as Scheduled Work for that task in the Timesheet view if you checked Show Scheduled Work on the View Options tab.

When you actually take the time off, you enter the actual work as usual in your timesheet to reflect the actual hours you spent on the nonproject time.

Printing the Timesheet/Using Excel

You can use the Print Grid function to print the timesheet or export it to Excel. In some cases, you may have so many tasksthe size limit of characters or data may be exceeded if you choose to print the gridthat you need to export the data to Excel. Whichever you use, the Print Grid or the Excel spreadsheet, you might like to use this function to print your timesheet for the week, keep it by your desk, and then enter your time for each day. Subsequently, at the end of the week, you can easily transfer your time to the timesheet in Project Server. Some organizations use this function for managerial signature approval or other kinds of record-keeping the organization may require.

To select the Print Grid or Export Grid to Excel, follow these steps:

1.	Click on Print Grid at the left bottom of the timesheet or Export Grid to Excel at the bottom right of the timesheet as shown in Figure 15.13. Figure 15.13. The Print Grid or Export Grid to Excel links on the Tasks page.
2.	To return to the Tasks page, click on the "X" in the upper-right corner of this window.

Timesheet or Grid Data Worksheet

When you choose Print Grid, a separate window displays. You can change the Worksheet format to Timesheet (which shows only the task list and actuals for the time period showing) or a Grid Data (which shows fields for the tasks, such as scheduled work, % complete, start/finish dates, and other task-related data). For each of these selections, you can choose to Arrange Columns and/or Format Columns as shown in Figure 15.13.

When you choose to arrange columns, follow these steps:

1.	Select a column or columns in the Available Columns list.
2.	Move the column Up or Down to move it to the left or the right in the view.
3.	If you want to move a column, select it in the Available Columns list and then click Remove to move it to the Excluded Columns list. You can restore a column you have removed by clicking Restore. You can remove or restore all columns in the Available Columns list.
4.	After you have completed the formatting, click Reformat Grid to make the change (see Figure 15.14). Figure 15.14. The Print Grid window with its various selections.

When you choose to format columns, select a column and then choose to allow or disallow column wrapping, allow or customize the column width, and/or set the column alignment.

Exporting the Timesheet to Excel

You can also export your timesheet to Excel. This allows you to show the Grid Data and Timesheet data in an Excel spreadsheet. Some organizations use this to add comments to the timesheet that might not be appropriate as task comments that would stay in the schedule. It allows you to print large collections of task data, whereas the Print Grid function has limitations.

Customizing the Timesheet

Your organization may need to add fields to timesheets so that team members can add custom data for your organization. For example, perhaps the project manager needs to record the task's billing code, and you need to record the information when you are entering time. You can do so through a series of steps to set up the timesheet to allow this customized reporting.

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