If you use Project Professional 2003 with Project Server and Project Web Access, you can automate the gathering and entry of actuals so you don't have to enter actuals on assignments yourself. With the help of your project server administrator, you can set up your team members' timesheets in Project Web Access to enter and submit their actuals on a periodic basis.
You can then review these actuals and accept them for incorporation into the project plan. If you prefer, you can set a rule to have these actuals automatically accepted and incorporated. You can also use the Project Guide to set up the timesheet and options.
The most comprehensive method of updating actual progress information is to enter actual work on assignments by time period. This is the smallest unit of information you can enter because you're entering information about the assignment, and you're probably entering hours worked in a day.
Display the Task Usage view. Click Format, Details, Actual Work.
The timesheet portion of the view changes to include Act. Work as a row under (scheduled) Work.
If you want to show rolled-up actual work totals for assignments, apply the Work table to the sheet portion of the view. Click View, Table, Work (see Figure 10-17).
Figure 10-17. Use the Task Usage view to enter daily values of actual work on assignments.
4 In the Act. Work field for the assignment and the day, enter the actual work value. If you want to enter actual work for different time periods, click Zoom Out or Zoom In on the Standard toolbar.
If entering actual work by time period will be your primary method of updating progress h information, use the Project Guide to create a custom tracking view. A view similar to the Task Zoom In Usage view is created with the Act. Work field added as a row in the timesheet portion of the view and the Work and Actual Work fields added as columns in the sheet portion of the view.