From time to time I get inquiries from Deltek Cobra 5 users who are seeing only zeros in their Hours columns in the CAWP table. “What causes this and how do I fix it?”
Here we look at the cause and potential solutions for this rather mysterious condition where everything else seems to be calculating correctly, but Hours BAC, Hours EAC, Hours Budget, Hours Earned and Hours Actual are bereft of any useful data.
The Cause of Zeroes in Hours Columns
The cause lies in the resource calculations file being used by the project. If for some reason the file was created without defining the Result Codes, the Hours columns will show only zeroes. So double check your Calculations tab in the Resources file for the project where you are having trouble.
The Solution
The simple solution is to add the Result Codes to the resource calculations file and then perform a full Recalc. That that point you should see the Hours columns populated with something other than zeroes. The tricky part of this solution is getting the result codes into the resource calculation file.
If the Result Codes are already defined in the Results tab of the Resource File Information dialog, but for some reason are not showing up in the Calculations tab, you will have to play a little trick on Deltek Cobra. If the Result Codes are not defined in the dialog, then add them in now and then follow these next steps.
Select the first result (in this example HOURS), then use the Move Down button to move it to the bottom position. The key here being that Deltek Cobra thinks all of the results have been moved.
When you click on the Apply button, Cobra will populate the Result Code column. But before you close out the Resource File Information dialog, use the Move Up button to put the first result back in its original position.
The final step is to perform a Recalc, and then Update Totals process on the project; at which point you should see the Hours columns populated.
The reasons how you might end up in this situation are varied, but one common cause is when the Resource Calculation file is loaded using via a CSV file and the Result Codes column was not mapped during loading or even left out of the source file altogether. Whatever the cause, you now know how to give Deltek Cobra a nudge to make sure it is including the Result Codes in its cogitations.
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