I recently learned a new trick to make entering duplicate status dates more efficient in a P6 Professional schedule: Fill Down status dates. Let’s take a look.
Sometimes, you will have an effort broken into several tasks for accounting purposes. Often, these activities can have the same start or finish dates. In this situation, it would be good to find a way to enter these activities’ statuses simultaneously.
The most straightforward way to enter the status dates of an activity is in the bottom details. But then you are relegated to a repetitive data entry task where you must enter each date separately for numerous tasks.
Fortunately, there is usually more than one way to execute an operation in P6 Professional, and you can also enter tasks directly on the activity table. In the table, you can enter each date individually, or as recently pointed out, you can use the Fill Down tool to populate a series of date fields simultaneously.
This article demonstrates the Fill Down feature’s utility to populate a list of duplicate actual start or finish dates to status their respective tasks.
Read the blog Using Fill Down, Copy & Paste In Primavera P6 for a primer on the P6 Professional Fill Down feature.
We want to demonstrate the Fill Down feature’s ability to specify the status of tasks with similar progress efficiently. Figure 1 shows our demonstration schedule.
Demonstrations
What follows are demonstrations showing the utility of the Fill Down tool to duplicate task status for tasks assigned the Duration and Physical Percent Complete Types. For a primer on the Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types, refer to the Using Physical and Duration Percent Complete Types In Primavera P6.
Note that the three start milestones defining the start of the project have already been progressed for the demonstrations. We want to progress the Mobilization and Surveying – Site Layout deliverables, which all have the same starting and finish dates.
Fill Down Status Dates for 100% Complete Tasks – Duration
We enter the status of the Mobilize – Grading Equipment effort using the details in the bottom Status tab and activity table. We toggle the Started status, click the ellipse from the calendar, and choose Monday, December 11, 2023, as the start date.
The stamps 1 through 5 in Figure 2 indicate the clicks to enter this Actual Start date.
Follow these steps in Figure 2: (1) toggle the started Status (2) click the ellipse to specify the start date, (3) select December 11th date on the calendar, (4) confirm or adjust to the time stamp as appropriate, which is 8 am for our demonstration, then (5) click select.
Repeat steps 1 through 5, but for the Finish date, Figure 3.
As mentioned, the Mobilization – Grading Equipment and Surveying – Site Layout deliverables have duplicate start and finish dates. We could enter each individually in the bottom details, which becomes a repetitive and laborious data entry task. As Figures 2 and 3 demonstrate, entering the Actual Start and Finish of the Mobilize – Grading Equipment effort alone takes five mouse clicks each.
Another way is to employ the Fill Down feature to populate these dates down the Actual Start and Actual Finish columns. Be aware, again, that we duplicate the Actual Start and Finish date columns; this won’t work for the Start and Finish date columns. You can enter a task date directly on the activity table instead of using the bottom details, as in Figures 2 and 3. Either way, in our demonstration, we have the Actual Start and Actual Finish fields populated for the Mobilize – Grading Equipment task, Figure 3.
Let us Fill Down the Actual Start date of Mobilize – Grading Equipment down to Surveying – NE. We begin by (1) selecting the Actual Start field for the Mobilize – Grading Equipment effort, (2) holding the shift key down and right-clicking the last Surveying – Site Layout task (make sure the orange outlined field is at the intersection of the Actual Start column and Surveying – NE task row), (3) left-click on it, then (4) choose to Fill Down from the popup menu, Figure 4.
P6 Professional then duplicates the Actual Start date from the Mobilize – Grading Equipment task to others and down to the Surveying – NE task, Figure 5.
Assuming you still have the targeted tasks still highlighted, to repeat for the Actual Finish dates, (1) hold the shift key down and right-click the Surveying – NE and Actual Finish field with the orange outline, (2) left-click on it, then (3) choose Fill Down from the popup menu, Figure 6.
In Figure 7 we have populated the Actual Start and Actual Finish dates for all the Mobilization and Surveying – Site Layout deliverables.
We also observe that the Duration % Complete of 100% and Remaining Duration of zero populate for the same tasks. Furthermore, when we view the bottom details for the status of the Surveying – NE task, we find that all its duration and status fields are correctly filled in. This includes the Duration % Complete of 100% and Actual, Remaining, and At-complete Durations, as well as start and finish dates. Note that the Percent Complete Type for all tasks is Duration. Remember that in this demonstration, all progressed tasks are 100% complete.
The Fill Down tool is helpful to efficiently duplicate the progress of completed tasks in the Actual Start and Finish columns when the Percent Complete Type is Duration. When you Fill Down the status in these columns, the Duration % Complete and Remaining Duration duplicate as well. Again, these tasks are done, and the Percent Complete Type is Duration.
Fill Down Status Dates for 100% Complete Tasks – Physical
Let us demonstrate the same for the Physical Percent Compete Type tasks, where all are 100% complete. We toggle the started Status, click the ellipse from the calendar, and choose Monday, December 11, 2023, 8 am, as the start date. Following that, we enter the finish date of December 18, 2023, 4 pm, Figure 8.
Follow the stamps 1 through 5 for your mouse clicks. This task is 100% complete; its duration is six days, and its remaining time is zero. We used the Fill Down tool to duplicate these Actual Start and Finish dates for the Physical Percent Complete Type tasks. The populated Actual Start and Actual Finish fields are displayed in Figure 9.
When we view the bottom details for the status of the Surveying – NE task, we find that all its Duration and Status fields are correctly filled in. This includes the physical % complete of 100% status and actual, remaining, and At-complete durations. Schedulers can use the Fill Down feature to efficiently enter Actual Start and Finish dates when progress is complete, and the same dates are relevant for all these tasks.
Fill Down Status Dates for 80% Complete Tasks – Duration
Let us demonstrate how to Fill Down when the status is 80% complete and the Percent Complete Type is Duration, Figure 10.
In the bottom details, Figure 10, the start Status of the Mobilize – Grading Equipment effort is toggled (confirm the 8 am start time as appropriate), and the Duration % is set to 80%.
To Fill Down the Mobilize – Grading Equipment Actual Start date, (1) select the Actual Start field, (2) hold the shift key down and right-click the Grading – NE row and Actual Start column field with the orange outline, (3) left-click it, then (4) choose Fill Down from the popup menu, Figure 11.
We then inspect our duplicates by selecting the Surveying – NE task, Figure 12.
Unfortunately, the 80% Duration % status and Remaining 1-day Duration did not update, Figure 12, and the four-day Actual Duration. We correct this by performing a Fill Down of the Duration % Complete column to duplicate the 80% value, Figure 13.
We begin by (1) selecting the Duration % Complete column and Mobilize – Grading Equipment task, (2) holding the shift key down and right-clicking the last Surveying – Site Layout task (make sure the orange outlined field is at the intersection of the Duration % Complete column and Surveying – NE task row), (3) left-click on it, then (4) choose to Fill Down from the popup menu, Figure 13.
When we inspect the Duration % Complete and Remaining Duration columns, they look correct, Figure 14.
The only outstanding issue is that the Actual Duration of Surveying – NE does not look right, Figure 14. But then we move the data date to the end of the reporting period and calculate the schedule, Figure 15.
When we view the bottom details, Figure 16, the Actual Duration adjusts as appropriate.
Our Fill Down worked for the Duration % Complete type, but we had to Fill Down the Duration % Complete column in addition to the Actual Start column.
Fill Down Status Dates for 80% Complete Tasks – Physical
Let us demonstrate the Fill Down when the status is 80% complete and the Percent Complete Type is Physical, Figure 17.
We toggle the started Status and confirm the 8 am time stamp, but when we enter 80% Physical % Complete, the Remaining Duration does not update. Remember, for Physical % Complete; you must manually update the remaining duration to match the Physical % value (refer to the primer blog on Duration and Physical Percent Complete Types). We do this in Figure 18.
We proceed with our Fill Down, Figure 19, where we duplicate the Actual Start date.
We begin by (1) selecting the Actual Start column and Mobilize – Grading Equipment task, (2) holding the shift key down and right-clicking the last Surveying – Site Layout task (make sure the orange outlined field is at the intersection of the Actual Start column and Surveying – NE task row), (3) left-click on it, then (4) choose to Fill Down from the popup menu, Figure 19.
Again, the Physical % Complete and Remaining Duration fields do not properly populate when using Fill Down, Figure 20.
To correct this, we first Fill Down the 80% Physical % Complete value, Figure 21.
We begin by (1) selecting the Physical % Complete column and Mobilize – Grading Equipment task, (2) holding the shift key down and right-clicking the last Surveying – Site Layout task (make sure the orange outlined field is at the intersection of the Physical % Complete column and Surveying – NE task row), (3) left-click on it, then (4) choose to Fill Down from the popup menu, Figure 21.
We then have to Fill Down the Remaining Duration values, which we show in Figure 22.
To repeat for the Remaining Duration when tasks are still highlighted, (1) hold the shift key down and right-click the Remaining Duration column and Surveying – NE task (This field has the orange outline), (2) left-click on it, then (3) choose Fill Down from the popup menu, Figure 22.
The Status fields look good, and all the Duration fields are correct, except the Actual Duration looks off in Figure 23; it says zero Actual Duration when it should be five days Actual Duration.
But then we move the data date to the end of the reporting period and calculate the schedule, Figure 24.
The Actual Duration of the Surveying – NE task looks good, Figure 25.
Summary
The Fill Down tool efficiently duplicates the task’s Actual Start and Finish dates for the duration and physical Percent Complete Types when the task is 100% done. When the activity state is in-progress, you must additionally Fill Down the Duration % Complete column for the duration Percent Complete Type tasks.
Physical Percent Complete Type in-progress tasks require a Fill Down of the Actual Start, Physical % Complete, and Remaining Duration columns. So, duplicating in-progress tasks using the Fill Down tool is more involved but faster than brute-force data entry.
Remember that the Fill Down tool works to duplicate one data field, unlike the copy and paste procedure, which copies more information than we intend.