The recommended and default option for managing ETC in the Schedule is to employ a ‘Fixed Schedule’. When a schedule is fixed, Actuals eat up ETC from the start of the red bars up to today only. If Actual > ETC then the extra is taken off the end of the red bar. If there isn’t enough Actual, you could get ETC in the past as not all the red bar is used up.

The benefit is that resources stay assigned in the days/weeks they are allocated (important if borrowing from another team for example). However it means that PMs must manage the ETC in the past and decide what to do about it (delete past ETC, delete and add to end or move the red bar or delete ETC and give to someone else..etc)

It is possible to turn OFF the ‘Fixed Schedule’ option (the checkbox is on the Project Budget tab).

When a job is opened in the Schedule that is not fixed, the red bars move forward to start from ‘Today’.

The problem with this is that if a resource is allocated on a specific day/week then it gets moved if the green Actuals don’t exactly eat up the red ETCs as per the schedule. It also appears that the schedule is “jumping around”.

Please refer to the user guide or request detailed ETC reference for more information.

Posted in: eTrack FAQ, Scheduling and Resource Management