Understanding the % Complete Field in Microsoft Project

In this video we will learn about the % Complete field in Microsoft Project. I will show you what the % Complete field actually is used for.

[@ershelin]

Well explained and thank you for the same. However, I would rather suggest MS PROJECT Team to rephrase the Term "Physical % Complete" to "Work Done %" as it will convey the message to user effectively.

[@AuntyShaPray]

Solved my issue. Thank you!

[@maxwelloseitutu2701]

Great explanation, can you give explanation on work% complete column in relation to percent complete field?

[@shishupalsingh5614]

That's really very nice video. Could you please make a video on project update showing physical % complete vs planned % complete

[@baselineachievedllc4307]

Sorry for the late reply! I actually cover using the physical % complete field briefly in the my blog about statusing the schedule. Here is a link to it baselineachieved.com/resources/statusing-the-project-schedule/

[@richabhardwaj6162]

Hi Jason, Can you please tell how to calculate total % physical complete for summary task? It does not add up & even option is unavailable in field setting to roll up & get sum for summary task.

[@baselineachievedllc4307]

Hi Richa. Unfortunately, the Physical % Complete field does not roll up to the summary tasks. And to make it even worse, you can't even modify the value manually.

[@gtseitz]

I have been struggling with that field for a year and in eight minutes it's solved! Does Physical % Complete work with remaining duration to update the status? In other words if I have an activity whose original duration was 10 days, and I say I am 50% physically complete on day 8, it should now say I am going to finish on day 13 (8 + 5 days remaining).

[@baselineachievedllc4307]

Hi Jerry. You are on track but let me help fill in the gap. Percent Complete works with the Status Date, Actual Duration, and Remaining Duration. And there is actually a fourth field tied into this discussion called Stop. If everything is set and statused correctly, the Stop date will equal the Status Date. The Stop date is the date that progress has been recorded up to. The exception would be if you are on a normal 5 day calendar and the Status Date is Sunday. In that case, the Stop Date will be Friday end of the day. So let's assume you started with a task that was 10 days. It was forecasted to start on Monday 1 Nov 21 and finish on Friday 12 Nov. After the first week, you set the Status Date for Friday 5 Nov and get updates from the team. If you simply click Mark on Track after setting the Status Date, MS Project will calculate 5 days Actual Duration, 5 days Remaining Duration, a Percent Complete value of 50%, and the Stop Date will equal 5 Nov. All looks good. But, your team says that they are not actually 50% complete with the task and will need more time. They forecast that they will need 8 more business days rather than the 5 days calculated by MS Project. So you would then add these 3 additional days to Remaining Duration making the value 8 days rather than 5. This update will then change the forecasted finish date to 17 Nov 21, change the overall Duration to 13 days instead of 10 days, and the Percent Complete value will be recalculate to 38% rather than 50%. So you don't input Percent Complete at all. MS Project calculates the value based on the Duration values. You can, however, input in a Physical Percent Complete value if desired. This Physical Percent Complete value can be considered similar to a text field. It is for your benefit if you want to use it but it does not factor into any of the date, duration, or percent complete calculations. If you do use Physical Percent Complete, you can use it to compare against the Percent Complete field. A good way would be if the Percent Complete field calculates a value of 90% but your team is reporting 25% Physical Percent Complete. In this quick example, you have used 90% of your available Duration but only completed 25% of the physical product indicating that the forecasted finish and remaining duration values are likely not accurate at this time. Hope that helps! Feel free to ask more questions and I will be glad to assist. You can also check out my other resources at my actual site www.baselineachieved.com...

[@timbeemer5731]

​@baselineachievedllc4307 so why would you use physical % complete if only just a text box? Merely a back check?

[@budstik]

So why isn't the percent complete column a responding variable in correspondence with the actual date (today) vs start and finish dates in your schedule? I don't want to have to put in individual percentages on each line on my schedule. Rather I would like it calculated automatically via start/finish dates vs current date.

[@baselineachievedllc4307]

Hi Joel. So you don't need to actually enter a value for Percent Complete. A quick overview of the process that I teach (which is in sync with the Planning and Scheduling Excellence Guide (PASEG) by NDIA) is to set the Status Date for the schedule and then use the Actual Start, Actual Finish, and Remaining Duration fields and the Mark on Track button to record actuals. If a task started but did not finish, you would simply enter the Actual Start date (if it is different than the forecast date), click Mark on Track, and then adjust the Remaining Duration as required. When you click Mark on Track, MS Project records progress to the Status Date and automatically calculates Percent Complete. Hope that very brief overview helps! Feel free to ask more questions and I will be glad to assist. You can also check out my other resources at my actual site www.baselineachieved.com...

[@budstik]

Got it figured. Thank-you for the reply.

[@steptoediy8935]

You need to run this again with different dates so that the 50% of days would be different from the 50% of actual works complete. I did not understand the difference as both ways came to half way through the dates of 5 days done.

[@sergiomoralescorzo4101]

¿Porque si una tarea se adelanta en cuanto lo programado, este no se refleja en la fecha fin? Me explico mejor: Si una actividad que debería ir en 20% se encuentra en 60% este adelanto no altera la fecha final hacia atras.