When you use the Sync to Protected Actuals feature in Microsoft Office Project Professional, the value of the Actual Work field for some tasks may display as 0 (zero) hours or contain incorrect values.

This behavior occurs if the following conditions are true:

• No resources are assigned to the task.
• The resources that are assigned to the task have never submitted actual hours in the Project Web Access Timesheet view.
• The Project Manager makes changes to the Actual Work field in Project Professional instead of accepting the Project Web Access Updates that are submitted by the resource.

The Actual Work Protected field for a task is updated in Project Professional when the following conditions are true:

• The team member who is assigned to the task uses Microsoft Office Project Web Access to enter the actual work that was performed on the task.
• The Project Manager then updates the actual work into the project plan.

When you use the Sync to Protected Actuals feature, the values in the Actual Work Protected field are written into the Actual Work field for the corresponding task. If the Project Manager manually enters actual work in the project plan, the value of the Actual Work field will be overwritten when the Sync to Protected Actuals feature is used.

If the value of the Actual Work Protected field is not zero or if the field does not contain the expected value, you must compare the work that was entered by the resource into Project Web Access with the value in the Actual Work Protected field for the plan. Then use one of the following workarounds that best fits your scenario.

Workaround 1

 If the value in Project Web Access is correct but does not match the value of the Actual Work field in Project Professional, use the Sync to Protected Actuals feature to correct the value of the Actual Work field. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Project Professional, and then open your project.
2. On the Project tab, click Sync to Protected Actuals.
   
   Note: In earlier versions of Project Professional, point to Tracking on the Tools menu, then click Sync to Protected Actuals.
3. Note: On Project Server 2003, the server administrator must turn on managed periods. To turn on managed periods, follow these steps:
   1. Log on to Project Web Access 2003 as an administrator, and then click Admin.
   2. In the Actions area, click Customize Project Web Access.
   3. In the Time period settings area, click Manage Periods - Allow only Project Web Access users to update actuals during open periods, and then click Save Changes.
   4. Click Save Changes.

Workaround 2

If the value in the Actual Work field in Project Professional is correct, but it does not match the value in the Project Web Access republish the assignments to overwrite actuals. To do this, follow these steps:  

1. Start Project Professional, and then open your project.
2. On the File tab, click Publish

Note: In Project Professional 2007, click Publish on the File Menu.


In Project Server 2003, you must turn off the Managed Periods setting, and then republish the assignments to overwrite actuals. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Turn off the Manage Periods setting in Project Web Access 2003. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Log on to Project Web Access 2003, and then click Admin.
   2. In the Actions area, click Customize Project Web Access.
   3. In the Time period settings area, click Non Managed Periods - Allow Project and Project Web Access users to update actuals, and then click Save Changes
2. Start Project Professional 2003, and then open your project.
3. On the Collaborate menu, point to Publish, and then click Republish Assignments.
4. Turn the Manage Periods setting back on in Project Web Access 2003. To do this:
   1. Log on to Project Web Access 2003, and then click Admin.
   2. In the Actions area, click Customize Project Web Access.
   3. In the Time period settings area, click Managed Periods - Allow only Project Web Access users to update actuals during open periods.
   4. Specify the time periods that you want, and then click Save Changes.

Workaround 3

If none of the values in the Actual Work Protected field in Project Professional or none of the values in Project Web Access are correct, remove the resource from the task. Then, reassign the resource to the task and republish the assignment. By doing this, the value of the Actual Work field and the Actual Work Protected field for the task is 0 (zero) hours. You must ask the resource to reenter the correct actual work into Project Web Access. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Project Professional, and then open your project.
2. Remove the resource from the task. To do this, follow these steps:
3. 1. Click Task Usage on the View tab. Note: In Project Professional 2007, click Task Usage on the View menu.
   2. Click the task, and then click Assign Resources on the Resource tab. Note: In Project Professional 2007, click Assign Resources on the Tools menu.
   3. Click Remove in the Assign Resources dialog box.
4. Reassign the resource to the task. To do this, click the task, click the resource that you want in the Assign Resources dialog box, and then click Assign.
5. Click the File tab, and then click Publish.

In Project Server 2003, you must turn off the Managed Periods setting, and then remove the resource from the task. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Turn off the Manage Periods setting in Project Web Access 2003. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Log on to Project Web Access 2003, and then click Admin.
   2. In the Actions area, click Customize Project Web Access.
   3. In the Time period settings area, click Non Managed Periods - Allow Project and Project Web Access users to update actuals, and then click Save Changes.
2. Start Project Professional 2003, and then open your project.
3. Remove the resource from the task. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Task Usage on the View menu.
   2. Click the task, and then click the Assign Resources button.
   3. Click Remove in the Assign Resources dialog box.
4. Reassign the resource to the task. To do this, click the task, click the resource that you want in the Assign Resources dialog box, and then click Assign.
5. Click Collaborate, select Publish and select New and Changed Assignments.
6. Turn the Manage Periods setting back on in Project Web Access 2003. To do this:
   1. Log on to Project Web Access 2003, and then click Admin.
   2. In the Actions area, click Customize Project Web Access.
   3. In the Time period settings area, click Managed Periods - Allow only Project Web Access users to update actuals during open periods.
   4. Specify the time periods that you want, and then click Save Changes.

For more information about Actual Work Protected fields, see Project Professional 2003 Help. To do this, click Microsoft Project Help on the Help menu. Type actual work protected fields in the Search for box, and then click Start searching. In the search results, click New fields in Project.