The Cumulative Actual Work field contains the actual work done by all resources assigned to tasks, accumulated over time.
There are several categories of Cumulative Actual Work fields.
Data Type Duration
Cumulative Actual Work (task-timephased field)
Entry Type Calculated
How Calculated When you first create a task, the Cumulative Actual Work field is blank. When you enter percent complete, percent work complete, or actual work for tasks, Project sums up all actual work reported for that task and displays it in the timephased Cumulative Actual Work field.
For each time period, cumulative actual work equals cumulative actual work for the previous period, plus actual work for this period.
Best Uses Add the Cumulative Actual Work field to the timephased portion of the Task Usage view to review cumulative actual work information for tasks. You can use this information to review how much work has been done on tasks so far.
Example Jamie, Sean, and Chris are working on the “Write Proposal” task. Yesterday, they each recorded 8 hours of actual work. Today, they each recorded 2 hours of actual work. The Cumulative Actual Work field shows you that the cumulative actual work for the task now adds up to 30 hours.
Cumulative Actual Work (resource-timephased field)
Entry Type Calculated
How Calculated When you first create a task and assign resources to the task, the Cumulative Actual Work field for each resource is blank. When you enter percent complete, percent work complete or actual work for tasks the resource is assigned to, Project sums up all actual work and displays it in the timephased Cumulative Actual Work field.
Best Uses Add the Cumulative Actual Work field to the timephased portion of the Resource Usage view to review cumulative actual work information for resources. This allows you to see how much work a resource has completed at a given point in time.
Example Cassie is assigned to two tasks: “Create artwork” and “Edit proposal.” Yesterday, she recorded 6 hours of actual work for “Create artwork” and 2 hours for “Edit proposal.” Today, she recorded 2 hours of actual work for “Create artwork” and 2 hours for “Edit Proposal.” The Cumulative Actual Work field shows you that the cumulative actual work for Jamie now adds up to 12 hours.
Cumulative Actual Work (assignment-timephased field)
Entry Type Calculated
How Calculated When you first create a task and assign resources to the task, the Cumulative Actual Work field for the assignment is blank. When you enter percent complete, percent work complete, or actual work for tasks, Project sums up all actual work for an assignment and displays it in the timephased Cumulative Actual work field.
Best Uses Add the Cumulative Actual Work field to the timephased portion of the Task Usage or Resource Usage views when you want to review the cumulative actual work done for the assignment to date.
Example Erika is assigned to the task “Create artwork.” Yesterday, she recorded 5 hours of actual work for the task. Today, she recorded 3 hours of actual work for the task. Therefore, the cumulative actual work for the assignment now adds up to 8 hours. Note: Any other task assigned to Erika (for example, “Design book cover”) is a separate assignment, and each assignment has its own Cumulative Actual Work field.
