Admin Guide - Actual Start & Actual Finish Date Fields

In a traditional waterfall, schedule-driven Project, Project Managers define the schedule for when Tasks need to be started or completed. When dates shift, Project Managers need to be able to see the impact to the rest of the Project Schedule.

In Inspire Planner, when Project Tasks are assigned to resources, a Salesforce Task is automatically created. This allows resources to then go to their Salesforce Tasks and update the status or log time against their assigned Tasks. However, the resource is not able to edit the start and finish dates of their assigned Salesforce Tasks as these dates are defined by the Project Manager from within the Project Schedule. It is recommended that any date adjustments be made within the Project Schedule so that the Project Manager is made aware of the impact to the rest of the Project.

At times, resources may start or complete their assigned Tasks earlier or later than the planned Start or Finish Date and Project Managers need to be made aware of this so that they can make the necessary adjustments to the Project Schedule. The Project Task Actual Start and Actual Finish Date fields automatically populate when the task status is updated to "In Progress" or "Completed". For more information on this feature, please see Project Task - Actual Start and Actual Finish Date.

This help article walks you through the necessary configurations to ensure all Inspire Planner users have access to these fields.

Please Note:

You must be a Salesforce System Administrator to complete the steps outlined below.

Enable Access to Actual Start & Actual Finish Date Fields

The standard permission sets included with Inspire Planner - Inspire Planner Standard User - v1.12 Permissions and Inspire Planner Standard User - Agile Project Management, already include access to the Actual Start Date and Actual Finish Date fields in the Project Task object.

However, if you have custom permission sets, you will need to edit them to enable access to these fields. 

1. Click on the Gear Icon at the top right corner and go to Setup.
   
   
    
2. Enter "Permission Set" in the Quick Find box and click on Permission Sets.
   
   
    
3. Click on your custom permission set. The image below is just an example.
   
   
    
4. Click on Object Settings.
   
   
    
5. Click on Project Tasks.
   
   
    
6. Click on Edit.
   
   
    
7. Enable both Read Access and Edit Access for Actual Finish Date and Actual Start Date. Then, click on Save.