Commit Dates are killing us

Hi Eric I’m not looking for the difference between the two dates, only that there is a difference. I’m really just trying to figure out why I should be concerned about it, especially if our users don’t see the commit date since we changed it to show planned completion instead in the my work screen. So I’m wondering what WF uses the commit date for - that’s what I’m worried about. ☺ Laura Ray Project Support Analyst Bakkavor Information Systems Bakkavor Group West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB, UK Direct: +44 (0)1775 763 010 www.Bakkavor.com // Laura.Ray@Bakkavor.com< [cid:image002.png@01D21E4C.E094ED90]

Hi Laura, I think the overarching problem here is that changing this in the My Work page is not necessarily the end of the story. It obviously depends on how you're set up and how you're using the system but that commit date is front and center when you navigate in to any task page. The commit date is the ONLY date shown when you first land on a task page - directly under the assignments. So the problem here lies with any users who are going to that task page - they're immediately presented with a date that is NOT their due date (planned completion date). It's their commit date, which may or may not match the planned completion date. This then gets your resources off on the wrong foot because they're being shown a big date on the task page that SHOULD be their due date but it's not. So it's confusing. At least that's the experience I'm having with users. It doesn't matter that they can go to the Task Details page to find the due date, it matters that the due date isn't visually right next to the commit so they're being shown that these are two completely different dates. We've seen folks miss deadlines because they're staring at the commit date on the task page thinking they have more time than they do. As far as uses for the commit date, my understanding is that this is simply to communicate back to project owners that resources CAN commit to as far as timing - this allows quick and easy changing of dates by simply accepting a commit date change, which sets the planned completion to that new date. This is helpful if there's a comparison point to the due date and a little less helpful when that's several clicks away. Change takes time, patience and practice.

Aha! I see what you’re talking about. That IS a problem! So what happens when there’s multiple people assigned to a task? Which user sets the commit date? Laura Ray Project Support Analyst Bakkavor Information Systems Bakkavor Group West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB, UK Direct: +44 (0)1775 763 010 www.Bakkavor.com // Laura.Ray@Bakkavor.com< [cid:image001.png@01D21E5A.46ACB7E0]

Any of them. The commit date can be changed by any resource assigned to a task. Which brings up the question who owns it in collaborative assignments. Fun stuff, right? Change takes time, patience and practice.

Ok, but say user 1 of 3 assignees is the first one to say ‘work on it’ and then user 2 clicks on the ‘work on it’ button the next day and user 3 the day after that - which is the commit date? Also, one of my users just raised a good point - if the planned comp date and commit date are off by a few weeks, which date does the timesheet use to say it should be listed on the timesheet? Fun stuff for sure - well for WF Geeks lol Laura Ray Project Support Analyst Bakkavor Information Systems Bakkavor Group West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB, UK Direct: +44 (0)1775 763 010 www.Bakkavor.com // Laura.Ray@Bakkavor.com< [cid:image002.png@01D21E5C.9CE05DE0]

Sure thing. The first user to accept the task by clicking "work on it" sets the commit date. The system automatically defaults the commit date to match the initial planned completion date when the first user accepts the work. Changing the commit date after this requires an assigned resource to manually go in and make that change. Problems usually pop up when the planned date changes (because it cannot automatically change any commit dates). Users 2 and 3 are not changing the commit date, they're just accepting the work so the commit date remains what the system automatically set it to. The timesheet uses the planned completion dates and/or projected completion dates to determine what shows up. You can check your system setup to verify exactly what's going to show up for your users. Go to Setup > Timesheet & Hours > Preferences and then check the "Pre-populate timesheets with..." section. The commit date has a direct impact on the projected dates so that means checking projected dates AND planned dates means a task could show up on the timesheet in either situation. Basically, the more out of sync commit dates are, the more out of sync projected dates might be as well. Articles about commit dates and projected dates: https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/216743818-Commit-Dates https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217182397 Change takes time, patience and practice.

Great explanation, this helps a lot. Thanks David. I definitely need to address this with our Workfront Core Team so they can filter it down to all our users. ________________________________

Sorry Laura -- your question about commit dates slipped past me, but thanks David: your answer was spot on! Regards, Doug

No problem, you can’t catch all of them ☺ Laura Ray Project Support Analyst Bakkavor Information Systems Bakkavor Group West Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, PE11 2BB, UK Direct: +44 (0)1775 763 010 www.Bakkavor.com // Laura.Ray@Bakkavor.com< [cid:image002.png@01D21FAD.A9EAB420]

Hate to do this and add to this already lengthy post but we're having an issue with a report I produced showing tasks where planned completion dates don't equal commit dates. It's pulling in tasks where the dates match. We're assuming it's to do with the time stamp? Is there any way around this? This is slightly annoying, along with the fact you can't in-line edit the commit date within this report! I've attached screenshots of the report. Can anyone help?