Project stage change report

Hi Abhipsita, in your Notes report, you can use this filter:

That's a tricky one! I'll let you know if I figure it out.

Now one thing I don't think you will be able to do is use the filter Does Not Contain "Has Been Approved" because then you will get updates about project name changes, due dates changed, etc. Remember, each note is separate. I think you want something that looks at all the notes for a project and then reports back if none of them say Has Been Approved. I have no idea how you'd do that.

BUT... if you want one to show you each ones have been approved, that we should be able to do. I have one kind of similar I did for HR and IT. It is to show the date and time when someone completed a tasks so we have an easy to see audit trail especially when it comes to terminated employees.

I would do a Note report where the filter is Audit Text Contains "Has Been Approved" and then to make sure that you are only looking at projects and not something else, I would do Task ID is Blank, Issue ID is Blank, and Document ID is Blank.

I would also add a filter where Project Status equals the status that are AFTER Has Been Approved should be. That way you aren't seeing projects that haven't gotten to that stage yet.

OH!! An idea... what are the statuses just before and after the approval? For example, if it is New, Has Been Approved, Current, Complete... you could do a report where the filter is Audit Text Contains Status changed from "New" to "Current". That would show you people who cheated!

Not sure of your exact process, but that might help :)

Weird not showing up on mine.

Hi Abhipsita,

Returning to your original question...

I suggest you add a Calculated Custom Datetime Parameter to the Project form(s) called First Approval Date, save form (so the parameter will “exist”), then set its formula to something like this:

IF(ISBLANK(First Approval Date),IF(Status=“CUR:A”,$$NOW,First Approval Date),First Approval Date)

In this fashion, as Projects that take the expected stages and “hit” the Current Pending Approval (CUR:A) stage, this First Approval Date will then be filled in to commemorate that fact...and you can then also easily filter for Projects that are Current but have a blank First Approval Date (ie skipped the Approval stage).

This approach will work going forward; noting that there’s a bit more involved to account for existing data (eg adapting the formula to either default a historic assumption prior to a certain date, or allow a SysAdmin to provide a manually entered First Approval Date Override, etc).

Regards,

Doug

Thank you. I tried using Approval Path Start date is Null - looks like it worked