Original Task Completion Date Before Issues

[JannahVa]

Is there any way to report on the original task actual completion date prior to it being reopened by an issue? We're trying to report on late/on-time tasks based on the original task completion. If issues are opened later, we do want to see those, but still want to be able to report on that task actual completion date.

[Madalyn_Destafney]

Hi there, I suggest playing with Journal Entry reports. It is basically an activity feed of things you want to see on a request/task/projects/etc. You can filter types of changes you want to see if your report, and status changes is one of them. 

If you want a report to understand how much a task keeps pushing out/getting delayed (due to scope change or whatever else), I also use a journal entry report for this with different columns/filters. You can add a filter of the below screenshot to pull in JUST planned completion date changes (which we update as things change, we don't keep it as the original date), and any other filter, and then in your report columns you are able to have old date value vs new date value with each change. Add a date diff column to easily see how many days it pushed. You can do other grouping/sorting from there to see the date changes sequentially.

If you find this answer helpful, please mark correct to help others : )

[Richard_Le_ · Accepted solution]

Hi Jannah,

When a task is set to complete, the actual completion date of that task is recorded in the system. If an issue is added to that task, the status changes to "Complete - Pending Issues" but the actual completion date remains. Only when your users change the task back to "In Progress" or "New" will the actual completion date reset.

If your users are changing the task status when issues are added causing the actual completion date to reset, the other option you have is to add a calculated field to that task that will record the date/time that it was first set to complete. You can then reference this field in a task report to show if the task was originally completed on time or not.

To create this calculated field you would need to follow these steps:

1. Create the calculated field, set the format to Date/Time and give it a name/label (i.e. First Completion Date) and then save and close the custom form. NOTE: it is important that you save/close the form before moving to step 2. The calculation we are adding is referencing itself so we need to commit the field to Workfront's data base first)
2. Reopen the custom form and add the following calculation:
   
   

   IF({status}="CPL",IF(ISBLANK({DE:First Completion Date}),$$NOW,{DE:First Completion Date}),{DE:First Completion Date})
   ​

3. Then save and close the form an add it to the tasks / template tasks where you want to calculate this information. 

Now, whenever a task is first set to complete the date/time that this happened will be populated in this field. If the status is subsequently changed (causing the actual completion date to reset), the field will not update and will continue to show the date/time that the task was first set to complete.

Let me know if that helps, or if you have any questions.

Best Regards,

Rich.  

[JannahVa]

Thank you Rich! This is exactly what I need. Our users aren't adjusting the task status when they get an issue. They're only working the issue, but once that closes, when I pull the task actual completion date, it pulls the latest issue completion date. On the task update stream, it still shows the task actual completion date as the original, so it's a little confusing. This is perfect to get around that and be able to report that first date. Thank you!!