Error Message: There is a problem with the entry. The accrual choice is not valid. Type Start, Prorated, or End.

Question

I receive the error message "There is a problem with the entry. The accrual choice is not valid. Type Start, Prorated, or End." when I attempt to pull a select few subschedules into my master schedule.  The subschedules that are resulting in this error do not have costs or resources assigned as far as I can tell.  I am using Project 2010.  Does anyone know of a solution?  I've reinstalled Project, but it did not help.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Chris,

You're welcome. The error message is something I might expect to see if there were an issue with a fixed cost entry. You mentioned you were completely sure whether the subproject files had cost or resources assigned. It should be pretty obvious. Open each subproject and display the Cost field and Resource Names field. While you at it you might also wan to display the Fixed Cost field.

As I mentioned, it's possible one or more of you files is corrupt. Open each subproject and save as XML. Then re-open into Project. Now try to build a new master with those "cleaned" files.

John

Answer 2

Chris,

That's very interesting. But my question is, how did the fixed cost accrual get skewed. Regardless of whether a fixed cost is attached to a task or not, the Fixed Cost Accrual field will be either, Start (1), Prorated (3), or End (2). A zero in that field would seem to indicate a corrupt file, which saving to XML and re-opening should have cleared. But I guess that corruption-clearing technique doesn't always work.

Anyway, you solved your own problem. give yourself the credit for the answer.

John

Answer 3

John,

I think we may have solved the problem.

I verified that there are no costs or resources assigned.  Then, I saved each project as XML.  When I imported the XML files into Project, I was still getting an error. 

So I took a look at the "code" in Notepad and tried a few different things.  Ultimately, I changed all occurances of "<fixedcostaccrual>0</fixedcostaccrual>" to "<fixedcostaccrual>3</fixedcostaccrual>".  This seems to have worked for now, as I am able to import the new Project files as subprojects without getting the error.

Thanks again for your help!

Chris

Answer 4

Thanks for the response John.  

To answer your questions:

- I am using the Subproject function. 

• Yes, each file opens independently without issue.
• Yes, SP1 has already been installed.

I've tried to insert these problem-subprojects in multiple new master projects and continually receive the error, which makes me think that the problem lays within the subprojects.  Is there any option other than to rebuild the subprojects from scratch?

Thanks,

Chris

Answer 5

C T R,

What exactly do you mean by "when I attempt to pull a select few subschedules into my master"? Are you using Project/Insert/Subproject or something else?

Do each of your subproject files open independently without the error message?

Do you have SP1 installed? If not, you can get it at, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ee748587.

Master/subproject structures are prone to corruption if not managed with the utmost discipline. It's possible you have one or more corrupt files.

John