Why Does MS Project Not Calculate Upon Opening?

Question

Ver: MS Project Standard 2019

I have a project plan with calculations in it. Every time I open it the calculated values show as #ERROR and I have to click the Calculate button to refresh the values. Also, I do have the Options value of "Calculate project after each edit" set to On.

What do I need to do to have it automatically calculate upon opening the file?

Answer 1

To those who may follow this thread,

PM_Jeff sent me a simple mockup file which I indeed confirmed the strange failure to calculate upon open. This is what I found.

The issue is unrelated to whether the app is Project Standard or Project Professional. Jeff used the Flag1 field instead of the desired Active field, which is not available in the Standard version. The field used in the custom field formula does not matter. Calculation is set to automatic.

I further simplified the file structure to the following. After creating the file, saving and closing, the file was then re-opened with this result: Note the #ERROR on the summary line calculation for the customized Number1 field.

Upon edit or F9 (force calculate), this is the result (i.e. the ERROR resolves)

I then performed the identical test using an earlier version of Project (Project Pro 2010). Upon closing and re-opening the file, the summary line value for the customized Number 1 field is auto-calculated without further operations (i.e. edit or forced calculate). A #ERROR on the customized Number1 field never occurs.

Conclusion: There is a calculation anomaly in current versions of Project for some custom formula configurations. It is not a bug as it does not adversely impact Project's functionality and can easily be resolved with a forced calculation or edit. For users who may consider this unacceptable I suggest you submit a request through Project's feedback portal.

John

Answer 2

Hey John - I'm using MS Project Standard 2019. That column is still Flag1, I just renamed the column title to Active so it made more sense in my plan. I am not able to send you my actual file because it has confidential information but I will mock up a test file and send that over. Really appreciate the help!

Answer 3

PM_Jeff,

No they aren't the same forum. You first posted to the Project Tech community forum, the one where I first responded with some questions and then Ignacio took it from there. That forum is focused on technical questions/issues about Project. This forum is the Project section of the Microsoft Answers forum. It focuses more on general user questions about all the various Project derivations that Microsoft has introduced.

So, back to our story. I'm confused about what you version of Project you have. Way back in the beginning, (i.e. when you first posted to the tech community forum), you talked about "active" tasks and I asked how you defined "active" tasks. Then Ignacio entered the discussion and I bailed out although I did keep tabs on the thread. Further in the thread you mentioned that the Active field was not available to you so you used Text1 instead. Now, in the screen shots you are showing I see the Active field. So "who's on first"?

So. . . in order to further help you, I'd like to see the whole story and perhaps the best way to do that is if you can send me your file. My address is below. I will ask some questions.

John

jmacprojataticlouddotdotcom

(remove obvious redundancies)

Answer 4

Hi John, thanks for your reply. Definitely not trying to go around Ignacio. His formula was exactly what I needed and his replies to my questions have been great. I thought this was just another forum to pose the question. Didn't realize it was the same group.

To answer your questions...

The custom field is the calculation and display of the Task % per Ignacio's post:

When I open my file it displays like this:

After I press Calculate it displays correctly like this:

It's not a big deal as I can easily recalculate each time, but I would of course rather not have to. Thanks to anyone (especially Ignacio!) for entertaining my question.

Answer 5

PM_Jeff,

I followed your post on the Project Tech and I thought Ignacio was handling your issue quite well but okay, I guess we can have a go at it here. For reference, what is the custom field formula that you have? Also, a screen shot of your file with the relevant fields used in the formula would help.

John