The Actual Work Protected fields show the amount of work that has been reported by assigned resources via Project Web App. The timephased versions of these fields show protected work values distributed over time. As soon as a team member's actual work amounts are accepted by the project manager, they're brought into the project file as read-only, or protected.
There are several categories of Actual Work Protected fields.
Data Type Duration
Actual Work Protected (task field)
Entry Type Calculated
How Calculated When you first create a task, the Actual Work Protected field contains "0 hrs." The team member enters actual work amounts in the Project Web App timesheet. The team member sends the project manager updates for each reporting period. As soon as a team member's actual work amounts are accepted by the project manager, those amounts are locked into the Actual Work Protected field and cannot be edited.
Best Uses Add the Actual Work Protected field to any task sheet view to review or filter the uneditable actual work hours on tasks that have been submitted by team members. This field can be especially useful for billing and accounting purposes for tasks.
Example Sean and Chris have completed the "Develop electrical schematics" task. According to the value shown in the Actual Work Protected field for the task, they worked a total of 80 hours. You're preparing an invoice to your customer, and you use this value as the accurate number of hours worked on this task.
Remarks The server administrator uses Project Web App to set whether your organization uses protected actuals.
Actuals cannot be protected if your team tracks progress by percent complete or actual and remaining work, or if you're not receiving your actuals from Project Web App.
Actual Work Protected (resource field)
Entry Type Calculated
How Calculated The Actual Work Protected field for a resource contains "0 hrs" until the resource starts to submit hours worked on assignments. The resource enters actual work amounts in the Project Web App timesheet. The team member sends the project manager updates for each reporting period. As soon as a team member's actual work amounts are accepted by the project manager, those amounts are locked into the resource's Actual Work Protected field and cannot be edited. Project calculates actual work protected for each resource as the sum of all actual work protected values reported for all assigned tasks.
Best Uses Add the Actual Work Protected field to any resource sheet view to review or filter the total uneditable actual work hours for each resource. This field can be especially useful for billing and accounting purposes for resources.
Example Sean is a drafter loaned to your project from another department. According to the value shown in Sean's Actual Work Protected field, he has worked 80 hours on your project over the past month. You're preparing the chargeback statement for the loaning department, and you use this value as the accurate number of hours worked by this resource.
Remarks The server administrator uses Project Web App to set whether your organization uses protected actuals.
Actuals cannot be protected if your team tracks progress by percent complete or actual and remaining work, or if you're not receiving your actuals from Project Web App.
Actual Work Protected (assignment field)
Entry Type Calculated
How Calculated The Actual Work Protected field for the assignment contains "0 hrs" until the assigned resource starts to submit hours worked for this assignment. The resource enters actual work amounts in the Project Web App timesheet. The resource sends the project manager updates for each reporting period. As soon as a resource's actual work amounts are accepted by the project manager, those amounts are locked into the assignment's Actual Work Protected field and cannot be edited.
Best Uses Add the Actual Work Protected field to the sheet portion of the Task Usage view to review or filter the uneditable actual work hours submitted by resources for assignments on specific tasks. Add this field to the sheet portion of the Resource Usage view to review or filter the uneditable actual work hours for assignments of specific resources. This field can be especially useful for billing and accounting purposes for assignments.
Example Sean has completed his assignment on the "Develop electrical schematics" task. According to the value shown in the Actual Work Protected field for the assignment, he has reported 20 hours of work. You're preparing an invoice to your customer for this assignment, and you use this value as the accurate number of hours worked on this assignment.
Remarks The server administrator uses Project Web App to set whether your organization uses protected actuals.
Actuals cannot be protected if your team tracks progress by percent complete or actual and remaining work, or if you're not receiving your actuals from Project Web App.
Actual Work Protected (task-timephased field)
Entry Type Calculated
How Calculated When you first create a task, the task-timephased Actual Work Protected field contains "0 hrs." The team member enters actual work amounts in the Project Web App timesheet. The team member sends the project manager updates for each reporting period. As soon as a team member's actual work amounts are accepted by the project manager, those amounts are distributed over time in the timephased Actual Work Protected field and cannot be edited.
Best Uses Add the Actual Work Protected field to the timephased portion of the Task Usage view to review the uneditable timephased actual work hours on tasks that have been submitted by team members. This field can be especially useful for seeing the breakdown of task work by time period, such as days, weeks, or months.
Example Sean and Chris have completed the "Develop electrical schematics" task. By reviewing the timephased Actual Work Protected field for the task in the Task Usage view, you can see that over the past two weeks, collectively they have worked a total of 80 hours. You're preparing an invoice to your customer which covers the last two weeks of work, and you use this value as the accurate number of hours worked on this task.
Remarks The server administrator uses Project Web App to set whether your organization uses protected actuals.
Actuals cannot be protected if your team tracks progress by percent complete or actual and remaining work, or if you're not receiving your actuals from Project Web App.
Actual Work Protected (resource-timephased field)
Entry Type Calculated
How Calculated The resource-timephased Actual Work Protected field contains "0 hrs" until the resource starts to submit hours worked on assignments. The resource enters actual work amounts in the Project Web App timesheet. The resource sends the project manager updates for each reporting period. As soon as the resource's actual work amounts are accepted by the project manager, those amounts are locked into the resource's timephased Actual Work Protected field and cannot be edited. Project calculates timephased actual work protected for each resource as the sum of all actual work protected values reported for all assigned tasks, distributed over a period of time.
Best Uses Add the Actual Work Protected field to the timephased portion of the Resource Usage view to review the uneditable timephased actual work hours for resources. This field can be especially useful for seeing the breakdown of resource work by time period, such as days, weeks, or months. This breakdown is also helpful for resource billing and accounting purposes.
Example Sean is a drafter loaned to your project from another department. According to the values shown in Sean's resource-timephased Actual Work Protected field, he has worked 6 hours per day over the past 2 weeks for all assigned tasks. You're preparing the chargeback statement for the loaning department, and you use these values to help itemize the charges.
Remarks The server administrator uses Project Web App to set whether your organization uses protected actuals.
Actuals cannot be protected if your team tracks progress by percent complete or actual and remaining work, or if you're not receiving your actuals from Project Web App.
Actual Work Protected (assignment-timephased field)
Entry Type Calculated
How Calculated The assignment-timephased Actual Work Protected field contains "0 hrs" until the assigned resource starts to submit hours worked for this assignment. The resource enters actual work amounts in the Project Web App timesheet. The resource sends the project manager updates for each reporting period. As soon as a resource's actual work amounts are accepted by the project manager, those amounts are distributed over time into the assignment's timephased Actual Work Protected field and cannot be edited.
Best Uses Add the Actual Work Protected field to the timephased portion of the Task Usage or Resource Usage view to review the uneditable timephased actual work hours on assignments as submitted by resources. This field can be especially useful for seeing the breakdown of assignment work by time period, such as days, weeks, or months.
Example Sean has completed his assignment on the "Develop electrical schematics" task. By reviewing the timephased Actual Work Protected field for the task in the Task Usage view, you can see the number of hours he has worked on the assignment for the past two weeks. You're preparing an invoice to your customer which covers the last two weeks of work, and you use these values to itemize the charges.
Remarks The server administrator uses Project Web App to set whether your organization uses protected actuals.
Actuals cannot be protected if your team tracks progress by percent complete or actual and remaining work, or if you're not receiving your actuals from Project Web App.