This article belongs to a series of articles about units percent complete fields of Primavera P6.
As explained in the previous article on the Duration % Complete, there are three percent complete fields for each activity:
- Duration % Complete
- Units % Complete
- Physical % Complete.
We’ve already covered Duration % Complete and Schedule % Complete. This post will explore Units % Complete and future posts will continue to cover Physical % Complete, Activity % Complete and finally, Performance % Complete.
The Concept of Units
Each assigned resource and assigned expense creates units in Primavera P6. The number of units depend on duration of the activity and your current settings. However, Units % Complete is only depended on labor and nonlabor units; material units and expense units are not used in calculating Units % Complete.
Assignments which create units:
- Resource assignments
- Labor Resources – are used to calculate Units % Complete
- Nonlabor Resources – are used to calculate Units % Complete
- Material Resources – are not used to calculate Units % Complete
- Expense assignments – are not used to calculate Units % Complete
If you are familiar with the Microsoft Project, it might help to say that P6’s units are similar to MSP’s work, and P6’s Units % Complete is similar to MSP’s % Work Complete.
The Formula Used for Units % Complete
The Primavera P6 uses a simple and intuitive formula for Units % Complete of Activities with labor or non-labor assignments:
[Units % Complete] = [Actual Units] / ([Actual Units] + [Remaining Units] )
Actual units is the sum of the labor units and nonlabor units, and remaining units is equal to the sum of the remaining labor units and remaining nonlabor units.
It simply shows that how much of the units are actualized so far. The following figure shows a sample calculation.
As you can see in the previous figure, when the units are not distributed uniformly, the resulting Units % Complete will not be equal to the ratio of the actual duration to the total duration.
The next animated figure shows the values of a sample activity in different times. We assume that the amount of the actual units in each period is equal to the planned value of that period.
However, the above assumption is only for demonstration purposes and actual values are not usually equal to the planned values in the real world and even the At Completion Duration might change regularly.
The following figure shows a sample executing which does not follow the plan. The redistribution of the units is based on an imaginary tracking method and you should not worry about that; the only purpose of this figure is to show the calculation of Units % Complete with changing values.
Units % Complete VS. Duration % Complete
There are two major differences between Units % Complete and Duration % Complete:
- When units are not distributed uniformly, the Units % Complete will not be uniform relative to the time passed. The next figure compares these two percent complete types in a sample activity.
- Duration % Complete is calculated by the Original Duration, which can be different from At Completion Duration (see previous article on Duration Percent Complete for more information), but the Units % Complete is calculated by the current and At Completion values. Because of this, even if you have uniform units, the Units % Complete might not be equal to the Duration % Complete. If your units are uniform and you keep your Original Duration equal to the At Completion Duration, then your Duration % Complete and Units % Complete would be the same.
Thus, the Duration % Complete is suitable for uniform and less-complicated work. Usually the more you decompose your activities, the less complicated they will be. You also need resource allocations to use Units % Complete.
Units % Complete for WBS Elements
The previous explanations were for activities’ Units % Complete. This field is calculated in the same way for WBS Elements. However, I recommend you set appropriate percent complete types and Earned Value settings and then use Performance % Complete for the WBS Elements instead of Units % Complete and Duration % Complete.
Samples
Now that you know the formula behind the Units % Complete, let’s have a final review by looking at some sample screenshots of the Primavera P6.
This plan has only one activity. This activity has three resources, two labor and one nonlabor resource. Each assignment has 32 units. One assignment’s curve is “Early Peak”, another is “At Start” and the third one’s curve field is empty, which is equal to uniform distribution.
Let’s open the Activity Usage Spreadsheet in bottom:
Here we can see the amount of units planned for each period. Now assume that one day is passed according to plan. I check the Actual Start checkbox of the activity, reschedule it for the second day, and input 3 days for the Remaining Duration. This would be the result:
As you can see, we have some actual units in the first day and some remaining units in the remaining three days. I’ll calculate the parameters based on the data from the above figure:
Actual Units = 38.4h+8.0h = 46.4h
Remaining Units = 14.9h+8.0h+8.0h+8.0h+2.7h+8.0h = 49.6h
Units % Complete = 46.4h / (46.4h+49.6h) = 48.33%
Now let’s put the Gantt chart away and check the Units % Complete field in the table:
The current Units Percent Complete is, as we calculated before, 48.33%, which is much higher than the current Duration % Complete (25%). That’s because our units were not uniform. We can check the units’ distribution in the Activity Usage Profile view:
The above figure shows the distribution of the Labor units. Nonlabor units are shown in the next figure:
Aggregation of these two profiles is still front loaded, which causes the Units % Complete to have a higher value in the first day.
Summary
The Units % Complete is one of the three types of activity progress fields, besides Duration % Complete and Physical % Complete. You should select suitable percent complete type of each activity and its value will be reflected in Activity % Complete. This value will be aggregated based on many settings and preferences and shape the final output: the Performance % Complete. Performance % Complete is the final field, used for actual progress.
Stay tuned for the next article on Physical % Complete.
A few years ago I’d have to pay somenoe for this information.
This is very useful for a beginner like me… I am very interested in growing my ideas and knowledge in planning field. This article is really great and help me lot…. thank you..
Thank you Mr.Nader Khorrami Rad.
you’re welcome Arun.
TLH: Oh right. I completely forgot about that. Editing the review now. Well in that case, Riordan just failed to give Hazel and Frank enough of a “voice” to make them distinctive. Leo being Sammy’s grr/gsonndreat-gaandson is definitely possible, though not exactly something I’d welcome. However, I’d prefer this scenario over Leo being a direct reincarnation of Sammy (which also explains why Leo and Sammy look exactly alike.)
THNAK YOU VERY MUCH MR NADER KHORRAMI RAD. IT IS REALLY A GREAT CONTRIBUTION YOU ARE MAKING IN EDUCATING AND GUIDING THE PEOPLE LIKE ME. MAY GOD SHOWER HIS BLESSINGS ON YOU.
Could you please give us a pdf copy of this great work of yours. It would be of great help for an aspiring planner like me. Your page is awesome. I owe you a lot for everything that you do and the rest of people who made this page a great one for planners around the world.
Warren
Dear Warren,
That’s actually up to PlannerTuts administrators. However, I’m not sure that those GIF animations will work properly in a PDF file.
How can I say what you have accomplished in these series of articles…This is the greast single challenge never seen before in PM/CM area. I am certain that your reputation and contribution will be long remembered and will impact thousands of Primavera admirers, leading you to great sucess in your profession.
Your Comments
Good morning
Sr. Nader
When your book will be translate portuguese?
tanks
Marcos
Good day Mr.Nader Khorrami Rad,
i wish i could take the screen shot the send it but, the option is not here, anyway when you take the resource usage spread sheet, you can get unit %complete and in this it actually shows the progress of material resources while the same is not reflected in the layout, am not sure why, i hope you can highlight the difference between these two unit % complete
Mr Nader and the Administrators of Plannertuts,
Thanks for all your articles and sharing them in the public domain. I can safely say your articles have resolved most of the queries I have faced in using P6. Even now, when ever I face any issue, this is the first website that I look up at. At the very least, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation for your fabulous work.
Thank you gentlemen.
Cheers.
Pandurang – thank you for being a reader! We love the feedback – thanks!
Excellent Explanation, & Thanks for Very Very Useful Information
Regards
Ram
Hallo..
Can You Help Me?
I have problem to make (Budegeted Unit, Remaining Unit,Actually Regulary Unit) From primavera 6 about resources.
Please.. Help Me…
Good day!
im just new in using p6. im currently holding a schedule now which is big one too much activity and resources involve. how do i update the Labor and nonlabor units as well as the material?
thanks
aris
Thanks for the tutorial. I like using Units percent complete except that I’m unable to display partial Units Percent Complete on the Gantt chart. If it’s 100% complete, the bar appears…but not if it’s less than 100%…I’ve tried various filters and customisations…but no luck. I’d appreciate any tips on why this is happening.
Nice Article Sir
Nice info with good definition Can P6 be interfaced to an Asset Management system & will it prepare the optimum project scheduling with in a budget??
any solutions
Primavera Course
hi,
I have a big project with assigned resources of labor type with price/unit=0 and one non labor named cost with price/unit=1 for only construction activities, the update of the project is made in duration type.
My question is, why every time i update the schedule the actual cost isn’t equal the earned cost even if auto compute cost box checked and so i have to change the actual cost manually in addition i can not find in the three cases of global change (activities, resource assignments and expenses) to apply an equation: actual cost =earned cost value to avoid the manual way.
Please, kindly i require your help
Hi, Hope you have already solved this issue but please note that the only way to record actual cost against activity that has a resource with Price/Unit as 0, is manual. For costs to be recorded as actuals, price/unit should have a value e.g. 1/d, 1/h, etc. How exactly are you updating your project? . Do you use “Apply Actuals” or “Update Progress” or simply manually add the actual costs? have you got “calculate costs from units” checked? is “auto compute actuals” checked at activity level (add a column and check)? if
Hi,
I am asking if you can help. The Units % doesn’t match the actual unit on P6.
How can I resolve this matter?