Identifying Resource Calendar Exceptions with Project Professional

I delivered a Microsoft Project Professional tips and tricks session a while back, and that may have gotten me thinking about other tricks that I’ve got buried deep in the recesses of presentation topics folder.

This post addresses a question that appears on the Project newsgroup every now and then, i.e. how does the project manager get an easy to use overview of all calendar exceptions for resources assigned to a project.  This technique is applicable to any version of Microsoft Project that I’ve ever worked with – and works equally well with standalone or enterprise files.

First, let’s take a look at how you find and set the calendar exceptions.  Navigate to the resource sheet….

…double click on a resource and select the option to Change Working Time.  This will display the exception screen.

That may be difficult to do for each of the resources in a project schedule – especially because in a Server environment, the Admin may be adding exceptions to the resource pool and neglecting to notify us.  We need a method to generate a single list of all exceptions.

The solution is quite easy.  Simply go to the Project tab and click on the Reports button.

Pick one of the Assignment reports and click on the Edit button.

In the Details dialog box, add the Resource calendar data.  Click OK and then select the report.

…and you have a handy report listing all calendar exceptions: