Timescales: Please can we have the option to customise in Microsoft Project desktop application

wah 

Interesting you brought up the issue of accounting months, I was just relating to another user about needing to manipulate Project data to meet business needs.

Project has never supported scheduling by accounting months which is unfortunate. To get around this "shortcoming" I've written a couple of macros over the years that took Project data, converted it as necessary and dumped it into Excel in accounting month format.

Granted, that approach doesn't schedule in accounting months, it simply reports in accounting months. However, normally scheduling is independent of time period definitions. Oh, an hour is an hour, a day is a day, and a week is a week but when it comes to months, Project only allows one definition for a "month" but calendar months vary throughout a year. That's one good reason for avoiding task durations as monthly periods.

The point is, scheduling is done by time periods consistent with expected performance to complete a task and that is how Project was designed and how it works. Accounting is a separate activity to scheduling, it "accounts", normally for cost data, how much activity occurred or how much money was spent during an arbitrary period of time (e.g. accounting period). A project manager does not "schedule" things in accounting periods, but he/she may need to report in accounting periods.

My understanding is that Project Server and Project Online do support reporting in accounting months or at least some form of accounting months. However, if you need company specific accounting month reporting that can be customized, in my opinion VBA is the best option.

As far as requesting more accounting month flexibility for Project, I suggest you submit your request to the Project UserVoice channel at:

https://microsoftproject.uservoice.com/forums/914203-project-for-the-web 

John