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RobertOrnelas's avatar
RobertOrnelas
Iron Contributor
Jan 04, 2024

What's in store for Planner?

I know that big changes are coming to Planner in Spring of 2024 (hopefully), but what can I do to get ready?  I need the reporting capability of MS Project Desktop, but I would like the updating features that may eventually be possible through MS Teams.

  • Will I ever be able to link a Project task to a Planner task, or just an entire Planner plan?
  • Will I ever be able to update % complete, or just "In Progress"?
  • Will I ever be able to update Actual Work (hours) from Planner to Project?
  • Will I ever be able to copy a large number of tasks from MS Project and paste them into Planner?  (Paste and link at he same time would be awesome)

If these features are not even on the roadmap, I don't see much use in waiting around.  I may be better off just using spreadsheets and triple-entering all my data.  Where is the best place to ask these questions, since the update has not been released yet?  I've been waiting for this update for almost a year now, and I'm afraid to implement a workflow that will soon be obsolete.

  • Robert --

     

    I regret to tell you that the answer is "No" to each of your questions.  If you need the reporting capabilities of the Microsoft Project desktop application, why don't you use this application instead of Planner?  And if you are using the Microsoft Project desktop application, capture task progress in a project team meeting and enter it manually in your project schedule.  Believe me, triple-entering information in Excel is a waste of time, in my opinion anyway.  Just a thought.  Perhaps the others in this forum will have some ideas for you.

  • Robert --

     

    I regret to tell you that the answer is "No" to each of your questions.  If you need the reporting capabilities of the Microsoft Project desktop application, why don't you use this application instead of Planner?  And if you are using the Microsoft Project desktop application, capture task progress in a project team meeting and enter it manually in your project schedule.  Believe me, triple-entering information in Excel is a waste of time, in my opinion anyway.  Just a thought.  Perhaps the others in this forum will have some ideas for you.

    • RobertOrnelas's avatar
      RobertOrnelas
      Iron Contributor

      Thanks, I need to get the information into a database, and I don't want everyone entering their information directly into the database, so that's where the spreadsheets come in.  I plan to automate the whole process, but with such big changes on the horizon for Planner/ToDo/PWA/PFW, I don't want to roll something out and have it suddenly be obsolete or improved upon with new functionality.  Thank you for your help.  At least I have a direction to go now.

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