Here are a few pointers about MSP and Clarity: Clarity supports all three MSP task types: Fixed Duration, Fixed Units, and Fixed Work - the behavior of projects launched in MSP from Clarity are controlled by MSP and not Clarity (but there are some dependencies on work contour and slight differences between Clarity work contours and MSP work contours. MSP always works under the following equation Work = Units * Duration. Actuals applied to a task in MSP can drive what appears to be odd behavior in a plan. Clarity owns the resources, thus resources must exist in Clarity for a plan to be saved into Clarity. Clarity controls calendars and these calendars are at a resource level (different paradigms of Project Management between Clarity and MSP) Clarity parses the data from each .MPP file into the database records BUT also saves the entire .MPP file. Data is rebuilt in MSP when the .MPP file is launched When MSP is used as a scheduling tool with Clarity, there are rules and one of them is that Clarity "rules": Clarity owns everything, including the schedule. It just allows you to temporarily "borrow" the schedule by downloading it into MSP so that you can make the necessary changes and hand it back; all of this via a Clarity-MSP interface that neither Clarity nor Microsoft are proud of. Interface installation – Follow the interface installation instructions from top to bottom without missing anything. You want to do it right the first time so that you can continue to the "MSP configuration" MSP configuration – Ensure MSP is configured to work with Clarity as per the installation instructions provided by Clarity’s manufacturer. Clarity limits the functionality of MSP. This means that you cannot use MSPs functionality to their full extent when it works in conjunction with Clarity Password protection – Don’t password protect the project in MSP, Clarity does not support it Project save - Don’t use the MSPs File/Save or the File/Save As functions because they don’t save to Clarity Copy/cut and paste – In MSP, we are all used to copy or cut and paste a whole row. Clarity doesn’t like it because each row of the schedule is provided with a unique Clarity ID that cannot be duplicated Resource assignment – Only assign resources to a task in MSP that are already allocated to the project in Clarity first. If you create resources directly into MSP that are not in the Clarity project the project will not be saved back to Clarity Blank task names - Blank task names are not supported in Clarity. They will acquire their Clarity internal ID as the task name upon the save to Clarity Split tasks – Clarity does not support the split task functionality of MSP Terminology – Get the terminology straight. For example, allocation in MSP is always used loosely when talking about both allocation and assignment, however, in Clarity, allocation is when a resource has been added to a project, and assignment is when that resource has been assigned to at least a task in that project Field names – Be aware that some fields in MSP do not share the same name in Clarity. For example, Remaining Work in MSP is called Estimate To Complete (or ETC) in Clarity. You can always rename the MSP column name (a nice feature of MSP) Clarity reserved fields – Clarity has reserved some fields for its exclusive use: Text1 through Text5, Flag1, Resource Name, Initials, Email, Number1, and Number2. Bad things will happen if you use them, for example, Text3 holds Clarity’s unique ID for each task and you can imaging what will happen if this is changed Calendars – Clarity is the source of calendars. Changes made to the calendars in MSP will not be saved to Clarity and will only persist until you close MSP Resource leveling – There is no resource leveling functionality in Clarity similar to MSPs. Continue to perform a manual leveling in MSP for each project; you can try the automatic leveling if you are comfortable with the unexpected results it always give you (in any case, always save a copy of the schedule before trying it) Baseline – Do not baseline in MSP. Clarity owns the project baseline and this is done in Clarity Actuals – Do not manipulate project actuals in MSP. Actuals are entered via Clarity’s timesheet functionality. Otherwise set Track Mode to "None" to change actuals via MSP. It is not recommend to toggle back and forth. Pick on and stick with it. Task completion – If you use MSP to mark tasks as "Complete" remember to change the Remaining Work (ETC in Clarity) to zero. If a task’s Remaining Work Hours or Remaining Work is zero in MSP and the completion is 100%, the complete task must be changed to 100% and the status changed to Complete Save frequently – Frequently, save your plan to Clarity. The more often you save it, the easier it will be to recover if you do something you want to back out of.