How to record data entered by a formula when the referenced cell changes

[dubdan]

Hi,

i am working on a Shared workbook that will track time taken to complete tasks.

i have a Status Column - M, i then have a Started at Column - N and a Finished at column - O.

The started/finished at column has a formula that enters a time stamp based on the following statuses - Ongoing/Completed.

=IF(M4="Ongoing",IF(N4="",NOW(),N4),"")

My issue is that once the status has changed from Ongoing to Completed the start time disappears. is there a way (im assuming it will use VBA) to save the data entered into the columns so i can record the time taken to complete the task. id then like to protect the cells from being edited by the operator.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[dubdan]

perfect, thank you again so much

 

[Joe4]

You are welcome!

 

[dubdan]

Worksheet_Change event procedures get really unhappy if you delete rows of data, unless you specifically account for that.
We can add a line of code at the top of our screen to ignore when massive amount of cells are updated at once (like with a deletion), like this:

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)

    Dim rng As Range, cell As Range
   
'   Exit if more than 100 cells updated at once (row deletion)
    If Target.CountLarge > 100 Then Exit Sub
   
'   Set range to watch
    Set rng = Intersect(Columns("M:M"), Target)
   
'   Exit if no cells in watched range updated
    If rng Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
   
'   Loop through updated cells in watched range
    For Each cell In rng
        Application.EnableEvents = False
'       Check to make sure update is row 4 or higher
        If cell.Row >= 4 Then
'           Update appropriate cells
            Select Case Target.Value
                Case "Ongoing"
                    Target.Offset(0, 1) = Now()
                Case "Completed"
                    Target.Offset(0, 2) = Now()
            End Select
        End If
        Application.EnableEvents = True
    Next cell
   
End Sub

Note that because your code errored out mid-stream, events were disabled, and not turned back on. So your code will not run automatically again until you turn events back on.
You can do that by manually running this macro once:

Sub ReEnableEvents()
    Application.EnableEvents = True
End Sub

sorted, thank you so much