A common stumbling block in TILOS training — and the exact settings you need to check before touching the progress update dialog.
VA
Virgil Andrei PMP®
Senior Planning Engineer & TILOS Trainer
7 min read
During a recent TILOS training session, we hit a wall that I see trip up almost every group: we’d dutifully ticked the progress checkboxes on activities, chosen Split Progress as the update method, run the update — and the resource quantities sat there, completely unchanged. No actual quantities updated. No histogram shift. Nothing.
It looks like a bug. It isn’t. It’s a configuration choice TILOS makes you set explicitly, and once you understand the logic behind it, it makes complete sense. Let me walk through exactly what is happening and how to fix it.
How TILOS Progress Update Works (the short version)
TILOS gives you three progress methods, each behaving differently when you hit the Update Progress button:
| Method | What TILOS does to the activity | Resources auto-update? |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage Complete | Records a % done figure; shifts the remaining duration | Needs setting |
| Split Progress | Physically splits the activity at the data date into a done part and a remaining part | Not automatic |
| Actual Dates (start/finish) | Moves the activity bar; no split | Needs setting |
The key word in the middle row is splits. TILOS literally divides your activity bar into two separate segments at the data date. The left segment is complete. The right segment is what remains. This is visually clean and very powerful — but it creates a problem for resources.
The Root Cause: Resources Are Assigned to the Original Activity, Not the Split
When TILOS splits an activity, your resource assignments remain on the original, pre-split definition. TILOS does not automatically know how much of a resource was consumed by the left segment versus what should remain for the right segment. Should it split proportionally by time? By distance? By a custom curve you set? It cannot guess — so it does nothing until you tell it.
⚠ The exact issue from the training room
Activities marked for progress update ✓ and the Split Progress method selected ✓ — but after running the update, the resource histogram is completely unchanged. This is expected TILOS behaviour. Resources require a separate configuration step to follow progress, and Split Progress requires that step more explicitly than any other method.
The Two-Part Fix
There are two things you need to set. Both are required. Skipping either one and the resources stay frozen.
Part 1 — Enable “Automatic Update” on the Resource Assignment
In the activity’s resource dialog, each resource assignment has a flag labelled Automatic (or Auto Update depending on your TILOS version). This tells TILOS: “when this activity’s progress changes, recalculate my quantity to match.”
- 1Open the activity propertiesDouble-click the activity in the Time-Location view to open its property dialog.
- 2Navigate to the Resources tabFind the tab labelled
ResourcesorResource Allocation. - 3Tick “Automatic” for each resourceFor every resource row assigned to this activity, tick the
Automaticcheckbox. Without this, the resource quantity is treated as a fixed, manually managed figure — TILOS will never touch it. - 4Confirm the quantity type is set to “Total” or “Rate”Resources set as a fixed total with no automatic flag behave as locked values. A rate-based resource (
units/dayorunits/km) calculates from the activity duration/distance and responds naturally to progress once Automatic is enabled.
Part 2 — Set the Progress Update Method in the Resource Dialog
Even with Automatic ticked, TILOS needs to know how to redistribute the quantity across the split. This setting lives inside the resource assignment itself, under a field typically labelled Update Method or Calculation Base.
- 5Set the calculation base to match your progress typeIf you are progressing bydistance(chainage), set it to
Distance. If bytime, set it toDuration. A mismatch here is the second most common cause of resources not updating: TILOS calculates correctly but against the wrong axis. - 6Run Update Progress againGo to
Project → Update Progress, confirm your data date, selectSplit Progressand run. This time, the resource quantities on the completed segment should recalculate. - 7Check the resource histogramOpen the resource histogram view. You should now see two distinct resource segments: actual quantities consumed on the left of the data date, and planned remaining quantities on the right.
💡 Pro tip — set Automatic on the activity template, not per-update
If you are building a new project from scratch, set the Automatic flag on every resource assignment as you create the activities — before any progress update ever runs. This way you never need to remember it during a live update session. For existing projects, you can also set it in bulk through the resource table view by filtering all assignments and editing the Automatic column directly.
Why Split Progress Behaves Differently From Other Methods
With a simple Percentage Complete update, TILOS is only changing a number — it is not restructuring the activity. The resource assignment still covers the whole activity bar, and the Automatic recalculation is straightforward: multiply the total quantity by the progress fraction.
With Split Progress, TILOS creates a genuinely different data structure. The original activity becomes two objects. The resource assignment now has to bridge across that structural split. This is why the Automatic flag is non-negotiable: TILOS needs an explicit instruction to carry the resource logic across the split boundary. Without the flag, it respects the existing assignment as a user-defined, locked value and leaves it alone.
This is actually sensible behaviour — imagine a scenario where a cost has been agreed as a lump sum for a phase, and you do not want the software redistributing it just because progress was recorded. TILOS gives you that control. The trade-off is that you have to explicitly opt in to automatic redistribution.
Checklist Before Every Progress Update Session
✔ Pre-update resource checklist
1. Automatic flag — is it ticked on every resource assignment for activities being progressed?
2. Calculation base — does it match the progress unit (distance or duration)?
3. Resource type — rate-based resources (units/km or units/day) respond more cleanly to Split Progress than fixed-total quantities.
4. Data date — is it correctly set before running the update? The split point is determined by the data date, so a wrong date means a wrong split location.
5. Baseline saved — always save your baseline before the first progress update. Once split, the original plan structure is gone from the live schedule.
What the Resource Histogram Should Show After a Correct Update
After a correctly configured Split Progress update, your resource histogram will have two visually distinct zones:
Left of the data date — actual resource consumption, calculated from the completed portion of the split. These figures represent what has genuinely been used.
Right of the data date — planned remaining resource demand, recalculated from the remaining portion. If the split has created any delay (the activity is running slower than planned), this zone will shift right and you will see the resource demand extend beyond the original planned finish.
If the histogram looks identical before and after the update — same shape, same totals — the Automatic flag is almost certainly missing. That is the first thing to check.
Summary — the three things TILOS needs to update resources on a split
- The activity must be marked for progress update (the checkbox in the update dialog)
- Each resource assignment must have theAutomaticflag enabled (in the resource tab of the activity properties)
- Thecalculation baseon the resource assignment must match the progress unit you are using (distance or duration)
