Hi Cassie,
Thank you for reaching out!
Great question! This is likely related to** Actual Effort Updated from Timesheet setting **being set to true for some of your work items while false for others. Once this setting in on, the system expects the Actual Effort to be updated from timesheet and allows users that do not have access to timesheet to report %Complete and Remaining Effort via the Update Progress Email.
See these articles for more info:
Reporting Progress: http://usermanual.clarizen.com/4-1-7-reporting-progress$Updating%20Progress%20Report%20via%20Email
Time-report settings: http://usermanual.clarizen.com/4-3-7-4-time-report-settings
For further clarification, please hop on our daily Q&A webinar (see the link-> http://www.clarizen.com/resources/online-demo.html#second ).These are great resources for free consulting with our Customer Success Managers and visual answers to your questions. We will be able to discuss your use case and suggest best practice advice accordingly.
All the best,
Diana