Re: Cost firm committments

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Point of clarification reuqest, please. What is a "committed cost" and what distinguishes it from the other costs? In my everyday language thinking, if Joe is scheduled to spend 3 days waxing widgets, I'm committed to pay him once he's done the work and I've got to purchase the materials used. But the amount I'm committed to pay is not just a portion of the total salary he's owed, it's the entire amount. And I'm also committed to pay for all the materials that were used up. If he doesn't do the work, his salary costs our project budget nothing at all (though it may cost my firm money, but that's not the same thing as the direct costs of doing our specific project) nor have we spent anything directly for materials on that now non-task so nothing is committed.
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Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs



"YLE" <YLE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:B1202718-4A61-4C75-B247-E6B07F2C8D8A@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi John and thanks,

I understood that in case of material resource hrs is actually units. Having
all material resources ( at least committed cost related) as separate task is
not the optimal choise. Actually this is what I am trying to avoid - i tell
people that task is a task, and resource is resource. Unless it is just
natural that one resource per task, than no need to separate them.
I would not mind to see some help using VBA. I do have a limited expirience
with it in Access and we do have professionals around. So if you have
something in mind, pls let me know.
I also try to simplify the process. I could identify committed cost thru
resource and by separate resource group. It looks like a real life case -
since committed cost is usually PO based and same is applied to resource. I
guess the question now is to track it in task view and see the committed cost
in the same views and reports with baseline budget, actual costs and progress
reports.
I will try to work something out today but if you see the clear path pls let
me know.

Thanks for your help,

Yakov

"John" wrote:

In article <0337CCAC-2048-4FB8-AEB9-DD8AA6C589A1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
YLE <YLE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi John,
>
> What I would like to do is to have a task w labor and mtl resource > assigned.
> Task cost is mtl rate * hrs + lbr rate * hrs. So MSP will track this > cost for
> me with actuals entered manualy or imported from other aplication. Same > time
> I would like to track in this case cost of mtl separately as committed > cost.
> But not all tasks in the project will have mtl as commited cost, only > some of
> them and not every mtl resource constitute committed cost. What I did > is
> created cost1 field and wanted to enter the value in this field per > resource
> if resource cost is commited cost. I was using task usage and/or > resource
> usage views. But by doing so I could never get this cost summarized at > task
> level. Why? BaseCost and Cost work this way?
> The purpose of this is to know what portion of the budget is committed
> amount and track it separately.
> Just trying to eliminated bunch of different spreadsheets and have MSP > to do
> the most of the work.
>
> Thanks again,
> Yakov

Yakov,
One clarification to the way you have described total task cost.
Material resources are not normally based on rate times hours. Instead
they normally take the form of so much material per unit of usage for
consumed resources or so much cost per period as in cost/use (e.g.
rented). And yes, gasoline for instance might be a resource that is
indeed used at an hourly rate (e.g. generator) but I just wanted to
clarify that when a resource is entered as a material type on the
resource *** the Std. Rate field loses its "per hour" dimension - it
becomes a cost/unit. A fine point perhaps, but sometimes the fine points
become very important.

Now on to your question. First of all, let me refer you to FAQ 37 -
Custom fields in tables on our MVP website at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm
You also might want to take a look at my response to a post by Dann in
this newsgroup 2/4/06 titled: "Filtering tasks in resource usage view
(report)". I stumbled a bit in my original reply but the basics are
correct.

With reference to the Usage views. If you display the Cost1 field what
you are seeing is the Resource Cost1 (or Task Cost1) on resource or task
rows and Assignment Cost1 on assignment rows. Custom formulas only apply
to Task or Resource data - there is no provision for creating assignment
formulas other than through VBA.

Baseline Cost and Cost are "basic" fields of Project and as such, they
have features that aren't necessarily available for custom fields. Yes,
custom fields can be summed up but only in their "native" field type
(i.e. task or resource).

So how do you accomplish what you want? First of all, when showing
material resources I always allocate a separate task line so labor and
material are handled separately. This isn't necessary of course, but
sometimes it makes it easier to do special things like filtering or
similar. If you want to use Cost1 to designate selected material
resources as committed (and you don't want to use VBA), then don't try
to use either Usage view. Instead, use a task view (e.g. Gantt Chart)
and use the sum option when creating your formula for Task Cost1.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP
>
> "John" wrote:
>
> > In article <C66A2E93-F3C9-495C-9D53-35C34DB3BF1E@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> > YLE <YLE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I heard already reading thru the posted messages that MSP is not > > > the cost
> > > managing application but still decided to ask. I was asked to > > > investigate
> > > the
> > > possibility to use MSP to track Project Commitments. The amounts > > > that are
> > > committed to be spent (as part of the base line cost). For example
> > > Material
> > > Order contracts. It will be paid according to the set up plan and > > > project
> > > development. I need to have ability to allocate the portion of the
> > > resourceÃf¢ââ?s‰â?z¢s
> > > work/cost as committed amount and possibly track them separately. > > > Actual
> > > will
> > > be updated manually against committed and additional (non-committed
> > > cost). I
> > > believe I could do it thru custom cost fields but only at the task > > > level
> > > ignoring resources assigned to the task. For example the task with
> > > assigned
> > > labor and material where material is committed amount and I have to > > > track
> > > it
> > > separately. Any suggestions???
> > >
> > > Thanks for the help in advance
> >
> > YLE,
> > What you have read is correct, Project is not intended to be a > > financial
> > accounting application. It certainly can track costs associated with > > a
> > schedule but those costs rarely make up the whole financial picture.
> >
> > When you talk about committed costs "as part of the base line cost" > > it
> > sounds like you are really talking about that part of the project > > budget
> > that has been allocated to tasks in the plan. What specifically do > > you
> > mean by having "the ability to allocate the portion of the resource's
> > work/cost as committed amount"? Is the original cost (i.e. baseline
> > cost) allocated to the task considered committed? If so, then perhaps
> > you don't need any special custom fields, but can make use of > > Project's
> > built-in earned value fields.
> >
> > John
> > Project MVP
> >


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