Re: Cost firm committments

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Thanks again, John.
I will try your approach, but still not sure. Correct me if I am wrong.
Say I have 200 construction tasks with 3- 4 resources assigned. To track the
cost of each resource or allocate them separately per your rec. I will have
600-800 tasks.
Do I have to create a task for "Rental of Trailer for Temp Office" or i
could have Trailer as a resource and add it to Inderect
Cost/ConstrManagment/Temp Office Spase with other resources such as:
Utilities, Telephone contract, Furniture, Maintenance Lbr.
Same would apply for all dirrect cost of the project.

Thanks,

Just trying to work my way thru. As I said the task for me is to try to
eliminate the use of excell sheets to do the project progress and keep bunch
of project data duplicating MSP.


"John" wrote:

In article <B1202718-4A61-4C75-B247-E6B07F2C8D8A@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
YLE <YLE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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

Yakov,
A task is a task....perhaps. I guess it is personal preference whether
to break out various elements of task cost (i.e. labor versus
non-labor). For example, maybe I'm scheduling something to be built. The
labor part of the task may start earlier to do setup, prep, etc. The
material part of the task isn't really needed until the assembly starts.
I prefer to break out the elements for greater ease of tracking.

I thought I already gave you a path - use a task view with a custom cost
field rolled up. What doesn't that do for you?

John

"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
resource’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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