Re: assign fix cost to a task to be paid in specific periods

Generally speaking you can't really do this in Project, mainly because it's not a cash accounting application and won't replace your regular accounting software. It's not tracking the dates you make your cash expenditures, instead it's tracking the the distribution of your obligation to pay them over the duration of the project and in the vast majority of cases you become obligated to pay as the work is done on the task, even for fixed costs. Project doesn't know or care when you actually cut the cheques because it's not tracking your expenditures or cash flow, it's tracking your cost accrual and that's not the same thing. You might have to pay for something in advance, for example, but until you use it up in the task that requires it, (theoretically) you can return it and get your money back. You haven't really spent the money until you can no longer get it back. Similarly, if your fixed cost is a night in a hotel room, you have spent the money when you sleep in the room even if you don't actually move the cash out of your bank account until after the credit card bill arrives. Your labour cost is "spent" as the resource does the work - you may or not pay him as you go but your obligation to pay him hits your accounts as the work progresses - you can't canel the task and cancel the pay you own him once he's done it. You can cobble together a workaround using milestones as Dave suggested but I've never been happy with that approach as it moves the costs out of the tasks that actually generate them and attributes them to "pseudo-tasks." Do that and you completely blow the accuracy of your cost estimates, in many cases doubling them, as well as your ability to track progress through earned value metrics.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs


"plainclothman" <plainclothman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:8ABEEFA5-188A-4868-9442-346BB6A07CBB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi
I want to assign fix cost to a task .as an example 10% of the amount should
be paid at the task start date , 10% should be paid at task end date and 80%
of the amount after 3 month of the task end date. Please help me in this
regard.

.

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