Assigning costs to various resources and material to one task

[Freeman]

I am a novice user of Project '03. I have a number of tasks and task groups
in my project. For each group I have general material and equipment costs
related to that group. Within the group I have a number of tasks. Each task
has the same basic attributes that I want to track, as far as the associated
costs. Material costs, Labour costs, Equipment costs, and Rental costs.
This is how I currently have it set up:

+Foundation
+Services
+Electrical
Materials
Equipment Rental
Labour
Equipment
+Heating
Materials
Equipment .......

I understand that the lowest level groups are not tasks, but rather
attributes of the above group. I tinkered with setting up Material Resources
on a resource sheet, but I know I am missing out on something here. Any
suggestions anyone??

Thx in advance,
Freeman

 

[John]

I am a novice user of Project '03. I have a number of tasks and task groups
in my project. For each group I have general material and equipment costs
related to that group. Within the group I have a number of tasks. Each task
has the same basic attributes that I want to track, as far as the associated
costs. Material costs, Labour costs, Equipment costs, and Rental costs.
This is how I currently have it set up:

+Foundation
+Services
+Electrical
Materials
Equipment Rental
Labour
Equipment
+Heating
Materials
Equipment .......

I understand that the lowest level groups are not tasks, but rather
attributes of the above group. I tinkered with setting up Material Resources
on a resource sheet, but I know I am missing out on something here. Any
suggestions anyone??

Thx in advance,
Freeman

Freeman,
Thanks for showing your example - its helps us to understand better what
you are trying to do so we can suggest appropriate approaches.

First, the file structure you have is a good start but needs some
refinement. I'm not sure where you got the information that the lowest
level "groups" are not tasks. In fact, they are the only items in the
plan that are actual tasks. They are called performance tasks because
they are where the actual effort is performed to execute the overall
plan. As such, each of your items (Materials, Equipment Rental, etc.)
needs to be expressed in terms of an action verb. For example,
appropriate task names might be "Procure material for foundation
electrical services", "Rent hydraulic cable puller", "Rough in
underground conduit", etc. On the other hand, "Electrical", "Services",
and "Foundation" are all summary levels. Summary levels are normally
expressed in noun form (i.e. no action is taken) because they simply
summarize or group the performance tasks below them in some logical
order.

I personally believe it is a good idea to separate out the various types
of resources as you have (i.e. labor from non-labor and perhaps cost/use
type resources from quantified resources). Labor is easy - individual
(e.g. Joe, Fred, etc.) or group (e.g. journeymen, Apprentices) resources
are identified as Work type resources on the Resource Sheet. They have
an hourly rate and a maximum Unit level (i.e. Joe is only one guy and
can only work at 100% capacity). On the other hand, Materials, Rentals,
Equipment are Material type resources. When designated as such, the Std.
Rate field on the Resource Sheet becomes a cost per some quantity which
is determined when the resource is assigned. Material resources do not
have a maximum units value (quantity is basically unlimited - you buy
what you need). Another way to enter cost for material type resources is
as a Cost/Use. This is often used for rented equipment which is
generally a fixed cost by hour, day, week, etc.

Hopefully this gives you some basic help. I suggest you read more about
resources in the Project Help file. I also recommend a series of Project
lessons and techniques put together by fellow MVP, Mike Glen. You can
access Mike's series by going to:
http://www.mvps.org/project/links.htm

John
Project MVP

 

[Freeman]

Thank you for the reply. I will check out the link and repost if I have more
questions.

 

[John]

Thank you for the reply. I will check out the link and repost if I have more
questions.

Freeman,
You're welcome.
John