Cost Calculations are off

[lmoritz]

The costs were not updating correctly within MSProject when I changed
resource allocations.

I then did an Assignment export out of Project with Duration, Units,
Task and Resource names. I did a calculation of Duration*Unit =
Time... I then did Time*Rate = Cost.

My calculations in excel using the above formula's did not match what
Project had. Most of them were correct but when I add Work to the
export and did it again I noticed that my Time (Duration*Unit)
calculation did NOT match the Work calculation of MS Project.

I am still off somewhere else as well but what would cause this
difference? Is there a bug in Project? All of the Task Types are set
the same.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Lara


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[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Do you have more than one resource on the task?
(Resources don't necessarily work simultaneously; then W=D*U formula does
not hold on task level, only on assignment level)
Is work linearly spread over the task? Check Task Usage view

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[lmoritz]

Thank you Jan for taking the time to respond to my post.

I looked at that and that seems not to be the case. I am attaching two
..jpgs to show you what I mean.

The excel sheet shows you four resources on one task allocated
differently (units are different). Two of them are calculated
correctly and the other two are not. I also am showing the same four
task/resources in the Task view.

Any ideas at all would be great.

I even tried to do a recalculation and that did not work.

I am hoping it is a problem in my formula posted earlier and not an
issue with project itself.

Please let me know Jan!

Lara

 

[lmoritz]

I also took the total task which was 10 days (or 80 hours). I then too
the units allocated which were for Resource 1= 100%, Resource 2 = 30%
Resource 3 = 30% and Resource 4 = 10% which totals 1.7.

So I took 80 hours * 1.7 and got a total of 136 hours for that task.

So in my excel sheet it shows:

Resource 1 has a total of 80 hours
Resource 2 has a total of 24 hours
Resource 3 has a total of 24 hours
Resource 4 has a total of 8 hours

This totals to 136

In Project on the view task sheet it shows:
Resource 1 has a total of 80 hours
Resource 2 has a total of 16 hours
Resource 3 has a total of 12 hours
Resource 4 has a total of 8 hours

This totals to 116. As you can see...project appears to be off o
Resource 2 and 3....

Or am I seeing something wrong

 

[JulieS]

Hello Lara,

As Jan noted, the assignment units for a resource to a task is the
peak assignment units. It's possible that the assignment work has
been contoured and resource 2 and 3 are not working at 30% assignment
unit on every day. Although you show the *task* start and finish in
your spread sheet it is also very possible to have a resource's
*assignment* start and finish be different than the task's start and
finish.

As Jan noted, take a look at your task in the Task Usage view to be
able to see the assignment information for each of your resource
assignments.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[lmoritz]

Hi Julie -

Thank you for responding. My last post did show what the task usag
was in the task view. That is where the hours seem to be off.

In my mind it should total to 136 hours worked over all the assignment
for that task but it is only showing 116....

Is there something else I can check besides the task view to help m
find out why Project is only assigning 116 hours

 

[JulieS]

Hello Lara,

I think we are talking a bit at cross purposes.

I am specifically referring to the Task Usage View (see the View
menu). In the timescaled portion (right side) of the task usage view,
you can see work hours per day on each assignment. The assignment
unit you see in the left side of the Task Usage View or in the Gantt
chart view is the resource's highest assignment unit to that task and
the assignment % may not be the same throughout the entire assignment.
The resource may have zero hours on some days or may have fewer hours
on some selected days than Duration * Assignment Units would indicate.

The resource may also not be starting his/her work on the start date
of the task or may be finishing his/her work before the finish date of
the task. The Duration is the span from start to finish of the
*task* -- but not necessarily each assignment. In the Task Usage View
the start and finish of each task appears as does the start and finish
of each assignment.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[lmoritz]

Hi Julie - is there any chance I could take this off the forum wit
you...maybe do a webex? If that is crossing the forum help line the
just let me know and that is fine. I am going to attempt to upload
view of the task view here for the particular example I gave in my las
post.

The numbers from project are coming out of the Task View. That is m
confusion. The task view in project is only showing a total of 11
hours worth of work.

Logically I am coming up with 136 hours. (10 days which is equal to 8
hours with 1.7 assignment allocation should be a total of 136 hours)
See my detail in my last post.

This is scary because we have to give the client the numbers today an
with my calculations off I do not know which numbers to believe

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[JulieS]

Hi Lara,

Sorry, I can't do a webex meeting as I'm working on too many things
today. If you display the Task Usage view what do you see on the
right side for work day by day for the two resources with fewer hours
than you expected?

I'm confused by your reference to "task view" there are many task
views in Project, just none called "task view".

In the Task Usage view, do the start and finish dates for the
assignments (italic line underneath the name of the task) match the
start and finish dates for the task?

Try adding the Peak Units field to the timescaled (right side) of the
Task Usage view. (Format > Detail Styles and pick the Peak Units
field). I am willing to bet the peak units is not 30% for everyday.

If you'd like, zip the file and send it to me by email. My address is
prjng [at] maine.rr.com. Let me know which tasks IDs you are
referring to.

convert the [at] to @.

Julie

 

[JulieS]

Hello Lara,

I've taken a look at the most recent posting you did to the techareana
site. The task usage view shows the two resources (Ravi & Vasu) are
not working the entire duration of the task. This is why multiplying
the *task* duration by 1.7 does not equate to the total amount of work
scheduled -- the assignments for both resources do not span the entire
duration. The other two resources' work spans the entire duration. My
assumption on how the data got entered was someone assigned Ravi at
30% and manually entered 16 hours of work. They also manually entered
30% assignment and work for Vasu as well.

As far as which you should believe -- I can't say. I must assume that
the hours entered into project were entered that way for a reason.
I'd go back and check with the two resources and see if they believe
they have 16 hours and 12 hours of work on the task or 24.

Julie

 

[lmoritz]

hi Julie - I just sent you an email. Thank you so much for you
patience. Lar

 

[lmoritz]

We have figured things out and it looks like manual entry is the
culprit. Thank you very much to Julie and also to Jan in helping me
solve this problem.

 

[JulieS]

No trouble Lara. Glad to have helped and thanks for the feedback.

Julie