Cost Rates / Enterprise Custom Fields

D

David F-H

I have a question about the best approach to handle multiple cost rates for a
project. I understand that MS Project has 5 cost rate tables (A, B, C, D &
E) and that each of these can have effective date ranges within them.
However, we need more than 5 different cost rates to cover the same period
for team members, as each project that a team member works on may have
separately negotiated rates with our clients, and they may also be in
different currencies.
My solution has been to create an enterprise task custom variable
(tskCostRate) that must be set for each assignment within the project (using
Task Usage view and insert tskCostRate field). However, my understanding is
that they would not be reflected as costs in standard MS Project reporting,
and I'm also worried about possible future integration with Portfolio Server.
We do extract our own reports from the Reporting database, however, which I
have coded to recognise these fields.
My question is (before I proceed to far down this path) whether this is the
best approach, or is there a better method that I have missed?
 
R

Rod Gill

Implementing Project Server is all about People-Process-Tools. The tool only
provides 5 rates, fixed for Enterprise resources across all projects. A
solution I have implemented at one site is that sales people are instructed
to offer only one of 4 rates (rate 5 is for internal costs so margins can be
calculated. If the sales person really needs more flexibility than this,
then a higher rate is chosen and some hours given away free. The idea is
that a higher rate is therefore accepted by the client and all extra work
will therefore be at this higher rate.

--

Rod Gill
Project MVP

Project VBA Book, for details visit:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

NEW!! Web based VBA training course delivered by me. For details visit:
http://projectservertraining.com/learning/index.aspx
 

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