costing problem

[deb]

How can I do this?

I need to create a time sheet database linked to cost codes and billing –
got that covered, easy.
What he wants included is a function for progressive costing; i.e. so a
tradesman works on a floor for 6 hours and completes 25% of the floor, i need
to add something in so we can track that the floor is 25% finished @ a cost
of X (for labour) with 75% of the floor remaining and compare that to
budgets. The amount of work done will by based simply on the supervisor
estimating or running tape over it
The complication is that it won’t always be floors (square meters) it might
sometimes be digging holes (cubic meters) or some other unit of measure – he
says “just put a field in where i can nominate the unitâ€, I’ve tried to
explain that its not that simple, i really need a list of units to put in a
table - or do I?

 

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:18:01 -0800, deb

One of my favorite topics.
I don't think the unit of measure (uom) has much to do with it. If the
task is "trench digging" and the uom for that task is "lineal foot",
then the job may require 100 units and the worker did 30 units so far.
The general point is that uom should be specified at the task level,
and everyone has to enter units by that uom. You can't enter "I did 10
meters" - unless the app gets more complicated with uom conversions.

Once we have that established we need to talk about projections.
Floor is finished 25% in 6 hours. It stands to reason that it will
take 100/25 * 6 hours to complete (assuming linear relationship
between time worked and percent finished - not always true if the
first two hours were 'preparing workspace and figuring this thing out
and talking it through with supervisor and customer'). But that aside
(or it should be a separate task).

The projected cost of the job is 100/25 * 6 * HourlyRate. You can
compare that with the BudgetAmount.

-Tom.
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[deb]

I’m sort of stuck at what HE wants

He wants the time sheet form to have a section where they can enter how much
work has been done in relation to the hours worked
So fred blogs has done 6 hours today on cost code 123 – the supervisor
enters an amount of work completed and this is going to be cumulative – that
doable. I’m figuring the best way would be a percentage then each job is a
different quantity but they could enter a % completed then that could
calculate based on the lot, job and cost codes

When i asked him for a list of units of measure he just said he will enter
that as he goes, but he doesn’t understand that it needs to be in a table
related to the cost codes for all the calcs to work
Each cost code is related to a specific task – roofing, flooring, footings
etc – so logically i should be able to allocate a uom to each cost code –
also, the uom list is not going to be very long anyway

Half my problem is that he doesn’t understand how Access works – he thinks
it’s like a spreadsheet