Earned Value - Tracked by Month

[liz217]

I've been asked to start tracking earned value on our projects. We have not
entered any of the cost fields in Microsoft project before.

I want to graph the information by month to show cumulative projected
expenditures (baseline), cumulative actual expenditures, and cumulative
earned value at the end of each month. I set up a "trial" project to play
with and I understand how the earned value fields are calculating. My
question comes when I try to export the data to excel to graph it, it exports
the total BCWS, ACWP, and BCWP for whatever status date I have selected.

Can I enter information in Project by month, so that it will save the total
for each month. I want to have an ACWP for Jan., Feb., etc. Or do I just
export the data to Excel at the end of each month. I tried entering
information on different status dates, but it still exported the total up to
the selected status date. Rather than exporting the cumulative total for each
month, it would show the same amount for each month.

Any input is appreciated. Also, if anyone knows how to find out about
locations and schedules for Microsoft Project training classes, I'm
interested.

Thanks.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

In the Analysis toolbar choose the Export Timescaled Data to Excel and
you'll find that it give you the options to do exactly what you're looking
for.

 

[liz217]

Steve,

I sware I tried that last week and it exported the same number for each
month, but it worked today! Cool! Must have been the cold medicine I was on
last week.

Thanks,

Liz

 

[liz217]

I think I spoke too soon. Somehow I don't think I am entering the data
correctly. Here's what I think I should do: Set the Status Date to the last
day of the montlh, enter the actual cost. Do this for each month I want in
the report. (In my practice project I set up, I entered information for
January through May.) Leave the Status Date on the last update (May 31) and
export the data. However, when I do this, the ACWP for March, April, and May
is the same number, rather than showing the total for each month. On the
graph, the ACWP shows an increase from January to February and then is a flat
line for March through May.

Can you help?

Thanks,

Liz

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

The problem may be in entering the actual cost as an aggregate. You need to
put in the actual cost for each task on the dates that the costs were
accrued. If I have a 5 days task running Monday thru Friday, 8 hours a
days, resource getting $10/hr, displaying the work row would show 8 hours
each day and the cost row in the resource usage view should show Actual Cost
of $80 on Mon, same for Tue, same for Wed, thu Fri. Let Project calculate
the total by month based on your entry of the figures on the dates the work
was performed. ACWP is a calculated value based on the progress of the work
for the most part. Actual Cost Work Performed
Steve House [MVP]