Help! Baseline costs losing values.

[rod]

Have created a master schedule. It is not saved as a
template. When I enter baseline costs and save baseline,
all costs zero out. In other words, all my costs that
have been entered lose there values or return to zero.

Any body have any ideas?

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

If a master schedule is a schedule with other projects inserted into it, the
master schedule itself doesn't have any assignments. They all being in the
inserted projects. To see total resource costs across all projects you need
a resource pool.

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Rod Gill
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[Rod Leger]

Thanks for the reply. I apologize for the term Master
Schedule. Our Master Schedule is the only schedule.
What I meant to say was it is our master format for all
projects. Our schedule has no other schedules inserted
into it. All of our projects use a baseline type
schedule. On a weekly basis, we update actuals to
compare to baseline. Our problem is that when we enter
dollar amounts either via dynamic linking to excel or by
manual input and say save baseline, the costs ($) show a
zero value in the schedule. Should we just save schedule
as baseline with no values, enter values then save file
(do not save as baseline)? We want to have those initial
values for comparison to actuals. How do we go about it?

Thanks,
Rod

 

[Steve House]

Baseline costs are calculated by Project based on resource costs plus fixed
costs and serve as a snapshot of the project as it appears at the time the
baseline was saved. If you are entering values in the baseline cost field
and then later saving a baseline, the values you have input are getting
overwritten by those calculated values. It sounds as if you have not input
resource assignments and/or resource rates nor fixed costs for those tasks
that might have them, thus the costs shown by Project for the tasks remain
zero. To check, in the Gantt chart view select Tables in the View Menu and
display the Cost table. If all the values are zero that's where your
problem lies. Saving a baseline will replace anything that's already in the
baseline with the calculated value of zero for all the tasks. If you're not
letting Project calculate your cost estimates (and you really should, you're
only using a fraction of the tool's power if you don't) you might kludge a
workaround by taking your estimated costs and entering them in the Fixed
Cost field before saving your baseline.


Make sure you're aware of all the fields that are involved when entering
data and tracking progress. The Cost field serves as a bottom-up estimate
of the task's cost based on the hours the resources are scheduled to work
times their hourly cost, total material resource usage times their unit
cost, and any fixed costs. When you think you have the schedule refined to
the point it is a workable plan, you save the baseline to populate the
Baseline Cost with a copy of the Cost in order to preserve the original
estimates for later comparison. Should the schedule change later, due to
changes in resources or revision in the estimates of duration, etc, either
planned or actual, the variance between Cost and Baseline Cost reflects the
difference. IMO, the baseline should be set just once, when you have the
plan ready to go and only revised if there is a material change to the plan
itself - a scope change for example - at a later date. Now we're working
.... as the project unfolds we post in actual hours and costs in the Actual
fields, NOT the scheduled fields such as Cost. If we enter an Actual Cost,
the Cost will change as well but the data entry should be in the Actual Cost
field. Generally speaking we should really be putting in the Actual Hours
worked and letting Project calculate Actual Cost based on them. Baseline
still preserves the original estimate and we can compare Actual Cost to
Baseline Cost.