high level resource reports

[Jenn]

I have inherited a project that is reviewed regularly by different
departments in my organization.The first department uses the project to see
all of the resources individually and their respective tasks. The second
department only wants to look at the task and general resource categories.
We have 2 different types of resources: labor and purchases. Labor has been
entered into the project by person name. The resource purchases is just a
single resource named “purchasesâ€.
Here is an example of what the two departments want to see.
Department 1 wants to see Task A and that Mary and Sally worked on task A.
They also want to see that Mary costed the project $1000 for task A and
Sally costed the project $500 for task A. Also, there is another resource,
identified, “Purchases†and task A had $150 worth of purchases. This all can
be viewed in the task view and no problems there. So I got that for
department 1.

Here comes the issue. Department 2 wants to see for Task A Labor Charges
“Mary plus Sally†combined total of $1500. They don’t care who works on the
task. They just want to know that Labor was $1500 and that Purchases were
$150. So they want a much higher level report. But they definitely need to
see Labor and Purchases separate.

I tried to make a column in my resource sheet that has a L for Labor and P
for Purchases. I put an L in both Sally and Mary’s column. I put a P in the
purchases column. What I don’t know how to do is get a task view that shows
this higher level and not Sally and Mary independently for my report to
department 2. ( I just want to show a combined amount for L for each task and
P for each task).

Any help would be appreciated. TIA!

 

[John]

I have inherited a project that is reviewed regularly by different
departments in my organization.The first department uses the project to see
all of the resources individually and their respective tasks. The second
department only wants to look at the task and general resource categories.
We have 2 different types of resources: labor and purchases. Labor has been
entered into the project by person name. The resource purchases is just a
single resource named “purchasesâ€.
Here is an example of what the two departments want to see.
Department 1 wants to see Task A and that Mary and Sally worked on task A.
They also want to see that Mary costed the project $1000 for task A and
Sally costed the project $500 for task A. Also, there is another resource,
identified, “Purchases†and task A had $150 worth of purchases. This all can
be viewed in the task view and no problems there. So I got that for
department 1.

Here comes the issue. Department 2 wants to see for Task A Labor Charges
“Mary plus Sally†combined total of $1500. They don’t care who works on the
task. They just want to know that Labor was $1500 and that Purchases were
$150. So they want a much higher level report. But they definitely need to
see Labor and Purchases separate.

I tried to make a column in my resource sheet that has a L for Labor and P
for Purchases. I put an L in both Sally and Mary’s column. I put a P in the
purchases column. What I don’t know how to do is get a task view that shows
this higher level and not Sally and Mary independently for my report to
department 2. ( I just want to show a combined amount for L for each task and
P for each task).

Any help would be appreciated. TIA!

Jenn,
Project already has provisions for separating labor and non-labor type
resources and it sounds like you are on the right track. On the Resource
Sheet there is a field called "Type". It can have one of two entries,
"Work" or "Material". The first type is for labor and the second is for
non-labor. Note that when the resource type is Work (i.e. labor) the
Std. Rate field is expressed as $xx/hr but when the resource type is
Material (i.e. non-labor), the Std Rate field is a value representing
"pieces" of something. For example, one unit of material may cost $1000.

As far as the reports for each department are concerned, I would use the
Resource Usage view as the report format for department 1 and the Task
Usage view as the report format for department 2. You may want to
collapse those tasks that have only labor resources for the department 2
report, but otherwise those two reports should give you just what you
need.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Jenn]

Joh,
To simplify the problem, I said I only had 2 resource types but I really
have 4. Labor, Purchases, Chargebacks, and Travel. Labor is the only labor
ressource. SO I really need a report to show a rollup under each task of L,
P, C, and T. (Labor,Purchases, Chargebacks and Travel.) any thoughts?? Thanks!

 

[John]

Joh,
To simplify the problem, I said I only had 2 resource types but I really
have 4. Labor, Purchases, Chargebacks, and Travel. Labor is the only labor
ressource. SO I really need a report to show a rollup under each task of L,
P, C, and T. (Labor,Purchases, Chargebacks and Travel.) any thoughts??
Thanks!

Jenn,
Well the problem isn't "simplified" but the "plot does thicken".

What I said about identifying the resources appropriately on the
Resource Sheet still holds. For example, labor resources are "Work" type
and all the non-labor resources are "Material" type. The Resource Usage
view should still give department 1 the report format they want to see.

The report for department 2 however gets more interesting. For example,
does department 2 want to see combined labor but non-labor broken down
by type (i.e. P, C, and T separately)? Can any given task have all
resource categories assigned (i.e. task "A" has labor, purchases,
chargebacks, and travel)?

Any other info you're holding back?
John
Project MVP

 

[Jenn]

John
Thanks for the fast response. Let's see, any task might have all 4
categories or it might only have 3 or 2 categories. Also, the L (Labor)
category is the only resource group that is broken out by people that needs
to be summed. P, T, and C are already lumped together. To the other question,
Department 2 wants to see all the labor lumped together but since C, P, and T
are already one big "lump" per tasks it does not need to be broken down.
Currently, P, C, and T are resources that were created along with all the
employee names. So in my small example I wrote before our resource sheet
shows:
Mary
Sally
Chargebacks
Travel
Purchases

So I think MSP cannot see that the last 3 resource entries are not people
but are unique categories unto themselves. Does that help? Thank you so much
for your continued help!

 

[John]

John
Thanks for the fast response. Let's see, any task might have all 4
categories or it might only have 3 or 2 categories. Also, the L (Labor)
category is the only resource group that is broken out by people that needs
to be summed. P, T, and C are already lumped together. To the other question,
Department 2 wants to see all the labor lumped together but since C, P, and T
are already one big "lump" per tasks it does not need to be broken down.
Currently, P, C, and T are resources that were created along with all the
employee names. So in my small example I wrote before our resource sheet
shows:
Mary
Sally
Chargebacks
Travel
Purchases

So I think MSP cannot see that the last 3 resource entries are not people
but are unique categories unto themselves. Does that help? Thank you so much
for your continued help!

Jenn,
OK, let's try to keep things simple. First, make sure the Resource Sheet
is structured as I suggested. The report for department 1 is a slam dunk
(i.e. Resource Usage view). With a little re-structuring of the
schedule, the report for department 2 can also be fairly simple. I
suggest all tasks that have both labor and non-labor resources be broken
into separate tasks elements - one strictly for the labor portion and
another for the non-labor portion. The task name can include information
to that effect. For example, let's say the task name is "Survey
potential job sites". The labor part of the task might be, "Survey
potential job sites (labor)" and the non-labor part might be, "Survey
potential job sites (non-labor)" and would include all purchased parts,
chargebacks, and travel - although you may later find that it would have
been a good idea to separate each of those costs as well. Both tasks
could have identical duration and even be linked as "start-to-start".
They would also both "feed" the same successor(s). By using this
approach, the Task Usage view should now give the basic format desired
by department 2.

If this scheme is not acceptable, then the next level will have to deal
with formulas in custom fields (may or may not work), or VBA (definitely
will work). Personally I'd pick the latter approach but then VBA is not
for everybody.

John
Project MVP