How are costs calculated when actual costs entered manually

[Rick F.]

Can anyone tell me or point me to information that explains how costs are
calculated in MSP 2007 when “Actual Costs Always Calculated by Microsoft
Office Project†is unchecked? What I'm seeing in the total cost and roll-ups
doesn't make sense.

 

[Rob Schneider]

Can anyone tell me or point me to information that explains how costs are
calculated in MSP 2007 when “Actual Costs Always Calculated by Microsoft
Office Project†is unchecked? What I'm seeing in the total cost and roll-ups
doesn't make sense.

Rick

Help on that screen says:

Actual costs are always calculated by Microsoft Office Project
Specifies that Project calculates actual costs (actual cost: The cost
that has actually been incurred to date for a task, resource, or
assignment. For example, if the only resource assigned to a task gets
paid $20 per hour and has worked for two hours, the actual cost to date
for the task is $40.) automatically, based upon resource rates, per-use
resource costs (per-use cost: A set fee for the use of a resource that
can be in place of, or in addition to, a variable. For work resources, a
per-use cost accrues each time that the resource is used. For material
resources, a per-use cost is accrued only once.), and fixed task costs
(fixed cost: A set cost for a task that remains constant regardless of
the task duration or the work performed by a resource.). If you select
the check box, you cannot enter any additional actual costs until the
task is 100 percent complete. Turning on this setting deletes any
existing actual cost values manually entered or imported.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Rick,

If you uncheck "Actual Costs are always calculated" you can enter
actual costs manually. However, manually entering actual costs on
tasks which are not 100% complete causes Project not to decrease the
amount of remaining costs. So you may be seeing costs increase due
to the remaining cost not decreasing.

Try inserting the remaining cost field in the view to see if that is
at the root of your problem.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project