T
Tony G
I need to enter mpnies being paid by a client into my project so I have and
accurate cashflow both in and out.
Can anybody help?
accurate cashflow both in and out.
Can anybody help?
J
Jan De Messemaeker
Hi,
No problem.
Since costs are calculated as positive, incoming money has to be counted as
negative.
Project accepts negative Fixed costs for a task.
So create a (say one day) task to represent the payment with the required
negative cost.
Now Task Usage (cost and cumulative cost lines) show your cash flow!
Greetings,
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
No problem.
Since costs are calculated as positive, incoming money has to be counted as
negative.
Project accepts negative Fixed costs for a task.
So create a (say one day) task to represent the payment with the required
negative cost.
Now Task Usage (cost and cumulative cost lines) show your cash flow!
Greetings,
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
S
Steve House [MVP]
IMHO, you should use a real accounting program for such expenditure/revenue
accounting and keep Project for what it's best at - ie, scheduling work and
estimating cost. It's cash flow reporting will show you how the cost
committment is distributed over time but even there, it's not an indicator
of the timings of the disbursments those cost give rise to. You may incur
the cost for 1000 widgets on 01 April when you're project will use them but
with one vendor you might have to pay for them before delivery while other
may let you have them on credit and the cash won't actually be required to
go out until 30 days after you used them.
accounting and keep Project for what it's best at - ie, scheduling work and
estimating cost. It's cash flow reporting will show you how the cost
committment is distributed over time but even there, it's not an indicator
of the timings of the disbursments those cost give rise to. You may incur
the cost for 1000 widgets on 01 April when you're project will use them but
with one vendor you might have to pay for them before delivery while other
may let you have them on credit and the cash won't actually be required to
go out until 30 days after you used them.
J
Jan De Messemaeker
Hi all,
OTOH, Project is a fantastic tool to represent any timescaled data.. I'd
like to say nicer than accounting stuff. So if teh negative cost os a
solution, why not? Moreover he can now link those payments to tasks which an
accounting thing will never do.
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
OTOH, Project is a fantastic tool to represent any timescaled data.. I'd
like to say nicer than accounting stuff. So if teh negative cost os a
solution, why not? Moreover he can now link those payments to tasks which an
accounting thing will never do.
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
Steve House said:
S
Steve House [MVP]
That would require sprinkling milestones all over the place, effectively
divorcing the expenditures and reciepts from the actual tasks that give rise
to them.
We have a 5-day Task X the first week of March that uses $5000 worth of
widgets and they'll be delivered 17 Feb. Our contract with the widget
vendor called for us to put down a $500 deposit to confirm the order, which
we placed on 01 Feb and paid the deposit on that date. We will owe $1000
COD and they have agreed to let us pay the balance in 2 equal installments
on 01 Apr and 01 May. Task X happens to be a billable task for our client,
they will be invoiced on completion and our agreement calls for them to pay
Net 30. Creating some representation of the timephased cash disbursments
and reciepts on the dates they have or should occur, while retaining the
fact that it is the work performed on Task X during the first week of March
that gave rise to the costs being in the budget in the first place AND not
ending up duplicating the cost's impact on the total budget by including
them in both the performance task and the payment milestones will quickly
become an impossible to understand nightmare of freefloating milestones and
crisscrossing task links.
I get very uncomfortable with the idea of trying to force square pegs down
round holes, trying to kludge any piece of software into doing tasks it
wasn't expressly designed to do. I'd sooner play a soccer match in a
minefield.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
divorcing the expenditures and reciepts from the actual tasks that give rise
to them.
We have a 5-day Task X the first week of March that uses $5000 worth of
widgets and they'll be delivered 17 Feb. Our contract with the widget
vendor called for us to put down a $500 deposit to confirm the order, which
we placed on 01 Feb and paid the deposit on that date. We will owe $1000
COD and they have agreed to let us pay the balance in 2 equal installments
on 01 Apr and 01 May. Task X happens to be a billable task for our client,
they will be invoiced on completion and our agreement calls for them to pay
Net 30. Creating some representation of the timephased cash disbursments
and reciepts on the dates they have or should occur, while retaining the
fact that it is the work performed on Task X during the first week of March
that gave rise to the costs being in the budget in the first place AND not
ending up duplicating the cost's impact on the total budget by including
them in both the performance task and the payment milestones will quickly
become an impossible to understand nightmare of freefloating milestones and
crisscrossing task links.
I get very uncomfortable with the idea of trying to force square pegs down
round holes, trying to kludge any piece of software into doing tasks it
wasn't expressly designed to do. I'd sooner play a soccer match in a
minefield.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
Jan De Messemaeker said:
J
Jan De Messemaeker
Who says Project isn't made for that? Project planning is not just about
spending, it also involves money coming in (I think PMI talks about that as
well) . Project is the scheduling application of Microsoft, it calculates
dates, no financial application does that AFAIK. IMHO It is the right peg
for the right hole.
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
spending, it also involves money coming in (I think PMI talks about that as
well) . Project is the scheduling application of Microsoft, it calculates
dates, no financial application does that AFAIK. IMHO It is the right peg
for the right hole.
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
Steve House said:
J
Jan De Messemaeker
Ouff! Somebody agrees people do projects to make money, not just to spend it
)
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
)--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
Trevor Rabey - Perfect Project Planning said:
S
Steve House [MVP]
Never claimed otherwise - just saying that Project's piece of the puzzle is
best limited to estimating internal costs and true accounting tools should
be brought into play to trrack expenditures and revenues. No one tool or
piece of software will do all of the things a project manager needs to do.
The tool that tries to do everything usually ends up doing nothing very
well.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
best limited to estimating internal costs and true accounting tools should
be brought into play to trrack expenditures and revenues. No one tool or
piece of software will do all of the things a project manager needs to do.
The tool that tries to do everything usually ends up doing nothing very
well.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
Jan De Messemaeker said:Ouff! Somebody agrees people do projects to make money, not just to spend
it
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
Trevor Rabey - Perfect Project Planning said:
W
WRT IT Dept
Steve et al,
While I understand and at least partially agree with your argument, my
question is, what else do we do?
We use Solomon for our accounting package.
We bill our customers based on deliverables that we have set up in PS 2007.
Thus, I bill a customer for X% after I send them a deliverable. The date I am
supposed to send them that deliverable is tracked in PS. My CFO needs to know
when cash comes in and goes out to manage the business. The go out part is
fine; I have tasks that have costs and/or time, so I can track hard and soft
dollars and dates in PS. I am assuming this is correct?
But, how is my CFO supposed to know when he can expect payment in the above
scenario? Neither Solomon, nor any other accounting package I know of,
"knows" when I am supposed to send the customer a deliverable, as that data
is in PS as a task with a date in it.
So, if I use Solomon to track when I am getting paid, how do I update
Solomon’s date for payment if the payment is based on a deliverable in PS? I
could hard code it, but that means if something changes in the Project, the
deliverable date moves, which would imply that my payment date moves, so I
would have to manually update my accounting system. If this is not correct
please let me know, because this is a big problem for us!
What I was told by the Dynamics people is that PS 2007 and Solomon 7 are
meant to “link†to each other at the task level to track this. So, if we
really are not supposed to use PS to track this, then I think the Microsoft
PS team needs to have a frank conversation with the Microsoft Dynamics Team.
Again, if I am setting myself up for failure, someone please let me know,
and please point me to the Microsoft product I should use to solve this
problem, because right now, I am being told Solomon 7 and PS 2007 will solve
this.
--
IT Staff
While I understand and at least partially agree with your argument, my
question is, what else do we do?
We use Solomon for our accounting package.
We bill our customers based on deliverables that we have set up in PS 2007.
Thus, I bill a customer for X% after I send them a deliverable. The date I am
supposed to send them that deliverable is tracked in PS. My CFO needs to know
when cash comes in and goes out to manage the business. The go out part is
fine; I have tasks that have costs and/or time, so I can track hard and soft
dollars and dates in PS. I am assuming this is correct?
But, how is my CFO supposed to know when he can expect payment in the above
scenario? Neither Solomon, nor any other accounting package I know of,
"knows" when I am supposed to send the customer a deliverable, as that data
is in PS as a task with a date in it.
So, if I use Solomon to track when I am getting paid, how do I update
Solomon’s date for payment if the payment is based on a deliverable in PS? I
could hard code it, but that means if something changes in the Project, the
deliverable date moves, which would imply that my payment date moves, so I
would have to manually update my accounting system. If this is not correct
please let me know, because this is a big problem for us!
What I was told by the Dynamics people is that PS 2007 and Solomon 7 are
meant to “link†to each other at the task level to track this. So, if we
really are not supposed to use PS to track this, then I think the Microsoft
PS team needs to have a frank conversation with the Microsoft Dynamics Team.
Again, if I am setting myself up for failure, someone please let me know,
and please point me to the Microsoft product I should use to solve this
problem, because right now, I am being told Solomon 7 and PS 2007 will solve
this.
--
IT Staff
Steve House said:Never claimed otherwise - just saying that Project's piece of the puzzle is
best limited to estimating internal costs and true accounting tools should
be brought into play to trrack expenditures and revenues. No one tool or
piece of software will do all of the things a project manager needs to do.
The tool that tries to do everything usually ends up doing nothing very
well.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
Jan De Messemaeker said:Ouff! Somebody agrees people do projects to make money, not just to spend
it
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
Trevor Rabey - Perfect Project Planning said:
W
WRT IT Dept
Steve et al,
While I understand and at least partially agree with your argument, my
question is, what else do we do?
We use Solomon for our accounting package.
We bill our customers based on deliverables that we have set up in PS 2007.
Thus, I bill a customer for X% after I send them a deliverable. The date I am
supposed to send them that deliverable is tracked in PS. My CFO needs to know
when cash comes in and goes out to manage the business. The go out part is
fine; I have tasks that have costs and/or time, so I can track hard and soft
dollars and dates in PS. I am assuming this is correct?
But, how is my CFO supposed to know when he can expect payment in the above
scenario? Neither Solomon, nor any other accounting package I know of,
"knows" when I am supposed to send the customer a deliverable, as that data
is in PS as a task with a date in it.
So, if I use Solomon to track when I am getting paid, how do I update
Solomon’s date for payment if the payment is based on a deliverable in PS? I
could hard code it, but that means if something changes in the Project, the
deliverable date moves, which would imply that my payment date moves, so I
would have to manually update my accounting system. If this is not correct
please let me know, because this is a big problem for us!
What I was told by the Dynamics people is that PS 2007 and Solomon 7 are
meant to “link†to each other at the task level to track this. So, if we
really are not supposed to use PS to track this, then I think the Microsoft
PS team needs to have a frank conversation with the Microsoft Dynamics Team.
Again, if I am setting myself up for failure, someone please let me know,
and please point me to the Microsoft product I should use to solve this
problem, because right now, I am being told Solomon 7 and PS 2007 will solve
this.
While I understand and at least partially agree with your argument, my
question is, what else do we do?
We use Solomon for our accounting package.
We bill our customers based on deliverables that we have set up in PS 2007.
Thus, I bill a customer for X% after I send them a deliverable. The date I am
supposed to send them that deliverable is tracked in PS. My CFO needs to know
when cash comes in and goes out to manage the business. The go out part is
fine; I have tasks that have costs and/or time, so I can track hard and soft
dollars and dates in PS. I am assuming this is correct?
But, how is my CFO supposed to know when he can expect payment in the above
scenario? Neither Solomon, nor any other accounting package I know of,
"knows" when I am supposed to send the customer a deliverable, as that data
is in PS as a task with a date in it.
So, if I use Solomon to track when I am getting paid, how do I update
Solomon’s date for payment if the payment is based on a deliverable in PS? I
could hard code it, but that means if something changes in the Project, the
deliverable date moves, which would imply that my payment date moves, so I
would have to manually update my accounting system. If this is not correct
please let me know, because this is a big problem for us!
What I was told by the Dynamics people is that PS 2007 and Solomon 7 are
meant to “link†to each other at the task level to track this. So, if we
really are not supposed to use PS to track this, then I think the Microsoft
PS team needs to have a frank conversation with the Microsoft Dynamics Team.
Again, if I am setting myself up for failure, someone please let me know,
and please point me to the Microsoft product I should use to solve this
problem, because right now, I am being told Solomon 7 and PS 2007 will solve
this.
W
WRT IT Dept
Steve et al,
While I understand and at least partially agree with your argument, my
question is, what else do we do?
We use Solomon for our accounting package.
We bill our customers based on deliverables that we have set up in PS 2007.
Thus, I bill a customer for X percent after I send them a deliverable. The
date I am supposed to send them that deliverable is tracked in PS. My CFO
needs to know when cash comes in and goes out to manage the business. The go
out part is fine; I have tasks that have costs and/or time, so I can track
hard and soft dollars and dates in PS. I am assuming this is correct?
But, how is my CFO supposed to know when he can expect payment in the above
scenario? Neither Solomon, nor any other accounting package I know of,
"knows" when I am supposed to send the customer a deliverable, as that data
is in PS as a task with a date in it.
So, if I use Solomon to track when I am getting paid, how do I update
Solomon’s date for payment if the payment is based on a deliverable in PS? I
could hard code it, but that means if something changes in the Project, the
deliverable date moves, which would imply that my payment date moves, so I
would have to manually update my accounting system. If this is not correct
please let me know, because this is a big problem for us!
What I was told by the Dynamics people is that PS 2007 and Solomon 7 are
meant to “link†to each other at the task level to track this. So, if we
really are not supposed to use PS to track this, then I think the Microsoft
PS team needs to have a frank conversation with the Microsoft Dynamics Team.
Again, if I am setting myself up for failure, someone please let me know,
and please point me to the Microsoft product I should use to solve this
problem, because right now, I am being told Solomon 7 and PS 2007 will solve
this.
While I understand and at least partially agree with your argument, my
question is, what else do we do?
We use Solomon for our accounting package.
We bill our customers based on deliverables that we have set up in PS 2007.
Thus, I bill a customer for X percent after I send them a deliverable. The
date I am supposed to send them that deliverable is tracked in PS. My CFO
needs to know when cash comes in and goes out to manage the business. The go
out part is fine; I have tasks that have costs and/or time, so I can track
hard and soft dollars and dates in PS. I am assuming this is correct?
But, how is my CFO supposed to know when he can expect payment in the above
scenario? Neither Solomon, nor any other accounting package I know of,
"knows" when I am supposed to send the customer a deliverable, as that data
is in PS as a task with a date in it.
So, if I use Solomon to track when I am getting paid, how do I update
Solomon’s date for payment if the payment is based on a deliverable in PS? I
could hard code it, but that means if something changes in the Project, the
deliverable date moves, which would imply that my payment date moves, so I
would have to manually update my accounting system. If this is not correct
please let me know, because this is a big problem for us!
What I was told by the Dynamics people is that PS 2007 and Solomon 7 are
meant to “link†to each other at the task level to track this. So, if we
really are not supposed to use PS to track this, then I think the Microsoft
PS team needs to have a frank conversation with the Microsoft Dynamics Team.
Again, if I am setting myself up for failure, someone please let me know,
and please point me to the Microsoft product I should use to solve this
problem, because right now, I am being told Solomon 7 and PS 2007 will solve
this.
S
Steve House [MVP]
Really can't help very much on how to tie the two together as I'm not up to
speed on Solomon, Dynamics, etc. The problem I have using Project
exclusively to do such tracking is that it is almost impossible to get it
right. The cost figures accrue into the budget as the tasks are performed
and are based on the resource costs and man-hours of work performed. If you
also bill strictly by man-hours of resource time and invoice as the tasks
are performed, I suppose it could work. (I do have a problem with negative
costs representing revenues though, because that means your rolled-up total
project budget will equal zero). But I don't think that's going to be the
usual case. How do you account for a billing, for example, that is based on
a day rate that is billed in minimum whole-day increments regardless of the
time spent on-site? The resource costs the firm $50 per hour in salary so
if he works one hour on the client site, the cost is $50 or 8 hours he costs
$400. But the client is actually billed $600 per day the resource shows up
on-site, regardless if the time he spends on a given day is 1 hour, 8 hours,
or 10 hours. You may wonder how that could happen but that billing
structure is very common with freelance crew members in the film and video
production industry - a sound recordist bills $500 per day regardless of
whether he's on set 1 hour or 12. OR perhaps the client is billed a fixed
price regardless of the time the task takes. Work resource COSTS always
vary in direct proportion to the specific man-hours of work performed but
BILLINGS may or may not have any relationship at all to work man-hours.
Costs accrue at the time the task takes place - either the instant it
starts, the instant it ends, or prorated over its duration - but billing and
revenue may not have any direcct relationship at all to when the task takes
place. I think Project is an excellent tool for estimating internal costs
accrued for performing the project's work and seeing how the costs are
distributed over time. But it doesn't take into account overheads,
facilities costs, cost of capital, profits and all of the other costs that
need to be included in the big-picture accounting of the project.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
speed on Solomon, Dynamics, etc. The problem I have using Project
exclusively to do such tracking is that it is almost impossible to get it
right. The cost figures accrue into the budget as the tasks are performed
and are based on the resource costs and man-hours of work performed. If you
also bill strictly by man-hours of resource time and invoice as the tasks
are performed, I suppose it could work. (I do have a problem with negative
costs representing revenues though, because that means your rolled-up total
project budget will equal zero). But I don't think that's going to be the
usual case. How do you account for a billing, for example, that is based on
a day rate that is billed in minimum whole-day increments regardless of the
time spent on-site? The resource costs the firm $50 per hour in salary so
if he works one hour on the client site, the cost is $50 or 8 hours he costs
$400. But the client is actually billed $600 per day the resource shows up
on-site, regardless if the time he spends on a given day is 1 hour, 8 hours,
or 10 hours. You may wonder how that could happen but that billing
structure is very common with freelance crew members in the film and video
production industry - a sound recordist bills $500 per day regardless of
whether he's on set 1 hour or 12. OR perhaps the client is billed a fixed
price regardless of the time the task takes. Work resource COSTS always
vary in direct proportion to the specific man-hours of work performed but
BILLINGS may or may not have any relationship at all to work man-hours.
Costs accrue at the time the task takes place - either the instant it
starts, the instant it ends, or prorated over its duration - but billing and
revenue may not have any direcct relationship at all to when the task takes
place. I think Project is an excellent tool for estimating internal costs
accrued for performing the project's work and seeing how the costs are
distributed over time. But it doesn't take into account overheads,
facilities costs, cost of capital, profits and all of the other costs that
need to be included in the big-picture accounting of the project.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
WRT IT Dept said:Steve et al,
While I understand and at least partially agree with your argument, my
question is, what else do we do?
We use Solomon for our accounting package.
We bill our customers based on deliverables that we have set up in PS
2007.
Thus, I bill a customer for X% after I send them a deliverable. The date I
am
supposed to send them that deliverable is tracked in PS. My CFO needs to
know
when cash comes in and goes out to manage the business. The go out part is
fine; I have tasks that have costs and/or time, so I can track hard and
soft
dollars and dates in PS. I am assuming this is correct?
But, how is my CFO supposed to know when he can expect payment in the
above
scenario? Neither Solomon, nor any other accounting package I know of,
"knows" when I am supposed to send the customer a deliverable, as that
data
is in PS as a task with a date in it.
So, if I use Solomon to track when I am getting paid, how do I update
Solomonâ?Ts date for payment if the payment is based on a deliverable in
PS? I
could hard code it, but that means if something changes in the Project,
the
deliverable date moves, which would imply that my payment date moves, so I
would have to manually update my accounting system. If this is not correct
please let me know, because this is a big problem for us!
What I was told by the Dynamics people is that PS 2007 and Solomon 7 are
meant to â?olinkâ? to each other at the task level to track this. So, if
we
really are not supposed to use PS to track this, then I think the
Microsoft
PS team needs to have a frank conversation with the Microsoft Dynamics
Team.
Again, if I am setting myself up for failure, someone please let me know,
and please point me to the Microsoft product I should use to solve this
problem, because right now, I am being told Solomon 7 and PS 2007 will
solve
this.
--
IT Staff
Steve House said:Never claimed otherwise - just saying that Project's piece of the puzzle
is
best limited to estimating internal costs and true accounting tools
should
be brought into play to trrack expenditures and revenues. No one tool or
piece of software will do all of the things a project manager needs to
do.
The tool that tries to do everything usually ends up doing nothing very
well.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
Jan De Messemaeker said:Ouff! Somebody agrees people do projects to make money, not just to
spend
it
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
"Trevor Rabey - Perfect Project Planning"
<trevorATperfectproject.com.au>
wrote in message
I agree.
If it didn't accept negative $ we couldn't do it, but it does and we
can.
I often make a separate section of the WBS called Progress Payments
and
put the payment events in there as Milestones, with their Predecessors
linked to them.
--
Trevor Rabey
0407213955
61 8 92727485
PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au
Who says Project isn't made for that? Project planning is not just
about
spending, it also involves money coming in (I think PMI talks about
that
as well) . Project is the scheduling application of Microsoft, it
calculates dates, no financial application does that AFAIK. IMHO It
is
the right peg for the right hole.
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
"Steve House [MVP]" <sjhouse at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
That would require sprinkling milestones all over the place,
effectively divorcing the expenditures and reciepts from the actual
tasks that give rise to them.
We have a 5-day Task X the first week of March that uses $5000 worth
of
widgets and they'll be delivered 17 Feb. Our contract with the
widget
vendor called for us to put down a $500 deposit to confirm the
order,
which we placed on 01 Feb and paid the deposit on that date. We
will
owe $1000 COD and they have agreed to let us pay the balance in 2
equal
installments on 01 Apr and 01 May. Task X happens to be a billable
task for our client, they will be invoiced on completion and our
agreement calls for them to pay Net 30. Creating some
representation
of the timephased cash disbursments and reciepts on the dates they
have
or should occur, while retaining the fact that it is the work
performed
on Task X during the first week of March that gave rise to the costs
being in the budget in the first place AND not ending up duplicating
the cost's impact on the total budget by including them in both the
performance task and the payment milestones will quickly become an
impossible to understand nightmare of freefloating milestones and
crisscrossing task links.
I get very uncomfortable with the idea of trying to force square
pegs
down round holes, trying to kludge any piece of software into doing
tasks it wasn't expressly designed to do. I'd sooner play a soccer
match in a minefield.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
Hi all,
OTOH, Project is a fantastic tool to represent any timescaled
data..
I'd like to say nicer than accounting stuff. So if teh negative
cost
os a solution, why not? Moreover he can now link those payments to
tasks which an accounting thing will never do.
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf
"Steve House [MVP]" <sjhouse at hotmail dot com> wrote in message
IMHO, you should use a real accounting program for such
expenditure/revenue accounting and keep Project for what it's best
at - ie, scheduling work and estimating cost. It's cash flow
reporting will show you how the cost committment is distributed
over
time but even there, it's not an indicator of the timings of the
disbursments those cost give rise to. You may incur the cost for
1000 widgets on 01 April when you're project will use them but
with
one vendor you might have to pay for them before delivery while
other
may let you have them on credit and the cash won't actually be
required to go out until 30 days after you used them.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
I need to enter mpnies being paid by a client into my project so I
have and
accurate cashflow both in and out.
Can anybody help?