[P7] - Actual Costs Field Changing Cost Field

[CQ]

I am Using Project Server 2007 and in Project Professional I am manually
entering a cost int othe "Actual Cost" field. I have gone to Tools, Option,
Calculation and unchecked the box for letting project calculate costs since i
am not using any other costing method inside of Project. I enter amounts
into the Cost field manually. All is well and the system works fine. When I
know what a task actually cost me, I come back and enter that into "Actual
Cost" field.

The issue is that when I enter the "Actual Cost" it automatically adjusts
the "Cost" field to match the Actual Cost field. I don't want it to do that.
I can immediately go back and change "Cost" back to the original amount but
that is time consuming and sort of ruins the purpose of having entered the
cost in the first place. How and where is a setting that makes the "Cost"
field NOT modify itself to match "Actual Cost"?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

CQ --

You can't, as this is the default behavior of the tool. Remember that in
Microsoft Project, actuals always replace estimates. If you need to capture
the original Cost values in your project, you need to first save a Baseline
for your project (Tools - Tracking - Set Baseline). After doing so, enter
Actual Costs as needed. At any time, you can view and analyze all of your
Cost information in the task Cost table (click View - Table - Cost). Hope
this helps.