Possible for 2 Resource Levels?

[Kris_Wright_77]

I'm currently working on a project where the Fee is built up against tasks
using Generic Roles, which provides a Target Cost to the Client.
However, we also need to use Named Individuals for our own purposes to
ensure we can resource the job, and who may not necessarily be the same Fee
Rate as the Generic Role that they are fulfilling.

Worst Case I expect to have to have 2 identical programmes one resourced
with Generic roles and the other with Named Individuals.
But is there another way where I will only have to maintain a single
programme?

At the moment I think I assign both Generic and Named Resources to a Task,
and then use Custom Fields with formulae to separate out Hrs and Costs into
Target (Generic) & Actual (Named).
But having not used formulae within Project before, I am not sure whether
this is possible?

I'm sure I am not the first person to have this type of problem, so could
someone point me in the right direction?

BTW - Using Project Standard 2003

Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can give.

Kris W

 

[Manmeet Chaudhari]

Hi Kris
Can you help me understand how is the target cost to client calculated.
Is it not the actual hours put in by the resource multiplied by standard rate.
If you let me know the formula i can help you create custom fields so that
you have to use the same project file rather than maintaining 2 files.

Thanks,

 

[Kris_Wright_77]

Thanks very much for the help, Manmeet

Example of How a Task would be priced and then Resourced would be
Task Requires say
10 Hrs - A Grade @ £60 - £600
40 Hrs - B Grade @ £40 - £1600
20 Hrs - D Grade @ £20 - £400
60 Hrs & Total Cost - £2600
which is the Target Fee accepted up front by the Client

However, for us to undertake the task, say due to availability, there is
2 Hrs - Fred (A) @ £60 - £120
(& Wilma (B) undertakes work that Fred cant do - but at longer duration); so
55 Hrs - Wilma (B) @ £40 - £2200
15 Hrs - Barney (C) @ £30 - £450
(as there is No Band D available, & Barney is quicker)
So Total Invoiced to the Client is
72 Hrs & Total Cost - £2770

This overspend is then split between Client & Ourselves and the Client
receives a Credit.

Does explain the situation a little bit better than before?

I am thinking that I have a single Resource table with a Custom Flag to
denote whether Resource is Generic or Named.
Then this Flag is used by Formulae to separate Hrs & Cost into Target &
Actual - which is the bit I dont where to place where
ie Task or Resource or Both
as presumably the formulae would be just If statements

Thanks again for any help that you can give.

Kris

 

[Kris_Wright_77]

Trevor

I suppose it would work - and will probably do whilst developing the
processes etc

However, as this will be the way in which we build up our Proposed Fees etc
for a 10yr Framework with numerous projects each year, I would like to find
an idiot proof method.
And it is also beneficial to see both the Target Price and the Cost using
Named Resources together at the same time.
Hence why I was thinking formulae.

I have created a custom Resource field to differentiate between Target
Resources & Named Resources to use as the Filter in an IF statement.
However, I dont know how to use this field in a custom Task field, and
whether it would even work.

Thanks again for the short term fix.

Kris

 

[paul]

Thanks very much for the help, Manmeet

Example of How a Task would be priced and then Resourced would be
Task Requires say
10 Hrs - A Grade @ £60 - £600
40 Hrs - B Grade @ £40 - £1600
20 Hrs - D Grade @ £20 - £400
60 Hrs & Total Cost - £2600
which is the Target Fee accepted up front by the Client

However, for us to undertake the task, say due to availability, there is
2 Hrs - Fred (A) @ £60 - £120
(& Wilma (B) undertakes work that Fred cant do - but at longer duration);so
55 Hrs - Wilma (B) @ £40 - £2200
15 Hrs - Barney (C) @ £30 - £450
(as there is No Band D available, & Barney is quicker)
So Total Invoiced to the Client is
72 Hrs & Total Cost - £2770

This overspend is then split between Client & Ourselves and the Client
receives a Credit.

Does explain the situation a little bit better than before?

Firstly, I've heard it stated various times that Project is not an
accounting system, and you sound dangerously close to trying to use it
that way. However, when you have a hammer...

Second, your description of the way you're billing is certainly
different from my experience. Above you seemed to use "Fee" and
"Cost" interchangeably. The way I look at it is that fee is the
profit, which is some amount over and above the costs (direct +
overhead/etc.) So, the customer agreed to some specific amount of fee
(profit), and you're interested in billing for it incrementally. I
can't tell if this is equivalent to your situation, and it sounds like
you may be getting a reduced percentage of fee (by 50%) on any costs
above the previously agreed to amount. Congratulations if you got the
customer to agree to this -- we never get fee on overruns.

In my experience, we bill based on the percentage of the actual costs
(real resources) up to a threshold (say 5-10% hold back). That hold
back is billed at project completion. This billing is tracked in a
completely separate system. Within Project, however, the fee is not
included in resource rates -- only costs. If you're ever interested
in the total cost to the customer (with fee), just add the "Total
Cost" that Project gives to the contractually stated total "Fee"
amount. (Again, this is for a fixed fee scenario.)

Alternatively, you can tie the invoiced fee amount to milestone
accomplishments or the Earned Value.

If I have misunderstood your scenario, I apologize. However,
ultimately my point is to leverage Project's strengths as a planning
tool, and use an accounting system for the billing. Minimizing that
coupling will make your life much easier. Concerning the project
management aspect, you want to target the labor/material cost portion
of the total contract price anyway. This is what you don't want to
exceed. If you start eating into the fee portion, upper management
will become very unhappy very quickly.

Lastly, just as a comment: you should set the baseline with generic
resources. After entering the real people, you'll see if you have a
problem or cushion off the bat. Although, this doesn't really help
with your desire to see the two prices (generic and real) when the
plan changes.

Paul