Project Funding as a Resouce

[JCAMP]

How do I set up a Resource Sheet that allows me to designate certain "pots" of money to be used for specific aspects of my project(s)? For Example, say I have $2000 for Research and Development tasks, $5000 to procure an item or items, and $10,000 for Maintenance of the item (task).

I would like to "dip" into each of these "pots" as I go; while keeping track of my expenditures.

Thanks

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello,
In the Resource Sheet, you can create some resources like Budget R&D,
Furniture Budget... etc with no costs .
In the Gantt chart, you'll assign these resources :
- Set the task to "Fixed Duration" if there is not other "true" resource on
it.
- Assign the Budget resource with 0 unit so that the work statistics are
not disturbed
- Display the Task Form at the bottom of the screen
- Format / Details / Resource cost
- There you can enter the specific cost in the Cost cell.

Hope this helps,

Gérard Ducouret

How do I set up a Resource Sheet that allows me to designate certain

"pots" of money to be used for specific aspects of my project(s)? For
Example, say I have $2000 for Research and Development tasks, $5000 to
procure an item or items, and $10,000 for Maintenance of the item (task).

 

[John Beamish]

Project is not a budgetting/budget-tracking piece of software.

But, you could do the following:

Make certain you are showing the Cost (i.e., the Planned Expenditures) and
Actual Cost columns.

1. Insert a column (Number15, for example). This column will be used to
contain what I am calling the "group by" identifiers. R&D tasks will
always have 1 in Number15, Maintenance tasks will always have 2 in
Number15, etc.

2. Identify the various tasks and enter the appropriate "group by" number
in Number15. Some tasks may not fall into any of your categories. Give
those a value of 9999.

3. Click on Project | Group by | Customize Group By ...

4. In the dialog box, select Group By and choose Number15. Click on OK.

You'll see a display of the tasks for each group showing the Costs. If
you can't remember the budget values then you could insert a series of
milestone tasks at the top of your plan. These milestone takes would have
task names like "R&D Budget $2,000", "Procure $5,000", and so on.
Remember to give them "group by" numbers exactly the same way you did
other tasks in step 2.

How do I set up a Resource Sheet that allows me to designate certain
"pots" of money to be used for specific aspects of my project(s)? For
Example, say I have $2000 for Research and Development tasks, $5000 to
procure an item or items, and $10,000 for Maintenance of the item (task).

I would like to "dip" into each of these "pots" as I go; while keeping
track of my expenditures.

Thanks

--

 

[Steve House]

Money is not a resource - it is what you use to buy resources.
Resources are the people and equipment that do the work on the Project's
tasks or the materials such as fuel, film, or lumber that are consumed
and incorporated into the task's deliverables. You could set up dollars
as a material, I suppose, but that still wouldn't completely do what you
want since material resources are considered to be in infinite supply -
you can record how many you used but the stockpile doesn't get reduced
in the process - there's always more when you need them.

Project is oriented to scheduling work, not finances. The costs in
Project are bottom-up budgets - predictions of what something will cost,
not top-down limits on how much you're allowed to spend. You'll have
better luck tracking expenditures versus reserves in an accounting
system or Excel if the needs aren't too complex.

--
Steve House
MS Project MVP
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

How do I set up a Resource Sheet that allows me to designate certain

"pots" of money to be used for specific aspects of my project(s)? For
Example, say I have $2000 for Research and Development tasks, $5000 to
procure an item or items, and $10,000 for Maintenance of the item
(task).