Segregating multiple years and appropriations

[Samsome]

I posted this on the Project 2000 board, and got no response. Hope someone
here can help me.

"I'm constructing a project in MS Project 2002 Professional (no server
capability, we'll be emailing updates across team leaders) that will take at
least three years to complete.

Funding is from the government, is provided on a fiscal year basis, and
in different appropriations.

I need to be able to segregate both fixed (materials, contracts) and
variable (government employee) costs by both budget year and appropriation
type. We will be using a constant WBS across the entire project.

Presently, I'm building individual projects for each major task, each
year, and each appropriation, and intend to insert each into a master
plan...
but can't figure out how to create a master plan that will show the entire
project rolled up, and at the same time be able to track actuals to year and
appropriation. I will be using Earned Value reporting once the baselines
are established.

I've searched all three project lists, and haven't found anything that
resembles my need.

tia

 

[Jack D.]

I posted this on the Project 2000 board, and got no response. Hope
someone here can help me.

"I'm constructing a project in MS Project 2002 Professional (no server
capability, we'll be emailing updates across team leaders) that will take
at least three years to complete.

Funding is from the government, is provided on a fiscal year basis, and
in different appropriations.

I need to be able to segregate both fixed (materials, contracts) and
variable (government employee) costs by both budget year and appropriation
type. We will be using a constant WBS across the entire project.

Presently, I'm building individual projects for each major task, each
year, and each appropriation, and intend to insert each into a master
plan...
but can't figure out how to create a master plan that will show the entire
project rolled up, and at the same time be able to track actuals to year
and appropriation. I will be using Earned Value reporting once the
baselines are established.

I've searched all three project lists, and haven't found anything that
resembles my need.

tia

I do not think that you will be able to do this sort of tracking without
writing some VBA code to create the reports, or by storing your project in a
database and using some fairly sophisticated database programming to
aggregate the data.

The VBA might be the simplest way I think. Someone experienced with VBA
could put together the basic algorithm in perhaps a couple of days.
Developing that into a finished application would be longer.


--
Please try to keep replies in this group. I do check e-mail, but only
infrequently. For Macros and other things check http://masamiki.com/project

-Jack Dahlgren, Project MVP
email: J -at- eM Vee Pee S dot COM


+++++++++++++++++++

 

[Samsome]

Thanks for the response... I was afraid that's what the answer might be.

I may just have to keep the separate fiscal years and appropriations tasks
in separate files, without trying to pull everything into a master plan.
It's doubtful my customer would want to increase cost to bring in someone
who knows VBA... I surely don't.

S.

 

[Jack D.]

Thanks for the response... I was afraid that's what the answer might be.

I may just have to keep the separate fiscal years and appropriations tasks
in separate files, without trying to pull everything into a master plan.
It's doubtful my customer would want to increase cost to bring in someone
who knows VBA... I surely don't.

It isn't so difficult.
I think that someone out there has published code to export timescaled data
like this.
Take a look at some of the macro samples on my website and see if it looks
daunting to you.
If you can be really clear about what you want, and keep things simple, I
may even see if I can modify something to meet your needs.


--
Please try to keep replies in this group. I do check e-mail, but only
infrequently. For Macros and other things check http://masamiki.com/project

-Jack Dahlgren, Project MVP
email: J -at- eM Vee Pee S dot COM


+++++++++++++++++++

 

[Samsome]

It isn't so difficult.
I think that someone out there has published code to export timescaled data
like this.
Take a look at some of the macro samples on my website and see if it looks
daunting to you.
If you can be really clear about what you want, and keep things simple, I
may even see if I can modify something to meet your needs.


--
Please try to keep replies in this group. I do check e-mail, but only
infrequently. For Macros and other things check http://masamiki.com/project

-Jack Dahlgren, Project MVP
email: J -at- eM Vee Pee S dot COM


+++++++++++++++++++

I've looked at your website and see that the statements are highly
structured. I haven't done any programming since a bit of basic and pascal
on an Apple IIE.

Here are the principal elements:

* A federal government program, extending over three fiscal years. (fy
2004 through 2006) with annual budgets in the $5 Million range.

* Funding is by fiscal year and from more than one account (can't spend R&D
dollars on a task that is funded by Airplane Procurement dollars or
Operations and Maintenance dollars).

* Tasks may cross fiscal year boundaries, spending new money each fiscal
year. Most of these are "level-of-effort" support/maintenance tasks, but
some are "completion" type hardware/software development/integration
tasks, ).

* Tasks may contain both fixed (support contracts and materials purchases)
and variable costs (government employee salaries, etc.)

* Customer needs a master program plan covering all years, that serves two
primary purposes:

1. Defend budget submissions/requirements for future fiscal years;

2. Current year execution plan (earned value) to a fairly detailed level as
far as work accomplished is concerned, (ACWP, % complete vs. schedule, etc.)
but will use a generic cost/man-year for all government employees. PROJECT
is not the accounting system, which exists separately.

* Customer employees are networked (using the Navy's NMCI setup), but will
not have Project Central or Project Server. They use MS Office XP and
Project 2000 with Windows 2000 and some version of Exchange Server. My
resources are WIN XP Pro, Office XP Pro, Project 2002 Pro, all stand alone.
Due to security restrictions, I cannot remotely access their network.

A general master plan exists that covers all years, but rolls up projected
costs into the standard "cost" table, and does not segregate annual budgets
and expenditures by fiscal year.

I've just been brought in as a consultant to take that existing general plan
and flesh it out, along with creating the 2004 execution plan.

My initial approach has been to create separate project plans for each of
the major teams and functions, first just for 2004, and insert them into the
general plan. In 2004, there is only one appropriation to consider. There
would be at least five subprojects, perhaps more, managed by senior team
leaders. Update could be via Outlook email system.

I then intended to create a set of sub tasks covering fiscal year 2005 and
2006, and insert them into the general plan. When separate appropriations
become active in the future, my approach is to create separate subtasks for
those efforts also.

This is the point at which I realized I don't know how to have one program
file accomplish both critical functions: segregate costs/execution by
fiscal year and appropriations, while providing long range planning.
Everything rolls up into the "cost" table "total cost" column, regardless of
when tasks start and finish.

That's it in a nutshell.

If there's a better way to accomplish the goal, I'm surely listening to
alternatives.

Thanks for your thoughts so far.

Sam
vernalassoc at adelphia dot net