showing cost information with schedule information

[Bendinblues]

What is the best way to depict cost projections alsong with schedule
information. I have information in terms of when the costs are forecast and
I'd like to superimpose that over the schedule information to compare. For
example if the costs are projected for spending from April to September, the
schedle should not be showing activity from February through November for
example.

 

[Dave]

The Task Usage view shows where costs fall. Is that what you meant?

 

[Bendinblues]

see my reply to trvor and thanks for your reply!

The Task Usage view shows where costs fall. Is that what you meant?

 

[Bendinblues]

You are exacltly correct in terms of how it normally happens. However, what
we have are 2 separate function in engineering. One person handles the
scheduling and the other does forecasting of costs. The schedule and cost
data are entered in on excel workbooks. The schedule information is imported
into MS Project and a baseline is set. The monthly costs (projections and
actuals are entered in another tab in Excel.

I am trying to figure out a method to get them both together in Project so
that we can see a comparison (maybe another bar showing projected and actual
cost data. I know that this is attypical, but I'm trying to figure something
out relative to the functions in this organisation.

 

[Dave]

I'm not clear what it is that you want Project to do for you. You seem
to have some other system for forecasting costs.

If you associate forecast costs with individual tasks, then you could
incorporate them into a baseline field and compare them with the
scheduled costs side by side, but it isn't really clear what you want to
achieve.

 

[JMiddleton]

I understand what you are saying. A Gantt Chart with a bar chart depicting
monthly/weekly costs would be a great way to show to a potential client
worried about cash flow how these costs align with the schedule. Anyone know
how to do this?

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

What about a split view with the Gantt Chart at the top and a modified Resource
Usage view at the bottom showing cumulative costs?

Instructions for getting the Resource Usage view to show cost S-Curve: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/ep...roject-pro-leveraging-the-resource-graph.aspx

That's got a couple of screen shots that might provide ideas.


- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

Belay that last postof mine. Works in concept for specific tasks, but on
testing, it does not roll up to the summary tasks.


- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm