Task Costs

[Mark N]

I have a schedule with 20 different projects. I would like to assign a
forcasted billing per month for each project.
All i can seem to get is the total project cost divided equally by the
number of months for each project.
Obviously each month would have a different estimated cost.
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Jim Aksel]

If each of your projects rolls up to its own summary task, it should be
possible to see costsas descrete as to the minute. You can use the Task
Usage or Resource Usage view (For the project, I would use Task Usage View).

Change the time scale at the top of the view to your liking. Then, right
click on one of the elements on the right side, such as work, select detail
styles and then add the rows you wish (such as Cost). If you need
additional detail, please post back.
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If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Mark N]

I used Task Usage, chsnged the time scale, added a cost row, hide the default
"Work" row and everthing looked good except i can not enter any data in the
cost row.
To be a little clearer... I have say 20 projects that i'm tracking. So i
have 20 tasks. Each task has a different start and completion date.My desire
would be to assign a projected monthly billing amount for each individual
task.

 

[Jim Aksel]

Mark - Glad to see you are making progress
Verify Project has cost calculations set to Manual:
Tools/Options/Calculations (tab) deselect the option to have Project
auto-calculate costs if this is what you wish.

You can enter costs in the "Actual Cost" row or column depending on your view.

The cost for each of the 20 projects should show up as 20 separate lines
(rolled up if there is more than one task per project). Use that row as your
billing row.

Something else to consider, since you are looking at "Forecasted"... this is
called "Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled" or BCWS... it is your planned spend
if all goes well.

To create a BCWS Curve: Enter ** costed ** resources for each task. Make
sure the resources are listed in the Resource sheet with a real $/hr that you
will invoice to the customer.

Save a baseline: Tools/Tracking/Set Baseline

In Project 2007 you can use a visual report to export the BCWS (and other
Earned Value Parameters) out to Excel. In Project 2003, you need to use the
Export Time Phased Data to Excel Wizard avaialble on the Analysis toolbar.

In either case, make sure you set the Status Date in Project/Project
Information. A quirk of Project is that it will only spread BCWS to the
status date. If you want the whole program, set the status date far in the
future (say the last day of the month of the latest activity).

I'm probably getting deeper than necessary, please let us know how you get
along. Post back, we're all here to help.



--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Mark N]

Thanks Jim,
All this info was very helpful. I think i have it to where it's doing what i
want it to.
Thanks again

 

[Steve House]

Take a look at the pre-defined cash flow report. But note - MS Project DOES
NOT deal with billings - it could care less if you actually have the money
to pay for your project - all it does is estimate the amount of money you'll
need. What it calculates is the internal cost of actually doing the work.
If Joe earns $10 per hour and he does 22 man-hours of work on various tasks
in the project during the 2nd week of March, the tasks he did that week have
cost you $220. What you bill for it or when the client pays for it is
anybody's guess.

 

[Mike Glen]

Just to add to Steve's response, the cost of a project should also include overheads such as sick pay, paid holidays, training, and equipment purchases specific to that resource doing work on the project. Thus, if he is paid 10% per hour, then in the Resource Information his rate should be higher, say 15$ per hour, as the cost to the project of working 1 man-hour.

Mike Glen
Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials


"Steve House" <sjhouse at hotmail dot com> wrote in message Take a look at the pre-defined cash flow report. But note - MS Project DOES
NOT deal with billings - it could care less if you actually have the money
to pay for your project - all it does is estimate the amount of money you'll
need. What it calculates is the internal cost of actually doing the work.
If Joe earns $10 per hour and he does 22 man-hours of work on various tasks
in the project during the 2nd week of March, the tasks he did that week have
cost you $220. What you bill for it or when the client pays for it is
anybody's guess.