task costs

[aceofclubs37]

i have a problem with a task cost. i have a programmer quoting me for a
portion of a project, however there are tasks throughout the project related
to the quote.

Curently when i try my different costing options it takes the quote value
and applies it against each instance of a task related to the quote. I have
test "cost", "work", and "material" type costing however i cannot configure
that to work.

i understand the summary task cost concept, however that is now how my
project is setup. these programmer tasks are a part of other summary tasks.

So what i am trying to obtain is one cost from this programmer, related to
multiple task throughout the project.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Jim Aksel]

If you want to see how much a resource is costing you for all their effort on
a project, go to the resource sheet and insert the Cost column. As you said,
be careful not to book a resource against summary tasks and also detail tasks
underneath that same summary ... that's double dipping to an extent.
--
Jim Aksel, MVP

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

This newsgroup is moving, try here too:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/addbuz/threads

 

[Steve House]

A quoted fixed price for a task is entered as a Fixed Cost in the cost table
in the Gantt Chart. Your problem is that the quote you have is not for one
individual task but rather for a sumber of tasks and Project has no
mechanism to automatically dirstibute the quoted price over a group of
individual tasks. You can do it manually, dividing the quote by the number
of tasks it covers and applying each fraction to the idividual tasks, or
better, ctreae a summary task "Programmer's Stuff" and indent all the tasks
he does as subtasks under it. Then enter the quote in the Fixed Cost field
for the summary task - Fixed Cost is one of the very few summary task fields
that is actually editable.

Work Resources are effectively paid an hourly wage, regardless of how you
enter the values. Let's say one of your resources is the Vice President and
she earns $100,000 per year. You enter her Standard Rate in the Resource
Sheet as "100000/year". During June she is schedule to attend a 1-hour
meeting. To calculate her portion of the cost of the meeting, Project
divides her $100,000 salary by the number of work hours in a year, about
2000, so she effectively earns $50 per hour. The meeting consumes 1
man-hour of her time so the meeting costs $50.

Material Resources are consumables, things used up during tasks or things
incorporated into the task deliverables - fuel for a truck, paint for a
wall, a server installed in a computer centre. They are entered in the
Resource Sheet with their per unit cost in the Standard Rate field and when
you assign them to a task you estimate the number of units that the task
will consume. "Paint", Type=Material, Label=Gallons, StdRate = $25. Task
is Paint Master Bedroom. Assign resource Paint to the task at 5 units and
Project calculates the cost at $125 plus tha painter's wages.

Cost Resources (2007) are items that you need to track but that do not have
a fixed per unit cost. For example, here in Ontario, Canada, a pretty
typical per diem rate for travel meal reimbursemnt is $55. But if you
travel up into the Arctic Nunavut the costs of fodd is much higher and a per
diem allowance of $125 is more common. You would enter Per Diem as a cost
resoure in the resource sheet. Then when you "assign" it to a task, you
supply the actual dollar amount you estimate it will be in the resource
assignment infomation for that task - $220 if the task requires 4 days
travel in Ontario but $500 if the task requires 4 days travel in Nunavut.