How to window cost

[ritpg]

I've been away from Project for a while but it seems to me that I used
to be able to insert a Cost column that would display the cost over a
designated period of time for example, from today thru the end of the
project to show the cost to complete. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
ritpg

 

[Jim Aksel]

The remaining cost column does exactly that (assuming you have entered actual
costs to date or had Project calculate them)
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

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

 

[Doctor Dave]

Do you mean the overall cost of the project or material costs?

If it is the former you can look at the Task Usage view and adjust the
timescale to suit your needs. You can insert cost as one of the fields
to display.

If it is the latter, it depends partly on how you represent material
costs. If you assign it as a cost to tasks, then you can use the
Resource Usage view or you can use the Task Usage view and apply a
grouping (group by assignments on Name) to display it. Again, you may
need to adjust the timescale.

 

[ritpg]

The remaining cost column does exactly that (assuming you have entered actual
costs to date or had Project calculate them)
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

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






- Show quoted text -

Thanks for your response, Jim. Unfortunately, we are not entering
actual costs or work. All I'm looking for is a way to get Project to
calculate remaining projected cost from a specified date to the end of
the project. I can do this by setting the current hourly rate to zero
and a real rate commencing on the chosen date. But that's too much
work every time I want to do this calculation because there are
several people working on the project.
Thanks,
ritpg

 

[Doctor Dave]

Thanks for your response, Jim. Unfortunately, we are not entering
actual costs or work. All I'm looking for is a way to get Project to
calculate remaining projected cost from a specified date to the end of
the project. I can do this by setting the current hourly rate to zero
and a real rate commencing on the chosen date. But that's too much
work every time I want to do this calculation because there are
several people working on the project.
Thanks,
ritpg

How about you add the Cumulative Cost field to the Resource Usage or
Task Usage views. Then the remaining cost is the difference between the
cost at an arbitrary date and the end-of-project cost (although I think
that the accuracy of this figure with your approach is questionable).

 

[ritpg]

ritpgwrote:


How about you add the Cumulative Cost field to the Resource Usage or
Task Usage views.  Then the remaining cost is the difference between the
cost at an arbitrary date and the end-of-project cost (although I think
that the accuracy of this figure with your approach is questionable).- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Doc,

I don't seem to see a column named Cumulative Cost when I try to
insert a column into either the Resource Usage or Task Usage views. I
am using MS Project 2003. Another way to do what you propose is to
export Cost and Cumulative Cost to Excel using the Analyze Timescaled
Data in Excel button and then, as you say, "the remaining cost is the
difference between the cost at an arbitrary date and the end-of-
project cost". Perhaps I need to provide more information at this
point. I'm trying to create a situation where the person, who knows
how much money remains for the project, can update the remaining tasks
(start dates, task dependencies, duration and resources) and even add
new tasks while making sure he does not exceed the money that is
left. If he continually has to export data to Excel to see where he
stands, that is not ideal.

As I'm sure you can tell by now, we are not exactly using Project in a
classical way. Lots of its automatic processing is turned off by
setting tasks to Fixed Duration (when changing resources) and Fixed
Effort (when changing duration). And as I said previously, we are not
entering Actual Cost as the project progresses.

I hope this gives you additional insight into what I am trying to do.
I really appreciate your help.

ritpg

 

[ritpg]

The remaining cost column does exactly that (assuming you have entered actual
costs to date or had Project calculate them)
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

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






- Show quoted text -

Jim, thanks for your response. As you can see from my subsequent
posts, there is more to the story. BTW, I can't get to your blog from
where I am - it's blocked as an "uncategorized web site".

 

[Steve House]

Since you're not tracking costs or work, you're not spending any of the
budget. Work is what the budget exists to buy. Since you're not spending
any money (as far as Project can see), there are no actual costs to deduct
from the initial project budget as you proceed and the remaining cost will
never decrease no matter how far you've gone into the project. Remaining =
Initial - Actual. If Actual is always zero, Remaining always equals Initial
by definition.

What you might do is first make sure you have a baseline and then as you go
through the schedule, examine the BCWS figures in the Earned Value tables as
of the status date in question. Total Cost - BCWS would give you remaining
budgeted cost as of that date. Not sure if that number would be giving you
any useful information since it conveys nothing about the Project's real
status but it sounds like that's the number you're asking for.
--
Steve House
MS Project Trainer & Consultant




Thanks for your response, Jim. Unfortunately, we are not entering
actual costs or work. All I'm looking for is a way to get Project to
calculate remaining projected cost from a specified date to the end of
the project. I can do this by setting the current hourly rate to zero
and a real rate commencing on the chosen date. But that's too much
work every time I want to do this calculation because there are
several people working on the project.
Thanks,
ritpg

 

[ritpg]

Since you're not tracking costs or work, you're not spending any of the
budget.  Work is what the budget exists to buy.  Since you're not spending
any money (as far as Project can see), there are no actual costs to deduct
from the initial project budget as you proceed and the remaining cost will
never decrease no matter how far you've gone into the project.  Remaining =
Initial - Actual.  If Actual is always zero, Remaining always equals Initial
by definition.

What you might do is first make sure you have a baseline and then as you go
through the schedule, examine the BCWS figures in the Earned Value tablesas
of the status date in question.  Total Cost - BCWS would give you remaining
budgeted cost as of that date.  Not sure if that number would be givingyou
any useful information since it conveys nothing about the Project's real
status but it sounds like that's the number you're asking for.
--
Steve House
MS Project Trainer & Consultant



Thanks for your response, Jim.  Unfortunately,  we are not entering
actual costs or work.  All I'm looking for is a way to get Project to
calculate remaining projected cost from a specified date to the end of
the project. I can do this by setting the current hourly rate to zero
and a real rate commencing on the chosen date.  But that's too much
work every time I want to do this calculation because there are
several people working on the project.
Thanks,ritpg

We are tracking actual costs independent of Project; we know what they
are and therefore we know how much money remains at all times. What
I'm trying to do is get Project display in Table: entry view how much
Project thinks it will cost to get the project completed based on the
schedule information that has been entered. It is very easy to do
this manually; I've described 2 ways in this thread already. I guess
I'm concluding there is no easy way to do this.

Thanks, all, for your feedback.

BTW, I'm curious to know how folks are capturing "actuals" data for
entry into Project these days. We currently use an accounting system
driven by time sheets. We already have a fairly large number of
charge numbers for capturing actuals but nowhere near the number
needed to capture actuals for entry into our Project schedule at its
primitive task level. I have been involved in EVM projects many years
ago so I certainly understand the concept. At that time we had charge
numbers at the primitive level of the WBS (which was separate from the
schedule). We used Project (or Time Line) to plan activities (neither
handled EVM at the time) but all EVM was done with spreadsheets
independent of the schedule. How's that for the dark ages?

I'm also curious to know what criteria folks are using to decide when
and when not to use EVM. I would think that EVM is over kill on small
projects. But perhaps not these days.

Thanks.

 

[ritpg]

We are tracking actual costs independent of Project; we know what they
are and therefore we know how much money remains at all times.  What
I'm trying to do is get Project display in Table: entry view how much
Project thinks it will cost to get the project completed based on the
schedule information that has been entered.  It is very easy to do
this manually; I've described 2 ways in this thread already.  I guess
I'm concluding there is no easy way to do this.

Thanks, all, for your feedback.

BTW, I'm curious to know how folks are capturing "actuals" data for
entry into Project these days.  We currently use an accounting system
driven by time sheets.  We already have a fairly large number of
charge numbers for capturing actuals but nowhere near the number
needed to capture actuals for entry into our Project schedule at its
primitive task level.  I have been involved in EVM projects many years
ago so I certainly understand the concept.  At that time we had charge
numbers at the primitive level of the WBS (which was separate from the
schedule).  We used Project (or Time Line) to plan activities (neither
handled EVM at the time) but all EVM was done with spreadsheets
independent of the schedule.  How's that for the dark ages?

I'm also curious to know what criteria folks are using to decide when
and when not to use EVM.  I would think that EVM is over kill on small
projects.  But perhaps not these days.

Thanks.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

What I am looking for is remaining BCWS to be displayed in the Table:
entry view. I'm starting to think this will require a macro.

 

[Steve House]

Cumulative Cost is not a column in the usage tables, it is an available line
in the time-phased data on the right hand timeline side of the screen.


--
Steve House
MS Project Trainer & Consultant

ritpgwrote:


How about you add the Cumulative Cost field to the Resource Usage or
Task Usage views. Then the remaining cost is the difference between the
cost at an arbitrary date and the end-of-project cost (although I think
that the accuracy of this figure with your approach is questionable).-
Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Doc,

I don't seem to see a column named Cumulative Cost when I try to
insert a column into either the Resource Usage or Task Usage views. I
am using MS Project 2003. Another way to do what you propose is to
export Cost and Cumulative Cost to Excel using the Analyze Timescaled
Data in Excel button and then, as you say, "the remaining cost is the
difference between the cost at an arbitrary date and the end-of-
project cost". Perhaps I need to provide more information at this
point. I'm trying to create a situation where the person, who knows
how much money remains for the project, can update the remaining tasks
(start dates, task dependencies, duration and resources) and even add
new tasks while making sure he does not exceed the money that is
left. If he continually has to export data to Excel to see where he
stands, that is not ideal.

As I'm sure you can tell by now, we are not exactly using Project in a
classical way. Lots of its automatic processing is turned off by
setting tasks to Fixed Duration (when changing resources) and Fixed
Effort (when changing duration). And as I said previously, we are not
entering Actual Cost as the project progresses.

I hope this gives you additional insight into what I am trying to do.
I really appreciate your help.

ritpg