Cash Flow Projection

[Ran'zel]

Hello,

I'm looking for a way to use Project2003 to provide some cash flow
predictions for my projects. For example i have a project with a
couple deliver phases and an expected invoice at the end of each phase.
I have a good idea where these invoice events occur in time (or at
least their dependencies that i'll be tracking in Project) but I would
also like to create a report that shows the invoice amounts summarized
for the next 6 months.

I played around a bit with some custom fields (cost1) and tried to
create a report, but i could never get the custom fields to appear in
the report selection. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

 

[John]

Hello,

I'm looking for a way to use Project2003 to provide some cash flow
predictions for my projects. For example i have a project with a
couple deliver phases and an expected invoice at the end of each phase.
I have a good idea where these invoice events occur in time (or at
least their dependencies that i'll be tracking in Project) but I would
also like to create a report that shows the invoice amounts summarized
for the next 6 months.

I played around a bit with some custom fields (cost1) and tried to
create a report, but i could never get the custom fields to appear in
the report selection. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

Ran'zel,
If you are looking for a format like the one produced by the built-in
Cash Flow Report, that can NOT be accomplished using spare (or
customized) fields. The Cash Flow Report is a timescaled report and
spare fields are not timescaled.

I see a couple of choices. If you are only looking for values for a 6
month period (I assume monthly), then you could designate 6 spare cost
fields (one for each month) and show the invoice values there. You
didn't specify how the invoice value is derived so I can't be more
specific on whether a formula could be used to populate each field or
whether it would need to be a manual entry.

A second option requires the use of an advanced feature of Project,
namely VBA. With VBA spare fields CAN be timescaled (based on a
developed algrithm) and then the data can be dumped into another
application (e.g. Excel).

John
Project MVP

 

[Ran'zel]

Thank you for the reply. The invoice values will extend indefinitly,
as we track projects. So using multiple cost fields won't work.

I was hoping to be able to create a milestone task, to track with the
project, that just had some billing information tied to it. The number
isn't to be calculated, it will be entered manually. I just wanted to
be able to create a timescale report from those values.

I haven't played with VBA and will have a bit of a curve to understand
how to do what you are speaking of. The programming isn't the issue,
its understanding how to pull the data from Project.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

The simplest way is to enter these invoice data as fixed costs for the
milestones, in such a way the task usage view will readily give you exactly
what you want.
That is, if you don't use the cost fields for an other use!

HTH

 

[Ran'zel]

I have this working to my satisfaction with the fixed costs. Thanks a
bunch!

 

[John]

Thank you for the reply. The invoice values will extend indefinitly,
as we track projects. So using multiple cost fields won't work.

I was hoping to be able to create a milestone task, to track with the
project, that just had some billing information tied to it. The number
isn't to be calculated, it will be entered manually. I just wanted to
be able to create a timescale report from those values.

I haven't played with VBA and will have a bit of a curve to understand
how to do what you are speaking of. The programming isn't the issue,
its understanding how to pull the data from Project.

Ran'zel,
Reading your latest reply to Jan's post, may I assume you have a
workable approach?

For you reference, there is an excellent tutorial on learning VBA. Go to
our MVP website at: http://www.mvps.org/project/links.htm
At the bottom of the page you will find a link for, "Project 98 Visual
Basic Environment Training Materials". Even though it says it is for
Project 98, it is equally applicable to all current versions of Project.
The only real difference is that later versions have added to the
Project Object model (i.e. more "stuff" available through VBA).

John

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

You're welcome, Ran'zel.

 

[Ran'zel]

Yes. Since i'm not currently calculating anything in the fixed cost
field, i used it, with milestones, to enter in my projected invoices.
Doing this allowed me to create a report where i filtered for costs >0
to only show my invoice projections.

 

[John]

Yes. Since i'm not currently calculating anything in the fixed cost
field, i used it, with milestones, to enter in my projected invoices.
Doing this allowed me to create a report where i filtered for costs >0
to only show my invoice projections.

Ran'zel,
Great!
John