Cost Rate Table

[JP]

I've set up each of my personnel (work) resources with rates in both the A
and B table. I've gone through every step I can determine, but I still don't
have a choice for a cost rate table on the General tab of Task Information -
or anywhere else that I'm looking.

I wonder if I'm looking for it in the right place, and, if i am, what I'm
possibly doing wrong. I use 2003 Standard - any light shed would be
appreciated.

Thanks,
- JP

 

[JulieS]

Hello JP,

You need to look at either the Task *Usage* view or Resource Usage
view. In the Task Usage view, the line indented underneath each task
name showing the resource's name is the Assignment record for the
specific resource to the specific task. Double click the assignment
record and select the cost rate table there.

To speed things along, add the Cost Rate Table field to the Task Usage
view.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[JP]

Ah, so - found it. Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction.

My next issue is to come up with a way to report on monthly costs for all
projects(projected, not actual) based on assigning resources from my A and B
tables. In other words I'd like to see all projected costs for resources from
A (for all projects) and for B (for all projects) through all scheduled
tasks. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
- JP

 

[JulieS]

You're welcome JP. To your next question, I'm not sure I understand
what you are looking for. I think you want to see for each task the
remaining cost on assignments broken out by cost rate table used to
assign the resource?

That's a bit tougher. The Cost Rate field is not accessible either
through formulas, grouping or sorting. Because every task can have
multiple assignments each using a different cost rate table, I'm not
even sure VBA code copying data to spare cost fields for the task
would work.

For a single task, are the assignments all using the same rate table?
For example, Task 1 with Bob, Sue, & Mary assigned -- are they all
Cost Rate Table B or can Bob be with Cost Rate Table A, Sue with table
B and Mary with B?

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[JP]

Thanks, Julie - I appreciate your help. Here's what I'm after:

- I have two distinct types of projects (call them A and B types).
- All my work resources have duplicate entries in the A and B cost rate
tables, with identical cost entries.
- There would be no task mixed-cost assignments for a particular project;
projects would be homogenous (e.g., all assignments for a B-type project
would be made from the B table).
- We have a need - for only B-type projects - to look ahead several months
and forecast monthly work resource costs (total) by project.

I'm hoping there's a way I can extract these data for reporting - thanks in
advance for any assistance.
- JP

 

[JulieS]

Hi JP,

Thanks for the additional information.

I'm not sure why you are using the different cost rate tables if the
costs are identical between the rate tables. As the name suggests,
the cost rate tables are used to apply different resource costs to
assignments, usually based upon a specific resource performing
different types of work on different tasks in the same project.

If all assignments to a task will be from the same cost rate table,
and there are no differences between the rates in the A table or B
table, would a simple text field that you could use against tasks
work? You could create a text field with choices of A or B and tag
the tasks. Then with grouping you could group tasks in either A or B
groups. The costs would be summarized by group for printing purposes.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[JP]

Thanks, Julie. Without going into a lot of detail, I've set up identical A
and B cost rate tables not for purposes of assigning different resource rates
to tasks, but rather to group entire projects by the cost rate table
identifier (because of the two different types of projects we run). I was
hoping to - in some way - group all active projects by these two cost rate
table identifiers and report on them in one shot.

Currently, I'm using a customized Crosstab Report to grab these monthly cost
data by project. Sounds like this method will have to suffice - but thanks
anyway for your help!
- JP

 

[JulieS]

You're welcome JP. If you have found that using the cost rate tables
works after a fashion, great. I still think that a simple coding and
then grouping by task code would work much easier -- but then, I don't
know the details.

Good luck and do post again should you have a need to.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Steve House]

Pardon for jumping in, but I'll have to side with Julie in the observation
that it seems like your trying to use the cost rate tables in a very
'creative' way that is going to throw up against a wall sooner or later.
Their original intent is not to classify projects but rather to handle the
situation of a resource such as myself where I bill at a different rate
depending of whether I'm doing consulting, or development or training
assignments. Consulting is costed as $XX, development at $YY, and training
at $ZZ. A project might have me doing all three types of tasks over its
course. So by using the reate tables I can tell Project which rate to use
in computing the cost for any given task.

Your issue seems to be that you have different project types and are trying
to use the rate table to classify projects as to being type A or type B.
But since that is a project type, wouldn't all the tasks in a project
inherit the same project type? Good organization says that each independent
project should have its own separate mpp file. The reporting issue you
describe seems like it would only come into play is if you mixed tasks from
projects of type A and tasks from projects of type B in the same file but
that is something that should NEVER be done. A project is defined as the
collection of tasks producing a single unique and quantifiable result and
each project would be in its own file so its tasks are isolated from all the
other projects you're working on. So if I have 3 projects of type A and 5
projects of type B, I have 8 separate project files. Now if I need the
costs for just type B projects, I can create a consolidate file containing
ONLY the type B projects and all the costs roll up nicely as they should.

Hope I'm making sense here. What I'm trying to say is it seems likely that
your problem stems from having one file with a conglomeration of tasks from
a number of different projects that in turn fall into one of two categories.
Split all of the distinct projects into their own separate files as they
should be and the problem of reporting by project category largely fixes
itself.