Expenses - Per diem

[Greg M]

Is there anyway I can automatically add or subtract per diem based on how
many people are out in the field? For example, as I am adding adding people
to an out of town task the per diem amount for that task will go up, but the
amout of days will decrease. Is there anyway to add a material cost per
person per day on a given task?

Thanks

 

[JulieS]

Hi Greg M,

You can assign material costs to a task as unit per day -- that's the
easy part. In the resource assignment dialog box select the material
resource and in the units field enter 1/d to assign the material
resource at one unit per day. If the duration of the task increases or
decreases, the cost will increase or decrease as appropriate. You can
also assign material resources in the same manner through the task form
or the task information form. Be aware however, that if your task
durations are in partial days, the cost per day is also calculated in
partials -- so if the per diem is $30.00 per day and the duration is
3.50 days, the cost will be $105.

However, assuming you have a per diem material resource cost per work
resource that's where things get a bit sticker. The only answer I can
come up with off the top of my head is to create a per diem material
resource per work resource and make sure to assign the per diem material
resource every time you assign the work resource. For example: create
the work resource "Greg" and a material resource "Greg's per diem
charge" and make sure that everytime you assign Greg you also assign
"Greg's per diem charge". Same obviously holds true if you unassign
Greg from a task.

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

 

[Greg M]

Thanks, I was tring to create a easier way, the way you described would work
fine for food and lodging, but I'll have to create a seperate resource for
airfare (i.e. two day out of town task compared to a two week out of town
task)



Agian, thanks a bunch!

 

[JulieS]

Hi Greg,

You're most welcome and thanks for the feedback.

To your point about airfare -- I'm assuming that airfare wouldn't vary
based solely on the duration of the task. I'd suggest just putting
costs that most likely won't vary based upon task duration into the
fixed cost field for the task and then just drop a note on the task with
details about the fixed costs.

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