how do you amend the formual for Total Cost

[Anya Langguth]

I have added a custom field (task - cost type) and now want the entry in the
custom field to be added to the Total Cost field - how do i change the
formula for Total Cost so that it adds this new value in?

I am using Project 2002

Thanks

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello Anya,
You can't change the [Total cost] formula, but you can create a new custom
field such as Cost2 with all the formulae you want.

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Anya Langguth]

Hi Gerard,

Thanks for that - but now I have another problem. I have created my own
total cost (lets call it "My Total Cost") and I now want to save this to a
Baseline (overall project). So now I need to amend the Baseline formula to
use My Total Cost instead of the default Total Cost. Can I create my own
Baseline formula?

thanks

Hello Anya,
You can't change the [Total cost] formula, but you can create a new custom
field such as Cost2 with all the formulae you want.

Gérard Ducouret

I have added a custom field (task - cost type) and now want the entry in the
custom field to be added to the Total Cost field - how do i change the
formula for Total Cost so that it adds this new value in?

I am using Project 2002

Thanks

 

[JackD]

John,

I think it is worth mentioning that any timescaling of spare fields is going
to be fairly limited. Many of the fields are limited to 255 characters so
there is a limit to how much data can be stored there. The user would also
need to develop their own format for storing and retrieving the data.
Certainly it can be done to some extent, but it is still very primitive
compared to the built-in timescaling. Of course you could always store the
information somewhere outside project (in a database perhaps) and then the
sky is the limit, but at the cost of some pretty elaborate programming.

-Jack

 

[John]

Hi Gerard,

Thanks for that - but now I have another problem. I have created my own
total cost (lets call it "My Total Cost") and I now want to save this to a
Baseline (overall project). So now I need to amend the Baseline formula to
use My Total Cost instead of the default Total Cost. Can I create my own
Baseline formula?

thanks

Anya,
You don't need a formula for a custom baseline. Baseline fields in
Project are simply a snapshot of the field they are saving at a specific
point in time, so all you need to do to create a custom baseline is to
save your Total Cost field into a spare cost or text field. However, the
built-in baseline fields have an additional parametric that may or may
not be important to you. Most built-in baseline fields are timescaled
(e.g. Baseline Cost). That is, the data can be displayed in the
timescaled portion (right side) of the Usage views (Resource or Task).
When you use a spare field to capture your Total Cost baseline value it
will be a single value. Spare fields can be timescaled but to do so
requires some VBA.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[John]

John,

I think it is worth mentioning that any timescaling of spare fields is going
to be fairly limited. Many of the fields are limited to 255 characters so
there is a limit to how much data can be stored there. The user would also
need to develop their own format for storing and retrieving the data.
Certainly it can be done to some extent, but it is still very primitive
compared to the built-in timescaling. Of course you could always store the
information somewhere outside project (in a database perhaps) and then the
sky is the limit, but at the cost of some pretty elaborate programming.

-Jack

Jack,
I was thinking more along the lines of creating the necessary timescaled
data and dumping it into Excel. The programming actually isn't too bad
but then, I've done it a few times.

John

 

[Anya Langguth]

Hi John,

When I save my baseline it does not include the data from my custom field
("My Total Cost"). All it saves is the data from the default Total Cost.
When you say: "Baseline fields in Project are simply a snapshot of the
field they are saving at a specific point in time" - I don't understand how
you specify what fields to save to a baseline??
Just to clear this up, "My Total Cost" field is simply the default Total
Cost plus another custom cost field (Cost 1).

Thanks for your help so far...

Anya

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Anya,

If you interrogate the Help pages by entering Baseline/About Baselines, you
will see that the baseline fields are only Start, Finish, Duration, Work and
Cost. You can see these from the Gannt Chart view if you go to
View/Tables/More Tables.. and select the Baseline table. The data is
entered by selecting Tools/Tracking/Save Baseline... This is best done when
your planned schedule is finished, just before you put it into operation.
It thus saves a snapshot of the conditions at the time which you can then
use to compare with progress. Hence, any custom fields you create will not
show up in baseline calculations.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on )

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Anya Langguth]

Hi Mike,

arghghgh! so now I am back at the start again! So in fact it is not possible
to save custom data in to a baseline?? Trust me I have interrogated those
help pages!

So you are saying that what John said below is in fact incorrect?

I have actually given up on this and found another solution. What I was
trying to do was add a custom field called "investment" - which is an amount
of money that my company wishes to investment in a certain project. I wanted
to keep this "investment" money separate so that I could view in reports how
much of the total cost was in fact "investment" money.
I have now just added this investment money in to the Fixed Cost field for
the project and renamed the Fixed Cost to say "Investment". We don't have any
fixed costs here (we are a web design company) so I'm thinking that this will
work ok.

Thanks for the help and link - I will have a look.

cheers

anya

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Anya,

I don't see what I said contradicts John's! You can create whatever field
you like but it still won't be treated as a part of Project's built-in
baseline program. You can always overwrite any of the Baseline data if you
wish as long as you know what to make of the result.


Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Just an aside - as a web design company you might still have fixed costs
associated with your tasks, it's by no means limited to industries like
construction. Suppose you had to travel to a remote location to take
pictures for the site you're building or you have a temp graphics artist
coming in to augment your staff so you can meet a deadline and have to rent
furniture and a workstation for them to work at while they're here? Those
are both classic examples of costs that might be attibuted as fixed costs to
the phase or tasks in the project that requires them. They're "fixed" in
the sense that they're not the wages of resources or materials used up in
performing the tasks.

 

[John]

Hi Mike,

arghghgh! so now I am back at the start again! So in fact it is not possible
to save custom data in to a baseline?? Trust me I have interrogated those
help pages!

So you are saying that what John said below is in fact incorrect?

I have actually given up on this and found another solution. What I was
trying to do was add a custom field called "investment" - which is an amount
of money that my company wishes to investment in a certain project. I wanted
to keep this "investment" money separate so that I could view in reports how
much of the total cost was in fact "investment" money.
I have now just added this investment money in to the Fixed Cost field for
the project and renamed the Fixed Cost to say "Investment". We don't have any
fixed costs here (we are a web design company) so I'm thinking that this will
work ok.

Thanks for the help and link - I will have a look.

cheers

anya

Anya,
Since you called my response into question I feel I must elaborate. I
thought Mike's clarification that Project's built-in Baseline fields
only apply to certain fields was adequate but apparently not. I
neglected to point that out when I said, "Baseline fields in Project are
simply a snapshot of the field they are saving at a specific point in
time". However, a "baseline" by definition is a snapshot of data at a
point in time. Project has specific built-in baseline fields but a
"baseline field" does not need to be limited to the built-in one. From
the description of your "investment" cost, you can still save a
baseline. It just won't be a built-in baseline and to set it will
require a manual operation NOT activated by the menu,
"Tools/Tracking/Save Baseline".

I agree with Steve and further believe you may actually be "double
dipping" by using the Fixed Cost field for your investment cost. You
indicate your investment cost is made up of the built-in Cost field plus
Cost1. Fixed Costs are added to the Cost field, so if you are still
using the additive formula for investment cost, you are doubling the
value.

Why not simply do as I suggested in the first place, although I probably
wasn't specific or clear enough. Create a custom field (e.g. Cost2) that
adds Cost and investment (i.e. Cost1). Since this value will vary as
Cost varies, in order to "save a baseline", copy the contents of Cost2
into a third custom field (e.g. Cost3) called "investment baseline".
This then takes a snapshot of of the summed up investment cost at a
point in time (whenever the copy was executed).

Hopefully this clears a few thing up.

John