How to track labor cost comsumption against budget task

[Brian Ho]

I have a budget cost break down by tasks that I would like to associate the
labor cost to the budget cost so that I can see how much is used against the
budget task.

For example:

Project is Microsoft Server 2008 upgrade. The overall budget is $200K. The
break of of $200K is:

1. Labor for IT team to work on server hardware preparation - $50,000.
2. Labor for IT team to work on software migration - $50,000.
3. Labor for programming team to migrate applications to new server - $60,000.
4. Labor for QA team to test the new server and applications - $30,000.
5. Labor for UAT to implement server 2008 to production - $10,000.

I set up above 5 budget resources as cost and check budget check box on the
resource information under resource sheet. I assign these budget resources
to the Project Summary Task on row 0. I set baseline for the project before
assigning labor resources to these tasks. Note: I am not sure if this is
right by setting the baseline before assigning labor resources to the tasks
or should I set baseline AFTER assigning labor resources to the tasks.

Now, I assign the labor resources to each task by adding IT team member to
the task resource name as they begin to work on these tasks. Each one of
them have their own stardard labor rate assigned. As they work on the tasks,
I want to see how much labor cost is used against the budget cost of the task
to ensure we are within the budget. How and where can I see the over or
under budget by task?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Rob Schneider]

This is all about using Project Server. best to re-ask on the newsgroup
dedicated to server: microsoft.public.project.server.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[JulieS]

Hello Brian,

In Project Standard or Pro search for a Help topic "Create a budget
for your project". From your list below it appears as though you
have already completed steps 1-3, you'll need to work through steps
4 & 5.

As an added note, you can also accomplish a similar idea -- tracking
budget (baseline costs) against actual costs through assigning your
labor resources to tasks, such as you have done, and then saving a
baseline. The Baseline costs can be thought of as planned costs.
As you apply actual values to your project, Project will calculate
the difference (variance) between actual cost and baseline cost as
well as actual work and baseline work.

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

 

[Brian Ho]

Hi Julie,

I followed your steps to complete the missing step 4 & 5. I noticed the
budget resources that I created only track the overall total budget. When I
viewed the cost table, it shows the baseline cost and the total cost on the
top row. It also show me the remaining which is good for the whole project.
If I want the track the break down task group, I won't be able to tell
whether I over spend a particular task. My overall budget may show health
but I am over spending one of the tasks. My budget is break down by task
group.

From your added note below, I was able to track the tasks spending
respectiviely. I won't be using budget resources but actual labor resources
with the right standard rate. I will need to set the baseline with the real
resource rate to come up with my task budget. I then use the baseline cost
and the resource cost assign to each task to track the budget spending
respectiviely. This would give me a break down by task. I should not be
adding the budget resources with this option. Otherwise, it will double my
baseline cost.

I wish MS Project would allow us to assign budget cost into a task group not
the project summary.

Thanks,

Brian

 

[JulieS]

Hi Brian,

I'm glad you were able to get what you needed through task baseline
cost. The budget cost and budget work resources are a very
"top-down" method that I personally remove once I've assigned labor
and cost resources as needed.

Julie

 

[Brian Ho]

Thank you very much. I am going to use the baseline method instead of the
budget method to track tasks. This would give me a run down by bugeted tasks
instead of a lump sum budget total.

Brian.