Labor showing an extra hour

[Johnny Bravo]

Hi all,

I'm still a bit new to laying out projects in MS project, but I think I have
a pretty good understanding of the basics. I seem to be having a little
difficulty trying to finish laying out estimate project costs for labor.

We're a construction firm with residential home improvement jobs for our
projects. We're entering one job (customer) per project and allocating labor
resources as generic labor for estimating purposes. Even though we have the
same crews work on all the projects, I figured it made the most sense to set
each clinet up as a separate job

My question relates to the display of costs in the Reports section for
allocated resources.

Our use of Project is to keep track of estimated task time (Usually by
10-hour day) compared to actual time spent to complete the job. We're looking
to keep track of time and labor (by job phase) remaining as well.

The simple question:
I've entered the estimated labor resource (1-man labor of $35/hour) and
allocated it to every task in the project where needed. That put a standard
$35/hour rate into the cost for every estimated labor hour specificed.

When I went to check the costs., I looked at one phase that called for 2
days of labor by one man. ... 2 (two) x 10 hour days. As I understand the
software, the cost report should be showing up with $700 labor cost
(estimated) per (10 hour)day, actually shows up as $735 per day.

This happened in every task, for every respurse we've assigned, including
truck time.

Why the extra hour?
Estimated resource shows "2d?" as the estimated duration of the task.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
www.drakeleypools.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[JulieS]

Hello Johnny,

Project calculates cost for resources not on task duration but on the
amount of work for each resource multiplied by the hourly rate set in
the Standard Rate field for the resource. If you are showing $735 in
costs, you must have 21 hours of labor. Take a look at the Task Usage
view to see how much work is assigned.

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

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Julie,

I tried to take a look at the task schedule and I see that the working days
are limited to 8 hour days when they should be set to 10. Regardless of that
issue, the fact is I have 20 hours set to a task, and the cost is showing up
as 22 (An extra hour per day).

I'm thinking there's a problem with my base calender that I thought I
modified to be 10 hours per day.

Still, that doesn't explain why there's an extra labor hour in each task per
day.

Thoughts?

 

[JulieS]

Hi Jon,

If your calendar was set to only allow 8 hours per day, how did you
schedule the resources for 10 hours per day? What is the start and
finish times in the resource's base calendar? Did you assign overtime?
Is there a different overtime rate set?

If you look at the Gantt chart and split your screen (Window split) --
how many hours of work show for the task? I know you said *duration*
shows at 2d? but how much work is showing?

If the project is not too large, if you'd like to, zip the file and
send it to me by email. I'll take a look and see if I can discover
what is going on. I suspect there is a problem with your calendars,
but it's easier for me to take a look than guess all of the possible
issues. My email address is: passport6847[AT]Maine[DOT]RR[DOT]Com.
Replace the [AT] with @ and [DOT] with periods.

Julie
Project MVP

Julie,

I tried to take a look at the task schedule and I see that the
working days
are limited to 8 hour days when they should be set to 10.
Regardless of that
issue, the fact is I have 20 hours set to a task, and the cost is
showing up
as 22 (An extra hour per day).

I'm thinking there's a problem with my base calender that I thought
I
modified to be 10 hours per day.

Still, that doesn't explain why there's an extra labor hour in each
task per
day.

Thoughts?






--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jon S.
www.drakeleypools.com~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...ation about Microsoft Project[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Julie,

Thanks,

I‘ve been looking at what's up with the calendar, and all I can tell is that
I might need to rebuild the template I'm using ( I created it before setting
up non-working days and hours worked), but this time with the calendar
specified first so that the actual working time for a day is 10 hours.

That seems to be part of the issue.

But it still doesn't explain the issue where I entered 20 hours for a task,
and then assigned a generic labor unit resource to the task. When I did
that, I can see the cost in the reports (view project cost) showing cost for
10 hours +1 extra hour per day.

When I view the task usage it shows 20 hours.
Unfortunately it spreads the 20 hours over 3 days. 8 + 8 + 4

Does that help explain the issue?



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jon S.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Jon,

If your calendar was set to only allow 8 hours per day, how did you
schedule the resources for 10 hours per day? What is the start and
finish times in the resource's base calendar? Did you assign overtime?
Is there a different overtime rate set?

If you look at the Gantt chart and split your screen (Window split) --
how many hours of work show for the task? I know you said *duration*
shows at 2d? but how much work is showing?

If the project is not too large, if you'd like to, zip the file and
send it to me by email. I'll take a look and see if I can discover
what is going on. I suspect there is a problem with your calendars,
but it's easier for me to take a look than guess all of the possible
issues. My email address is: passport6847[AT]Maine[DOT]RR[DOT]Com.
Replace the [AT] with @ and [DOT] with periods.

Julie
Project MVP

Julie,

I tried to take a look at the task schedule and I see that the
working days
are limited to 8 hour days when they should be set to 10.
Regardless of that
issue, the fact is I have 20 hours set to a task, and the cost is
showing up
as 22 (An extra hour per day).

I'm thinking there's a problem with my base calender that I thought
I
modified to be 10 hours per day.

Still, that doesn't explain why there's an extra labor hour in each
task per
day.

Thoughts?






--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jon S.
www.drakeleypools.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[JulieS]

Hi Jon,

I've sent back a more in-depth answer by email, but the short answer
to the cost problem is you have added a Cost per Use for each of your
resources. This adds the additional cost in the cost per use field to
each assignment. Set the cost per use back to zero and you should see
the additional costs go away.

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

Julie,

Thanks,

I've been looking at what's up with the calendar, and all I can tell
is that
I might need to rebuild the template I'm using ( I created it before
setting
up non-working days and hours worked), but this time with the
calendar
specified first so that the actual working time for a day is 10
hours.

That seems to be part of the issue.

But it still doesn't explain the issue where I entered 20 hours for
a task,
and then assigned a generic labor unit resource to the task. When I
did
that, I can see the cost in the reports (view project cost) showing
cost for
10 hours +1 extra hour per day.

When I view the task usage it shows 20 hours.
Unfortunately it spreads the 20 hours over 3 days. 8 + 8 + 4

Does that help explain the issue?



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jon S.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Jon,

If your calendar was set to only allow 8 hours per day, how did you
schedule the resources for 10 hours per day? What is the start and
finish times in the resource's base calendar? Did you assign
overtime?
Is there a different overtime rate set?

If you look at the Gantt chart and split your screen (Window
split) --
how many hours of work show for the task? I know you said
*duration*
shows at 2d? but how much work is showing?

If the project is not too large, if you'd like to, zip the file and
send it to me by email. I'll take a look and see if I can discover
what is going on. I suspect there is a problem with your
calendars,
but it's easier for me to take a look than guess all of the
possible
issues. My email address is: passport6847[AT]Maine[DOT]RR[DOT]Com.
Replace the [AT] with @ and [DOT] with periods.

Julie
Project MVP

Julie,

I tried to take a look at the task schedule and I see that the
working days
are limited to 8 hour days when they should be set to 10.
Regardless of that
issue, the fact is I have 20 hours set to a task, and the cost is
showing up
as 22 (An extra hour per day).

I'm thinking there's a problem with my base calender that I
thought
I
modified to be 10 hours per day.

Still, that doesn't explain why there's an extra labor hour in
each
task per
day.

Thoughts?






--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jon S.
www.drakeleypools.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


:

Hello Johnny,

Project calculates cost for resources not on task duration but
on
the
amount of work for each resource multiplied by the hourly rate
set
in
the Standard Rate field for the resource. If you are showing
$735
in
costs, you must have 21 hours of labor. Take a look at the Task
Usage
view to see how much work is assigned.

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

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Julie

Awesome!

I thought I had everything close. Figures it was something simple but
easily overlooked for a newcomer.

The schedule is fine now, although I had a bit of a question how to affect
all days. Simple now.

Thanks for all the help. We're looking good.

Jon

 

[JulieS]

Great Jon. Glad to hear things are looking up and thanks for the
feedback.

Julie
Project MVP