Per Diem and Rental Car

[TVDave]

Ok, I have read a series of posts on separate threads related to these
issues. I am sitll not sure how to solve my problem. I manage a group of
technical gurus who are contracted to go places for testing and fixing
electronic systems. We also provide manpower for local lab facilites that
work on new systems designs. All material costs are the responsibilty of the
customer. I have always tracked my "budget" for our projects by using Excel
to track the expenses that are billed to the customer (labor, travel, per
diem, rental car.) I track them based on weekly reports and move the data to
graphs that identify if I am on, under or over the estimated budget in a
quick glance.

Now I have been forced to subcontract a few projects through a prime who
insists that we track our projects for time schedules and budget using MS
Project. I have no problem tracking time and manpower (i.e. resources.)

But the expenses associated with per diem and car rental are kicking me.
These are things that consume resources ($), not resources in and of
themselves.

For clarity assume one parent task (TESTING SYSTEM at SITE A), with several
subtasks including travel days, and subtests with milestones and dependancies
(can't do test 4 until test 1,2,3 are done) and some days off.

I tried using a total fixed cost per parent task and my problem is that for
a two month trip, showing 50% of the task budget spent on day one causes
concern. And my MS Project tracking does not match my weekly bill to the
prime. Associating these fixed daily costs to subtasks did not work because
they each have variable time (2 days, 7 days, 3 days) but the PD "resource"
was fixed per use. I do use this methed for plane tickets as they become
billable upon departure of the resource.

I tried making per diem "work" with a fixed cost per day and as a seperate
subtask, but that was still tied to the daily hours that were associated with
the parent task.

When I tried making it a "material" cost, is still showed up as all on day
1. It did not distribute the expense across each day. Even when I said I
needed 60 "units" of it for the parent task of 60 days.

So, how should I make per diem and rental costs show up as a fixed amount
each and every day, even when the hours worked will vary from day to day?

As I said, I prefer to track my budget using Excel, but my prime wants it in
Project.

TV Dave

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Perdiem and car rental really are resources - at least the accomdations that
the per diem buys and the car that the rental fee secures are. The dollars
in your budget - for these or anything else - are not the resources, instead
it is the things those dollars pay for that are the resources.

IMHO you're on the right track showing these as material resources as they
are items that are being consumed over the course of their associated task.
When you enter a material resource you have two ways of showing the
consumption. Let's say you're entering gallons of fuel for a generator on
site. You can enter it as a fixed total amount. Say you've estimated 500
gallons will be used, in which case you'd enter "500" in the resource units
column of the resource assignment dialog. Or you can estimate consumption
as a rate - your generator burns 10 gallons per hour for as long as it's
running, so you'd enter it as "10/hour" in the resource units column and
Project will calculate the total usage based on the duration of the task.
Duration goes up and MSP will adjust the consumption accordingly.

So for you per diem and car rental. Enter "Acomodation" and "Rental Car" as
material resources, "day" as their material label, and the per diem and the
rental cost as their rates. When you assign them to a task, enter it as
"units/day." (Don't forget to "pad" the numbers to include non-working days
for tasks that extend over weekends etc but where you till have pay for
those days).