Per use costs Project 2007

[Kerry Purdy]

Hiya

I have 2 questions please.

Question1:
I have got myself a bit confused over the cost/use value. This is the text
I have but it doesn't seem to be correct/make sense in my brain:-

"For work resources, a per-use cost accrues each time that the resource is
used. For material resources, a per-use cost is accrued only once."

I have a 2-day job "Paint Ceiling"

I have a Painter (work) that charges £100 just to come to site + £10 per
hour (std=£10, cost/use=£100)

When assigned this is showing me:-
£260 cost for the task (£100 + 16 x £10) ??
I was expecting £360 ??

I have a Ladder (Material) that costs me £50 each time I use it (cost/use=£50)

When assigned this is showing me a cost of £50
I was expecting £100 ??

Perhaps I am using the wrong examples, thats why this issue doesn't make
sense in my mind. Can anyone shed any light on the matter please or give me
better examples. Perhaps there is a better way to manage the above costs.

Question 2: If I buy a ladder - it costs me £200 do i need to create a
ladder resource at £200 then another ladder resource costed at £0, the first
time I use the ladder use the costed one, from then on use the £0??

I hope this makes some sense to someone.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Kerry

 

[Jim Aksel]

Question1: Why were you expecting 360? The math from project shows
correctly. 100 to show up, 16 hours of work over 2 days is 160 pounds in
labor. Looks like 260 pounds to me.

The ladder -- It is assigned to the task one time for one use. Project
counts the use as when assigned, not daily. The math seems OK.

Question2: Create a task to buy the ladder and assign a fixed cost of 200
pounds. You would not need a resource other than the time for the purchasing
agent to buy it. After that, the ladder is free. So, the resource Ladder is
0 cost all the way accross.

 

[Kerry Purdy]

Hi Jim

Thanks for the response. Excellent idea about the fixed cost for the
purchase of the ladder, I will do that from now on thanks.

With regards to the £260 I was expecting the maths to calculate each day as
a seperate use, the painter charges £100 to get to site, he is coming to site
twice as he has 2 days of work.

Likewise with the ladder @ £50 for each use, I am using it twice so would
expect it to be £100. I can understand the way of thinking now though but
just not sure when I would use the cost/use. What if i was hiring a ladder
for £50 per day?

Thanks very much.

Kerry

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

If you are hiring a ladder at a daily rate, then the rate is not "per use".
You can either model each day of painting as a task, or put ladder cost as
an hourly rate.

In most work, it is unusual to have such high costs for showing up every
day. 6 hours extra pay just to appear on the job for consecutive days is not
common in any work I've ever seen. In this case, paying the painter 150% for
overtime to complete in one day is well worth it.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[Steve House]

An additional note to the other responses you've had, the ladder is probably
not a material resource anyway. Materials are either used up by doing the
work on a task, like for example fuel for a bulldozer, or is incorporated
into the task's deliverable such as paint for wall or bricks for a walkway.
While there may be cases where a ladder is installed and left in place after
the project is completed, for the most part such items are work resources,
not materials, since after you use it on task A you can take it over to task
B and use it there, then at the end of the project sell it on the "used
ladder" market and recover some of your costs. The number of ladders you
have controls how many tasks requiring ladders you can work on at once in
exactly the same way as the number of workers you have controls the
scheduling of tasks.