Resource costs against project at different rates.

[OzJono]

Hi, hope I can make this clear!!
A number of projects I am managing "borrow" resources from other
business groups within the organisation. Depending on the relevance
of the project to their own area they will seek to recover the costs
of these resources from the project at different rates. ie the
project will be charged a % of the full rate for those resources. The
rates can different for each resource.

An example.
Jon might work full time on a task for 10 days (Work = 10 units) but
his manager chooses to seek to recover only 80% of the cost of Jon's
time back from the project. ie True cost = 10 days effort while the
cost to the project will be only 8 days effort.

Allan works 50% on his time on the same project task for 10 days (work
= 5 units) and his manager seeks to recover only 60% of that effort.
ie 3 days effort whereas the true cost = 5 days.

What is the best way for me to estimate/track the budget and costs -
both true project cost and amount of chargeable time?
Thanks for any help.
Jon

 

[Jim Aksel]

Add the resource sheet of the existing project (or make sure they are in the
resource pool if you have a shared resource pool file).

On the resource sheet, you can add many rates for each resource, and they
can change over time.

On the resource sheet, double click the resource name. Pull the Costs tab.
When the cost tab is active, you will see sub-Tabs A though E representing 5
unique sets of rates. You can add the rates (either your cost or the other
guys cost, you have to decide). I suggest you add the cost of the resource
to your project. Keep your normal rates on Tab A ... notice how you can add a
"raise" for each resource by just typing an effective date and a new rate.

Suppose you put your "borrowed guy rates" on Tab B. You now want to assign
Rate Schedule B to only certain tasks. That is "Fred" can work on some tasks
at Rate A and other tasks at Rate B becauase the other program manager is
covering part of the cost.

Go to the Resource Usage View (View/Resource Usage...). Insert the column
Cost Rate Table. Scan down "Fred's" tasks and change the rate table assigned
to that task to "B" for each impacted task.

Note, you can accomplish the same thing on the Task Usage View.


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Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[OzJono]

Thanks Jim,
I had gone down the track you've suggested.
However, if I've understood correctly, that requires me to assign a
resource at different rates on different tasks? - rather than being
able to track the costs of that resource at both 1) the charged rate
and 2) the true project cost rate - on each task?

Perhaps what I need to do is estimate true budget and track full
project costs as normal ...but separately use user fields to calculate
the charged budget/costs?

Jon