Tasks span month ends, need costs for one month

[Chris V]

I have tasks which are more than one week in duration, and they often have
start and finish dates which cause them to span over a calendar month end.

I am using a cost table to calculate the Total cost based on the resource
costs time duration. I want to filter for total costs within a calendar
month. If use the start and finish dates as the fields for a filter, Project
eliminates tasks that have a start OR an end date which is outside the
calendar month.

How can I filter a view (table type is Cost) to costs that are within a
specified calendar period?

 

[John]

I have tasks which are more than one week in duration, and they often have
start and finish dates which cause them to span over a calendar month end.

I am using a cost table to calculate the Total cost based on the resource
costs time duration. I want to filter for total costs within a calendar
month. If use the start and finish dates as the fields for a filter, Project
eliminates tasks that have a start OR an end date which is outside the
calendar month.

How can I filter a view (table type is Cost) to costs that are within a
specified calendar period?

Chris,
Why not use one of the Usage views (Resource or Task)? The timescale can
be set to show costs by month or any other time period.

John
Project MVP

 

[Chris V]

Thank you for your response John, it was helpful.

I’m still not quite getting what I need. After creating the Usage view by
task it splits the task costs that span months just how I need it to but the
totals don’t seem to respect any filters. All the details do as only ‘closed’
task costs appear, but the monthly totals (called roll up sums I believe) are
a sum of all tasks, closed or not.

I’m hoping for another fairly obvious solution to filtering the month
totals, like your previous response was.

Thanks again John!

Regards,
Chris

 

[John]

Thank you for your response John, it was helpful.

I’m still not quite getting what I need. After creating the Usage view by
task it splits the task costs that span months just how I need it to but the
totals don’t seem to respect any filters. All the details do as only ‘closed’
task costs appear, but the monthly totals (called roll up sums I believe) are
a sum of all tasks, closed or not.

I’m hoping for another fairly obvious solution to filtering the month
totals, like your previous response was.

Thanks again John!

Regards,
Chris

Chris,
I think we have a communication problem. First, what exactly do you
want? I though you wanted cost by month - either of the Usage views will
give you that depending on whether you want it by resource or by task.
Second, what do you mean by "closed" task? Third, what are you trying to
filter?

With a little better understanding of your end goal, we can probably
come up with a solution.

John
Project MVP

 

[Chris V]

Chris,

I think we have a communication problem. First, what exactly do you
want? I though you wanted cost by month - either of the Usage views will
give you that depending on whether you want it by resource or by task.
Second, what do you mean by "closed" task? Third, what are you trying to
filter?

With a little better understanding of your end goal, we can probably
come up with a solution.

John
Project MVP

John,

I’ll start by clarifying “closedâ€. Closed is the marked field, I have
changed this column name to Closed. When Closed is Yes, this indicates
contracts that have been accepted by the client and us therefore are a 100%
go. This is what I am trying to filter on, only tasks that have a Yes value
in the marked field.

Is this the best way to handle this concept? Is this a proper use of the
marked field?

The final result I want is the task costs for work spilt by month where the
marked field (Closed) is Yes. I want the rollup to show the total for only
the filtered tasks, this is not happening

Currently the rollup total cost shows all tasks, including those where
Closed is No, even though these tasks do not appear in the filtered view.
After manually adding the costs of the tasks in the filtered Usage view I get
the correct value but the rollup total at the top (for the month) shows a
larger value because it is including the Closed = No tasks.

There are two tasks that have been identified as the difference between the
rollup cost for the month and a manual total of the tasks that are listed in
the filtered view. These tasks are marked No, do not appear in the task list
of the filtered Usage view but are included in the rollup cost for the month.

Put simply, the rollup totals are not respecting the filter even though the
‘sub-tasks’ are.

I hope I’ve been clear and used the correct terms. Thank you for your time
and help with this matter!

Chris.

 

[John]

Chris,
I think we have a communication problem. First, what exactly do you
want? I though you wanted cost by month - either of the Usage views will
give you that depending on whether you want it by resource or by task.
Second, what do you mean by "closed" task? Third, what are you trying to
filter?

With a little better understanding of your end goal, we can probably
come up with a solution.

John
Project MVP

John,

I’ll start by clarifying “closedâ€. Closed is the marked field, I have
changed this column name to Closed. When Closed is Yes, this indicates
contracts that have been accepted by the client and us therefore are a 100%
go. This is what I am trying to filter on, only tasks that have a Yes value
in the marked field.

Is this the best way to handle this concept? Is this a proper use of the
marked field?

The final result I want is the task costs for work spilt by month where the
marked field (Closed) is Yes. I want the rollup to show the total for only
the filtered tasks, this is not happening

Currently the rollup total cost shows all tasks, including those where
Closed is No, even though these tasks do not appear in the filtered view.
After manually adding the costs of the tasks in the filtered Usage view I get
the correct value but the rollup total at the top (for the month) shows a
larger value because it is including the Closed = No tasks.

There are two tasks that have been identified as the difference between the
rollup cost for the month and a manual total of the tasks that are listed in
the filtered view. These tasks are marked No, do not appear in the task list
of the filtered Usage view but are included in the rollup cost for the month.

Put simply, the rollup totals are not respecting the filter even though the
‘sub-tasks’ are.

I hope I’ve been clear and used the correct terms. Thank you for your time
and help with this matter!

Chris.[/QUOTE]

Chris,
Wow! what a difference a few words of clarification make with regard to
understanding the problem.

Using the Marked field is fine but you could also use one of several
other spare fields (e.g. FlagX). One unique thing about the Marked field
is that it can be used for special formatting (e.g. font color) for a
number of tasks - spare flag field can't do that.

Ok, here's a process you can use to display what you want.
1. In the Task Usage view, go to Project/Group by/Customize Group By.
2. Set the group criteria for the Marked field. (Note: you can save this
group for future use by hitting the "Save" button before hitting "OK" in
the Custom Group By window.)
3. Set up a filter for the Marked field.
4. When the filter and group are applied together, you should have the
monthly rollup you need.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP
3.

 

[Chris V]

Chris,

Wow! what a difference a few words of clarification make with regard to
understanding the problem.

Using the Marked field is fine but you could also use one of several
other spare fields (e.g. FlagX). One unique thing about the Marked field
is that it can be used for special formatting (e.g. font color) for a
number of tasks - spare flag field can't do that.

Ok, here's a process you can use to display what you want.
1. In the Task Usage view, go to Project/Group by/Customize Group By.
2. Set the group criteria for the Marked field. (Note: you can save this
group for future use by hitting the "Save" button before hitting "OK" in
the Custom Group By window.)
3. Set up a filter for the Marked field.
4. When the filter and group are applied together, you should have the
monthly rollup you need.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP
3.

Wow! What a difference someone fluent with Project can make.

The Group By is just what I needed. The total is not quite jiving but I
believe I found a task that has not been properly entered that makes up the
difference, just playing with this now and I expect to have it worked out
soon.

You do good work here and it is appreciated John. Happy holidays and all the
best in the new year!

Chris

 

[John]

Chris,
Wow! what a difference a few words of clarification make with regard to
understanding the problem.

Using the Marked field is fine but you could also use one of several
other spare fields (e.g. FlagX). One unique thing about the Marked field
is that it can be used for special formatting (e.g. font color) for a
number of tasks - spare flag field can't do that.

Ok, here's a process you can use to display what you want.
1. In the Task Usage view, go to Project/Group by/Customize Group By.
2. Set the group criteria for the Marked field. (Note: you can save this
group for future use by hitting the "Save" button before hitting "OK" in
the Custom Group By window.)
3. Set up a filter for the Marked field.
4. When the filter and group are applied together, you should have the
monthly rollup you need.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP
3.

Wow! What a difference someone fluent with Project can make.

The Group By is just what I needed. The total is not quite jiving but I
believe I found a task that has not been properly entered that makes up the
difference, just playing with this now and I expect to have it worked out
soon.

You do good work here and it is appreciated John. Happy holidays and all the
best in the new year!

Chris[/QUOTE]

Chris,
I'm not so sure I'm "fluent" in anything but I do what I can.

John