Use a day rate regardles of hours used

[Corey]

I am working on a project and have hired equipment, they are costed on a day
basis regardless of their use, if I use it for 1 hour or 23 hours and the
cost is the same. I would also like to have a the same setup for a equipment
on a weekly hire rate.

Is there anyway that i make this happen in project ?

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Corey,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Yes! View the Resource Sheet and double click on the hired equipment
resource name. In the Costs tab enter the cost and then /d for per day.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Have a healthy, prosperous and happy new year

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials

 

[Corey]

Thanks Mike.

Hi Corey,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Yes! View the Resource Sheet and double click on the hired equipment
resource name. In the Costs tab enter the cost and then /d for per day.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Have a healthy, prosperous and happy new year

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, Corey

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials

 

[John]

Hi Mike,

I have noticed that even though I have a day rate in it is still calculating
based on a hour (i.e. $1000/day where a day = 10 Hours) and I use the item
for 2 hours it adds a cost of $200 to the task. I want it to show $1000 for
the use regardless of the hours it is used. Have I missed something?

Corey,
No you haven't missed anything. I think you are just misunderstanding
how Project operates. Even though you gave a day rate, from Project's
viewpoint that is simply the cost for the equivalent of a day as defined
under Tools/Options/Calendar tab, hours per day. So from Project's
standpoint, 2 hours in a 10 hour day is 0.2 days. If the daily rate is
$1000, then 2 hours is $200. As a matter of fact, Project actually works
down to the tenth of a minute, so if someone only worked for 1.4 minutes
on a task and the rate was $1000/da, that would represent a cost of
$2.33.

In order to get what you want, you will have to either use a customized
field with a formula or resort to VBA. Either way, the formula should h
look at the start and finish dates to determine how many "days" to use
in the cost calculation.

John
Project MVP

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Corey,

Also, you could possibly treat the use of the equipment as a separate task
(SS to the workers' task) and make the duration whole days or weeks.
However, I can't help thinking that John's suggestion of vba would be the
best answer.

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[John]

Ouch... Thanks John

I am flat out but will look at this shortly, I am sure I will have some more
questions. Many thanks for your input.

This is a great support group.

Cheers
Corey

Corey,
Sorry.... you're welcome. Bring on more questions. After all, that's why
we are here.

John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House]

Corey:

If you really and truly must have the task costed this way, you might
consider making each day a separate task and enter the day rate under the
resource's 'Cost per Use.' The cost per use is added to your costs for each
individual task the resource is assigned to without regard to its duration.
That's a kludge but it might work for you. That being said, assigning the
full day rate to a task even if its duration is less than a day is not
correct costing. The budget for a project is not the payroll cost of having
the resource on the property. It is actually the incremental cost of doing
that task. There are many other costs also associated with doing business
such as rents, overheads, etc, and those costs include the payroll costs of
staff for any hours they are not actively working on directly project
related tasks, that are not a valid part of the incremental cost of doing
the project. As an example, imagine Joe ContractEngineer who bills you
$1000 per day is working on both the widgets project and the fids project, 4
hours a day on each. Should the total costs be $1000 a day or $2000 a day?
By your method his costs would total $2000/day but that's obviously double
the amount it really should be.

 

[Jim19382]

Steve,

I understand your reasoning, but am still faced with the problem of per diem
costs for resources. Adding cost per use associated with one day duration
tasks may work if you know how long the collective tasks will take in the
planning phase, but will be akward when tracking actual durations. While
teaching and consulting, I have come into contact with a number of clients
who need to track resource cost per day regardless of hours per day actually
worked. Your example of Joe ContractEngineer working on widgets and fids
projects simultaneously is an interesting twist. It seems like their ought
to be some way of addressing this real world requirement by querying the
appropriate tables, but I have not been able to discover the method for doing
this. Any futher suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jim

Corey:

If you really and truly must have the task costed this way, you might
consider making each day a separate task and enter the day rate under the
resource's 'Cost per Use.' The cost per use is added to your costs for each
individual task the resource is assigned to without regard to its duration.
That's a kludge but it might work for you. That being said, assigning the
full day rate to a task even if its duration is less than a day is not
correct costing. The budget for a project is not the payroll cost of having
the resource on the property. It is actually the incremental cost of doing
that task. There are many other costs also associated with doing business
such as rents, overheads, etc, and those costs include the payroll costs of
staff for any hours they are not actively working on directly project
related tasks, that are not a valid part of the incremental cost of doing
the project. As an example, imagine Joe ContractEngineer who bills you
$1000 per day is working on both the widgets project and the fids project, 4
hours a day on each. Should the total costs be $1000 a day or $2000 a day?
By your method his costs would total $2000/day but that's obviously double
the amount it really should be.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Corey,
No you haven't missed anything. I think you are just misunderstanding
how Project operates. Even though you gave a day rate, from Project's
viewpoint that is simply the cost for the equivalent of a day as defined
under Tools/Options/Calendar tab, hours per day. So from Project's
standpoint, 2 hours in a 10 hour day is 0.2 days. If the daily rate is
$1000, then 2 hours is $200. As a matter of fact, Project actually works
down to the tenth of a minute, so if someone only worked for 1.4 minutes
on a task and the rate was $1000/da, that would represent a cost of
$2.33.

In order to get what you want, you will have to either use a customized
field with a formula or resort to VBA. Either way, the formula should h
look at the start and finish dates to determine how many "days" to use
in the cost calculation.

John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

I understand your issue and it actually is one of the reasons I tend to be a
broken record saying that Project is not intended to be an accounting
program and trying to use it as one is fraught with peril. The cost figures
it develops are NOT payroll costs or expense items for the firm and
shouldn't be interpreted as such. They represent the economic cost
attributable to doing the project. If I have an engineer who charges a
minimum of a full day @$800 per day and I use him for a single, 1 hour task
the cost to the firm is $800 but the specific cost of the task is only $100.
The other $700 has to charged against a different line item somewhere in the
chart of accounts, perhaps general overheads or general payroll costs. But
it shouldn't be counted as part of the cost of doing that specific project.
It becomes cleaer when you recognize that the costs Project is tracking are
NOT costs of employing the resources but rather cost of doing the specific
project's work.

Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Steve,

I understand your reasoning, but am still faced with the problem of per
diem
costs for resources. Adding cost per use associated with one day duration
tasks may work if you know how long the collective tasks will take in the
planning phase, but will be akward when tracking actual durations. While
teaching and consulting, I have come into contact with a number of clients
who need to track resource cost per day regardless of hours per day
actually
worked. Your example of Joe ContractEngineer working on widgets and fids
projects simultaneously is an interesting twist. It seems like their
ought
to be some way of addressing this real world requirement by querying the
appropriate tables, but I have not been able to discover the method for
doing
this. Any futher suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jim

Corey:

If you really and truly must have the task costed this way, you might
consider making each day a separate task and enter the day rate under the
resource's 'Cost per Use.' The cost per use is added to your costs for
each
individual task the resource is assigned to without regard to its
duration.
That's a kludge but it might work for you. That being said, assigning
the
full day rate to a task even if its duration is less than a day is not
correct costing. The budget for a project is not the payroll cost of
having
the resource on the property. It is actually the incremental cost of
doing
that task. There are many other costs also associated with doing
business
such as rents, overheads, etc, and those costs include the payroll costs
of
staff for any hours they are not actively working on directly project
related tasks, that are not a valid part of the incremental cost of doing
the project. As an example, imagine Joe ContractEngineer who bills you
$1000 per day is working on both the widgets project and the fids
project, 4
hours a day on each. Should the total costs be $1000 a day or $2000 a
day?
By your method his costs would total $2000/day but that's obviously
double
the amount it really should be.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Hi Mike,

I have noticed that even though I have a day rate in it is still
calculating
based on a hour (i.e. $1000/day where a day = 10 Hours) and I use the
item
for 2 hours it adds a cost of $200 to the task. I want it to show
$1000
for
the use regardless of the hours it is used. Have I missed something?

Corey,
No you haven't missed anything. I think you are just misunderstanding
how Project operates. Even though you gave a day rate, from Project's
viewpoint that is simply the cost for the equivalent of a day as
defined
under Tools/Options/Calendar tab, hours per day. So from Project's
standpoint, 2 hours in a 10 hour day is 0.2 days. If the daily rate is
$1000, then 2 hours is $200. As a matter of fact, Project actually
works
down to the tenth of a minute, so if someone only worked for 1.4
minutes
on a task and the rate was $1000/da, that would represent a cost of
$2.33.

In order to get what you want, you will have to either use a customized
field with a formula or resort to VBA. Either way, the formula should h
look at the start and finish dates to determine how many "days" to use
in the cost calculation.

John
Project MVP

:

You're welcome, Corey

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials

Corey wrote:
Thanks Mike.

:

Hi Corey,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Yes! View the Resource Sheet and double click on the hired
equipment
resource name. In the Costs tab enter the cost and then /d for
per
day.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can
be
seen at this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Have a healthy, prosperous and happy new year

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials


Corey wrote:
I am working on a project and have hired equipment, they are
costed
on a day basis regardless of their use, if I use it for 1 hour
or
23
hours and the cost is the same. I would also like to have a the
same setup for a equipment on a weekly hire rate.

Is there anyway that i make this happen in project ?