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Work on a project is done by work resources and often requires specific material resources that are costed against the project. There are three basic cost types in Project:
Resource rates The cost of a work resource based on the amount of time that the resource spends working on the project. Rate-based material costs are the costs of consumable material resources, such as building materials or supplies, to which you have assigned standard rates. Fixed costs One total cost that represents the price for doing a task or project, regardless of the number of resources assigned, the number of hours worked, or the amount of materials used. Per-use costs The single amount that it costs each time you use a resource. You can use Project to create cost estimates and to track actual costs and even to compare actual costs against your original baseline budget. Generally, to do even initial cost estimates, you need to enter cost information and assign resources to tasks in the project. There are two distinct ways to track costs:
Have Project automatically calculate costs for you. This requires you to use resource rate-based costs or per-use costs, assign resources to tasks, and track progress on those tasks. Use fixed costs. This requires you to enter fixed costs per task. Often, you will use a combination of these cost-tracking strategies in your project. In most cases, the cost is determined by the pay rates for resources or the cost of materials, so you'll want to use resource rates to track most costs. However, if a vendor gives you a fixed cost to do a task, then you will want to assign a fixed cost to that task. Lastly, you can track costs at several levels. For instance, if you are interested only in rough estimates, you can enter costs at the summary task level. If you want a more accurate picture, you can enter and track costs at the subtask level. Each summary task will still show the cumulative costs for its subtasks. Use the following table to help you decide how to enter and track costs.
To learn more about tracking progress, see the related links in the See Also box, which is visible when you are connected to the Internet.
assigned resource's standard rate to determine the actual costs of the task to date. If you use an overtime rate as well, Project applies the overtime rate as needed to properly calculate the total cost of the task. Material resources work similarly. You enter the names of material resources and specify a standard rate that can be applied to the number of material units that you assign to a task. For example, computer software may have a standard rate of $100 per license. If you assign 10 licenses (units) to a task, the cost is calculated as $1,000. To set the standard and/or overtime rates for a work resource To set the rate for a material resource
TIP If you don't have specific resources to assign or you just want to see general costs, you can use generic resources instead of specific
individuals. For example, instead of assigning Ken Myer and Jenny Lysaker, you can type the resource name Programmers in the Resource Name field. Then, in the Max. Units field, specify the number of resources that you have available as a percentage, where 1 person equals 100 percent. So, if you have three programmers available, type 300%. Later, when you want to assign a specific number of programmers to a task, you can select the "Programmers" resource and then specify, as a percentage, the number to assign.
Each time the "Validation Lab" resource is assigned to a task, $500 is added to the cost of that task, regardless of the hours or duration associated with it.
links in the See Also box, which is visible if you are connected to the Internet. What happens if you assign more resources after the initial resource assignment? Let's say that you currently have a task that will take 10 days for one person to do, meaning that it requires 80 hours of work. Using the default settings in Project, if you assign a second person to the task full-time, Project recalculates the duration by using the same formula: Duration = Work Units. (Remember your algebra?) So, Duration = 80 hours (work) / 200% (units) = 40 hours or 1 week. Sometimes, you want the calculations for a task to behave differently. For example, if you have to transport equipment and you know that it always takes a full day to get to the destination, you don't want the duration of the "Transport Equipment" task to ever change. However, you may need to assign more than one person to transport the equipment, and you want their work hours properly calculated so that you can get the correct costs for those employees. Each task's task type determines which element of the scheduling formula changes when another element is changed. By selecting the appropriate task type, you can fix one of these variables so that when you enter or change the second variable, Project recalculates the third variable automatically (and, of course, you can change any of the three variables yourself). The following table will help you determine which task type to use.
Fixed work
Assign additional resources. Change the work estimate. Change the units (percentage of a resource's time being spent on the task). Adjust the duration as you:
Fixed duration Set a fixed duration for the task and have Project calculate the percentage of time that resources must work on the task to complete it within that duration
Assign additional resources. Change the work estimate. Change the units (percentage of a resource's time being spent on the task). Adjust the work estimate as you:
Assign additional resources. Change the task's duration. Change the units (percentage of a resource's time being spent on the task).
Some ways to assign resources to tasks include selecting resource names from the Resource Name field or in the Task Form.
Another way to assign resources is to display the Assign Resources dialog box.
NOTES
You can select multiple resources and multiple tasks at the same time by holding down CTRL while you click to select them. This allows you to create multiple assignments at one time. You can assign many resources to many tasks, many resources to one task, or one resource to many tasks. Assign resources to the detail tasks, not summary tasks. This helps to build and maintain a more effective and manageable plan. If your task type is Fixed Units and you are using effort-driven scheduling, the duration of the task will shorten as you assign more resources. If you change the task type to Fixed Duration, the duration will remain fixed, and work or units will change.
Next Step
At this point, you have entered all of the cost information necessary to create your Project budget. Now, you're ready to review the cost totals, optimize the budget, and distribute it.