Simple Budget Loading Help

[AerospaceBrett]

I've used some high-end PM software titles and then there's MS Project and Microsofts methodology of EVMS, etc. What I'm trying to accomplish was pretty simple in most of the programs I've used.

We're using 2010 and I need to help a customer with a high-level schedule, year long tasks with an established BAC with an associated BCWS derived from other tools by the PM.

The goal is to simply load this budget as a dollar cost figure into (task usage maybe?) or wherever in Project 2010 that will allow me to load these monthly (what I consider BCWS figures) month by month totaling to a BAC for each task. Each of these high-level tasks all have various associated BACs and I'd like a monthly total for the sum of all tasks. This was super easy in Primavera, Scitor, Deltek Open Plan, etc, etc.

We are not using any Resource Sheet resources at all, perhaps a dummy resource name to capture the cost as an assigned resource/placeholder, but that's it. Not using Units or Work, rates, etc to calculate BCWS, etc, just want to load direct cost and see the changes when tasks are moved to the left or right due to impacts, etc, without changing said tasks BAC. I've been playing with Cost & Fixed Cost and do not think it's what I need due to their respective characteristics and limitations within the tool as to what can or will be reported from the tool.

This is a very high level schedule used for what-if scenarios. I'm well aware there are much more involved methods & techniques to doing this, but I'm presenting what the customer wants, quick, simple tool (vs Excel) to spread BCWS without changing a tasks BAC.

Appreciate any help.

 

[JulieInMaine]

You could certainly use Fixed Costs applied to the tasks. Fixed Costs are counted in Earned Value so you should be all set - just save the baseline. The spare cost fields will not work as they are not time phased. I'm not sure what "limitations" you have run into.

 

[AerospaceBrett]

What I'd like the software to do is take my BAC for each task (whether that be fixed cost or whatever) and automatically time-phase that budget based on the calendar I use. Deltek's Open Plan does this, Primavera does it, just not positive MSP does this simple task.

 

[AerospaceBrett]

Oh and thanks for the quick response Julie.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Fixed costs are timephased in Project. Project will spread the fixed cost evenly across the duration of the task. You can view the spread in the Task Usage view add Costs to the right side. You can also edit the costs once added as needed - or change the accrual by altering the fixed cost accrual.

 

[AerospaceBrett]

I'm not doing something right. MSP allows entering Fixed Cost directly into pretty much any view. I built a simple file with one task in this project just to proof this will work. I added the Fixed Cost field in the Gantt view, added $100,000 to a 12 mon duration task. I then baselined the entire project (just one task) thinking to time-phase you have to baseline first, some programs require that, can't find on MSP if it's an actual requirement or if it instantly time-phases. Still looking for that answer.

Questions:
* Do I need to baseline before it timephases it?

* Can I add whatever my Fixed Cost is directly as a field entry and that is time-phased instantly. If so where?

* OR - Does MSP require fixed cost to be added as a resource in Resource Sheet and then assigned to an associated task first in order to view time-phasing in (Task Usage I presume)?

* Which view actually shows a time-phased budget, thought it was Task Usage, but perhaps something else.

 

[AerospaceBrett]

Oh wait just a minute, so I scrapped my file save, went back to my un-baselined (one-task proof of concept) file for testing. No baseline, added $100,000 as a Fixed Cost (added that field/column) in my custom Gantt View, then went to Task Usage and then Format and checked Cost, that gave me my monthly BCWS (I'll call it that) or time-phasing. And if I add or subtract duration it auto-re-calculates my BCWS. This may work perfect for me.

Julie thank you so much, you got my gears spinning into overdrive to get this to work. I didn't want to bother with adding Resources since my customer doesn't need that. This particular NASA customer just wanted a way to spread budget with a real assigned custom government holiday calendar and auto-respread the budget with duration or date changes. This seems to work and now I can apply this proof of concept to his real schedule file.

Thank you so much for the help.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Questions:
* Do I need to baseline before it timephases it?
No. The timephased cost will show in the Cost field added to the Task Usage view.

* Can I add whatever my Fixed Cost is directly as a field entry and that is time-phased instantly. If so where?
Yes. Add the cost field to the right side of the Task Usage view.

* OR - Does MSP require fixed cost to be added as a resource in Resource Sheet and then assigned to an associated task first in order to view time-phasing in (Task Usage I presume)?
No.

* Which view actually shows a time-phased budget, thought it was Task Usage, but perhaps something else.
Cost field added to the right side of the Task Usage view.

 

[AerospaceBrett]

One last question. So in this real file for my nasa customer, I'll have about 20 tasks (long duration tasks of a year or so), I'll add this fixed cost, now I see it appear, but to see the monthly totals at the bottom for ALL these mini-projects/tasks (customer specific) is it a report or does MSP show this as live data somewhere? I'm used to two other PM Cost/Schedule tools that would show it LIVE on-screen and an optional simple report. Right now I don't see it on the screen and presume it's a report I need to create?

 

[AerospaceBrett]

Nevermind, after adding a second task I see it summarizes this Fixed Cost time-phased to the project summary, perfect.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Great. Glad you have it sorted.

 

[AerospaceBrett]

Can the Resource Usage view display a Cumulative Cost on the Resource Usage Pane? I see Cum-Work but there is no Cum-Cost when viewing the right-click pop-up menu. I've navigated around and don't see it either.

My original post and outcome worked ok, but after playing with the resources I realized I could categorize color-of-money as resources and group, filter, etc with more options using resources vs just cost and the Task Usage spreadsheet. Thus I'd like to see resources grouped with their sub-totals, surely they included this option?

 

[JulieInMaine]

Subtotals of what? You can group in the Task Usage and Resource Usage views - grouping by Task & Assignment or by Resource & Assignment.

 

[AerospaceBrett]

Subtotals of each Resource on the Resource Usage Pane, shut down MSP and restarted, now it shows subtotals as I suspected it should, glich I guess.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Great. Glad to know all is working as expected.