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Microsoft Project 2010 : Comparing Costs to Your Budget (part 2) - Enter Budget Cost and Work Values

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12/9/2012 5:17:36 PM

3. Step 3: Enter Budget Cost and Work Values

With budget resources assigned to the project summary task, you're finally ready to add budget cost amounts for cost resources, budget work amounts for work resources, and the total number of units for material resources. These budget values are the targets against which you compare project costs and work as you monitor project progress.

You can enter budget cost and work amounts as a project total or as incremental totals by time period. This section explains how to do both.

3.1. Entering budget totals for the project

If time isn't a factor in your budget, you can add budget cost and work amounts to the entire project. Here are the steps:

  1. Display the Task Usage or Resource Usage view.

    The Task Usage view is ideal for entering budget values, because the project summary task sits at the very top with its assigned budget resources below it like fawning admirers, as shown in Figure 4.

    If you use the Resource Usage view instead, budget resources appear at the bottom of the list, because they show up in the order you add them to the project. You can assign a budget total in the Resource Usage view by selecting the project summary task under the budget resource and then typing its budget value.

  2. Insert the Budget Cost field into the table. Then insert the Budget Work field.

    Right-click the column heading next to where you want to insert the Budget Cost column, and then choose Insert Column. In the "Field name" drop-down list, choose Budget Cost. Repeat these steps for the Budget Work field.

  3. Select the Budget Cost cell for an assigned budget resource, and then type the overall project budget value for that resource.

    For a budget resource that's a cost resource, type the budget value in dollars in the Budget Cost cell.

For a budget resource that's a work resource, type the budget value as work (hours or days) in the Budget Work cell. The Budget Work cell is also where you type the total number of units (cubic yards, tons, packages, each, and so on) for a budget resource that's a material resource.

Figure 4. Unlike the Task Usage view shown here, the Resource Usage view displays budget resources appear at the bottom of the list, because they show up in the order you add them to the project. Select the project summary task assignment under the budget resource, and then type its budget value.


Workaround Workshop: Comparing Budgeted Labor Costs

Project calculates labor costs for work resources (people and equipment) by multiplying rates by hours. However, you can't compare these labor costs to the budgeted costs from the budget resource feature. Frustratingly, you can compare only budgeted work amounts to the work amounts in tasks—that is, the number of hours, days, and so on.

You can work around this problem by creating a single representative rate for work resources. For example, you could use an average or a weighted average based on how your labor costs are distributed and whether you expect to pay overtime. If you have a labor budget of $25,000, for example, and your average standard rate is $50 per hour, you could divide $25,000 by $50 for a resulting work budget of 500 hours.

On the other hand, if you insist on seeing your budgeted labor costs in dollars, not work, a little sleight-of-hand is in order. Instead of setting up the budget resource that relates to work resources as a work resource itself (like you're supposed to), you can set it up as a cost resource instead. Then you can enter budgeted labor cost and compare it to the rolled-up labor costs from tasks. The same trick works equally well for material cost budgets.


3.2. Entering budget totals by time period

The budget amounts you enter for a project summary task are the total project amounts for those budget items. Unless you tell it otherwise, Project spreads that budget amount equally over the duration of the project. To divvy up the overall budget amounts to the time periods when you expect them to be spent, you can edit budget amounts in the time-phased portion of a task or resource usage view.

Follow these steps to add the Budget Cost and Budget Work rows to the time-phased portion of the usage view:

  1. With the Task Usage or Resource Usage view displayed, choose Format→Details→Add Details.

    The Detail Styles dialog box appears.

  2. In the "Available fields" box, select Budget Cost, and then click Show. Do the same for the Budget Work field.

    Project moves the Budget Cost and Budget Work fields to the "Show these fields" box, as illustrated in Figure 5. The order of fields in the "Show these fields" box is the sequence in which Project displays the field rows. To change this sequence, select a field name in the "Show these fields" box, and then click the Move buttons until the name is where you want it.

    Figure 5. To open this dialog box another way, right-click the time-phased portion of the view, and then, on the shortcut menu, choose Detail Styles.

  3. Click OK.

    The two fields appear in the time-phased portion of the view, although you can see only part of their names. To see the full field names, drag the right edge of the Details column heading further to the right. You can also simply double-click the right edge of the column heading to automatically widen the column to display the longest field name.

  4. Drag the Zoom slider on the status bar to display the time period for which you want to enter time-phased budget values. Or adjust the time period in the Timeline view.

    For example, you can zoom the timescale to show a week or a month at a time. Then you can enter budget amounts per week or per month for budget resources.

    If you already entered budget amounts in the table, then those amounts are distributed equally across the project's time span. You can edit them to the budget values you expect for each time period.

  5. In the cell at the intersection of the row for a budget resource's Budget Cost or Budget Work field and the column for the time period you want, type the budget cost or work amount, as shown in Figure 6.

    You can't edit the Budget Cost and Budget Work cells for nonbudget resource assignments. The box on Entering Values in Budget Fields tells you where you can enter budget amounts.

    Figure 6. Even if you enter budget values in the time-phased portion of the view, it's good to keep the Budget Cost and Budget Work columns in view in the table. Those fields show you the overall project totals for each budget category you've created.

Frequently Asked Question: Entering Values in Budget Fields

Where can I enter budget amounts in a view?

When you add the Budget Cost and Budget Work fields to a usage view's table or time-phased portion, it's not always clear where you can actually enter your budget amounts. No visual cue like shading or hatching indicates areas that are off limits, so the fields seem to be available throughout the entire view. If you try to enter a value and nothing happens, that's your clue that the cell isn't editable.

Project is particular about where you can enter budget amounts. Here are the rules:

  • Enter budget amounts in an assignment field (in the Task Usage view, the row with the budget resource name; in the Resource Usage view, the row with the project summary task name).

  • In a project summary task's Budget Cost or Budget Work cell, enter project-wide budget totals.

  • Enter time-specific amounts in the Budget Cost or Budget work cells, in the time-phased portion.

You can't enter budget amounts in assignments for regular resources to regular tasks.

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