Resource Costs
A further aspect of Project Management is the need to control the costs of a project by comparing the actual costs to date with the expected costs and to be able to forecast the expenditure profile to completion.
Resources can be assigned the following Costs
Unit Cost: CS Project can record the unit cost of each resource in the Resource Details Window.This allows Labour, Plant and Material costs to be entered against each resource type.
Overtime Rate: Also an Overtime Rate, stated as a proportion of the Unit Cost can be specified although Overtime is not covered today.
Cost per Use: A further cost for a resource may be a fixed cost every time it is used. This can be expressed with an entry in the Cost per use field.The amount is spread evenly over the duration of the Assignment.
These costs can be displayed on the Histogram
Having assigned costs to resources and/or tasks we can view the rate of expenditure or a summation of costs for specific activities using the Histogram Window.
The additional graphs now open to us include Scheduled Costs (and others). The graph can be changed via Setup - Resource/Cost Histogram or more simply clicking the right mouse button in the active Histogram window.
We can select any number of Cost Fields. This combination can then be shown as either cumulative or period based although it is more usual to display cumulative curves for costs.
As with resources, the colour, pattern and shading of each set of data can be defined.
Totalling Costs
CS Project can total resource costs selectively.Double-Click on a Resource Name.In the Resource Details ‘Advanced’ dialog we have the option to Include Costs in the Total.
If the Resources have been indented into groups then the group summary will reflect the costs of the sub-resources.
When choosing a single Resource (or Summary) or group of resources the graph (s) will reflect only the selected resources.
Selecting TOTAL will display not only the costs associated with the resources but also any fixed costs and Revenue associated with the tasks.
(Tip- Cost graphs may be produced using only Fixed Costs and Revenue without the need to include any resources.)
Printing out the Cost Graph
The Graph may be printed out in a similar manner to the Resource Histogram described earlier. Bring up the Report - Resource/Cost Histogram Options Window. The various settings have all previously been covered.
The Costs for specific tasks can be printed by entering a tick for ‘Selected Tasks’ in the Histogram Options.
Accrual of Costs
On the Bar Chart the costs of each assigned resource together with any costs assigned to the task itself are accrued against each task and can be viewed via the Scheduled cost column.
Additionally, Summaries accrue costs of all the tasks of which they are a summary. Therefore, costs can easily be split for instance Substructure, Superstructure etc. With an overall summary bar giving the total cost.
Any settings to include Costs in Total made in the histogram do not influence the bar chart sums which always show all costs.