Assigning cost resources in MS Project Pro

Contents:

1. Assigning cost resources in MS Project Pro
2. Analysis of costs on cost resources in MS Project Pro
3. Chat

Assigning cost resources in MS Project Pro

You can describe the costs of the project in more detail. We recommend that you use cost types your company. 

Steps to assigne cost resources in MS Project Pro:

1. Add cost recources. (Read more "Creating cost resources in MS Project Pro").
2. Copy the main baseline to the baseline 2. (Reed more "Project baseline in MS Project Pro")
3. Save the main baseline.
4. Open the "Task Usage" view.
5. Add columns: "Budget Cost", "Total Cost", "Baseline Cost", "Variance" and "Resource Names".
6. Change the total cost resource to other cost resources in the ""Resource Names"" column.
7. Divide the total cost of the task by the cost of the assigned resources in the "Total Cost" column. Compare the task cost value with its baseline cost.
8. Click the "Task Usage Format" item in the top menu.
9. Click the "Add Deails" button.
10. Show fields: "Budget Cost", "Baseline Cost" and "Cost".
11. Click the "Ok" button.
12. Refine task cost distribution by time period in the "Cost" field on the right part. 
13. Set the monthly time period. (Read more "Timescale in MS Project Pro")
14. Compare the task cost value with its baseline cost and the budget.

Analysis of costs on cost resources in MS Project Pro

After assigning costly resources, we can analyze the quality of their description. The result of the analysis can be:

• Resources with big cost. Perhaps such resources need to be split into several resources.
• Tasks with big cost. Perhaps these are critical tasks, and we should break these tasks into several smaller tasks and assign costly resources there.
• Resources with small cost. Perhaps the project does not need such detailing and it is necessary to use a more general cost resource.
• Tasks with small cost. Tasks with low cost. You may need to assign cost resources to higher-level tasks.

Cost analysis steps for cost resources in MS Project Pro:

1. Open the "Resource usage" view.
2. Add the "Cost" column.
3. Click the "Resource Usage Format" item in the top menu.
4. Click the "Cost" box.

Steps to use the cost type custom field for analysis of costs on cost resources in MS Project Pro:

1. Open the "Resource usage" view.
2. Add the cost type custom field. (Read more "Сreating a custom field to describe the cost type in MS Project Pro")
3. Add columns: "Cost" and "Cost type".
4. Group by the "Cost type" field. (Read more "Grouping project data in MS Project Pro")
5. Set the monthly time period. (Read more "Timescale in MS Project Pro")