Cost planning using material type resources in MS Project Pro

Contents:

1. Creating cost resources using a material resource type in MS Project Pro
2. Assigning cost resources using a material resource type in MS Project Pro
3. Analysis of costs on cost resources using a material resource type in MS Project Pro
4. Chat

Creating cost resources using a material resource type in MS Project Pro

In MS Project Pro, you can use a material resource type to create a cost description resource. The resources created in this way allow you to fully manage the costs of the project. This method of describing costs will allow the use of the earned value method.

Steps the add cost resources using a material resource type in MS Project Pro:

1. Open the resource sheet view.
2. Add new resources. (Read more "Add resources in MS Project").
3. Set the "Material" in the "Type" column.
4. Set the "$" in the "Material Label" column.
5. Set the "1 $" in the "Std. Rate" column.
6. Set the cost type in the "Group" column.
7. Or the create custom column (Reda more "Сreating a custom field to describe the cost type in MS Project Pro") and set cost type on this column.
8. You can create a generic cost resource by setting the "Yes" in the "Generic" column. You can use generic cost resource for planning total costs.
9. you can set the default accrual type for cost resources in the "Accrue At" column.
10. For the convenience of analysis, you can select only costly resources in the "Filter" field in the "Data" block. (Read more "Filtering project data in MS Project Pro")
11. You can group resources by the "Group" column or custom column. (Read more "Grouping project data in MS Project Pro")

Assigning cost resources using a material resource type in MS Project Pro

You can describe the costs of the project in more detail in the "Work" column. 

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", "Work", "Total Cost", "Baseline Cost", "Variance" and "Resource Names".
6. Assign cost resources to tasks in the ""Resource Names"" column.
7. Set the total cost of the task by the cost of the assigned resources in the "Work" 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", "Cost" and "Wok".
11. Click the "Ok" button.
12. Refine task cost distribution by time period in the "Work" 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 using a material resource type 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 columns: "Cost" , "Work" and "Baseline Cost".
3. Click the "Resource Usage Format" item in the top menu.
4. Click the "Add Deails" button.
5. Show fields: "Budget Cost", "Cost" and "Wok".
6. Click the "Ok" button.
7. Set the monthly time period. (Read more "Timescale in MS Project Pro")
8. Compare the task cost value with its baseline cost and the budget.