Project calculates the costs for resources based on pay rates, per-use fees, fixed costs, or totals for cost resources (such as airfare or dining) that are assigned to tasks.
Note: Before you can save changes to cost information for an enterprise resource, the resource must be opened for editing.
Got rates more complex than that? Sometimes, a single set of resource rates isn't enough to capture complex billing schemes ("blended rates"). For example, a resource may have variable rates that depend on:
You can model these more complex billing schemes by using rate-table features in Project:
Notes:
You can enter more than one per-use cost for each resource to reflect blended-rate schemes:
Tip: The Cost Accrual value is not specific to any cost-rate table, as it is a resource-level property. Project can calculate cost totals when rate-based resources, resources that have per-use costs, and cost resources are assigned to tasks.
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Fixed costs are assigned to a task and are useful for planning and capturing task cost that arise in addition to those arising from the assigned resources. Fixed costs are applied to a task, and not to a resource.
Tip: You can use the Fixed Cost Accrual value to control when fixed costs are realized, and you can use Use Cost Resource assignments for finer control of costs. You can also enter fixed costs for the entire project, which you might choose to do if you are interested only in overall project costs (and not in task-level costs), or if you want to add project overhead costs (such as the cost of utilities).
A cost resource lets you apply a cost to a task by assigning a cost item (like a capital expenditure on equipment, or variable costs such as airfare or lodging) to that task. Unlike fixed costs, you can apply any number of cost resources to a task. Cost resources give you more control when you apply various types of costs to tasks. Before you enter a cost for a cost resource, you must create the cost resource:
After the cost resource is created, you can assign the cost resource to a task. After the cost resource is assigned to a task, you can enter costs for the resource assignment by using the Task Usage view.
When a cost is applied by using a cost resource that is assigned to a task, the amount of the cost resource can vary depending on how the cost resource is used.
Notes:
You can enter more than one rate per material resource:
Notes:
You can enter more than one per-use cost for each resource:
Notes:
You want to enter actual costs, but you find out that you can’t do that. That’s because Project automatically calculates actual costs based on the actual work accumulated or materials consumed on tasks. You can enter actual costs on assigned tasks that have been completed (remaining work is zero) in any view that has a cost table applied. To enter or edit actual costs manually when work is still in progress, turn off the automatic calculation of actual costs.
Problem: The resources that are assigned to your project task have associated costs, but the total costs for your resource assignments show a zero value. Cause: The wrong cost rate table may be applied to your task. Resolution:
Problem: After entering cost rates and fixed costs for resources, you are unable to enter the actual costs. Cause: By default, Project automatically calculates actual costs according to the actual work accumulated or material consumed on tasks. If you want to edit actual cost information, you need to turn off the automatic calculation of actual costs.
Note: If the assignment on a task is completed (remaining work is zero), actual costs for the assignment can be entered in any view that has a cost table applied. Resolution:
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