Forum Discussion
Solved
Is it possible to customize the Task cost calculation?
I have a question on how to customize the calculation of Task costs.
A bit of context: in my research organization, most of our research projects are funded by institutions (European Commission, regional agencies, ...), which funding rates differ between each other. Example: the EC reimburses all direct costs (i.e. personnel + equipment + travel) and adds 25% of indirect costs rate; a regional agency reimburses only 10% of indirect costs and they only apply to the personnel costs.
I have created a Project custom field for the funding scheme (EC, ...) and some custom fields for our resources (Manpower, Equipment, Travel, ...). My objective is to create a custom Cost1 field which would test the type of funding scheme and the cost category, and apply the corresponding formula.
The problem is that I don't see how to access the resource individual costs under the Task Usage view, it seems the formulas only apply to the total cost of the Task.
Does anyone have a clue of how I could achieve what I need? I hope the explanations above were clear enough.
Thanks in advance!
Christophe.
Christophe,
First, I suggest you read this Wiki article on data types in Project:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200720083203/https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/31991.ms-project-data-types-task-resource-assignment.aspx
Then you might also want to read the article referenced in the above concerning extra fields:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200722225529/https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32051.ms-project-extra-fields-in-views.aspx
Those articles will explain why your formulas don't seem to do what you want. However, based on your description, I don't see a need for custom cost fields at all. Instead of creating separate custom fields for funding types and resource types, why not combine the two. For example, you could have an EC work resource, an EC material resource, an EC cost resource, a Regional work resource, Regional material resource, a Regional cost resource, and so forth for each funding entity. Set up each resource type with the appropriate rate based on how they fund. You can even set up a time based cost escalation and/or up to 5 separate cost rates for each resource via resource cost rate tables A through E. This is accessible through the Cost tab on the Resource Information window. Varying cost rate tables for each resource are applied via the Cost Rate Table field at assignment level on either the Task Usage view or the Resource Usage view.
Hope this helps.
John
Hello Christophe.
I am attaching a sample calculation with formulas in case it suggests any useful ideas.
The scenario takes place in the Resource Sheet view.
A field is included VKI(Text1)=resource class (vki1, vki2, vki3) and another Proj_type(Text2)=Project type (ECHE, REGIONAL)
The Work, Cost, Remaining Cost and Rate of each resource in the project are informatively shown.
The Cost1 and Cost2 formula is based on the Switch function, similar to Iif, and multiplies the Remaining Cost by the value that follows the condition that is met for Resource Class and Project Type, and that in this example, for Cost1 is as follows:
[Remaining Cost]*switch(Text1="vki1" And Text2="ECHE";1;Text1="vki2" And [Text2]="ECHE";2;Text1="vki3" And [Text2]="ECHE";3;Text1="vki1" And [Text2]="REGIONAL";1;Text1="vki2" And [Text2]="REGIONAL";3;Text1="vki3" And [Text2]="REGIONAL";3) ...
In the case of Cost2, the only thing that varies are the coefficients:
[[Remaining Cost]*switch(Text1="vki1" And Text2="ECHE";4;Text1="vki2" And [Text2]="ECHE";0;Text1="vki3" And [Text2]="ECHE";0;Text1="vki1" And [Text2]="REGIONAL";4;Text1="vki2" And [Text2]="REGIONAL";0;Text1="vki3" And [Text2]="REGIONAL";0) ...
To obtain the totals you must have the Rollup Sum option selected in the Cost1 and Cost2 formula form.
Additionally, you must group by the Proj_type(Texto2) field (Right click on the column title).
I hope it helps you or gives you some new clue.
Ignacio
- Hello Chirtophe.
As requested above, it would be important to understand what you are looking for, an image of a table, spreadsheet or something similar, with a brief example, rather than an abstract description.
Ignacio Christophe,
First, I suggest you read this Wiki article on data types in Project:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200720083203/https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/31991.ms-project-data-types-task-resource-assignment.aspx
Then you might also want to read the article referenced in the above concerning extra fields:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200722225529/https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32051.ms-project-extra-fields-in-views.aspx
Those articles will explain why your formulas don't seem to do what you want. However, based on your description, I don't see a need for custom cost fields at all. Instead of creating separate custom fields for funding types and resource types, why not combine the two. For example, you could have an EC work resource, an EC material resource, an EC cost resource, a Regional work resource, Regional material resource, a Regional cost resource, and so forth for each funding entity. Set up each resource type with the appropriate rate based on how they fund. You can even set up a time based cost escalation and/or up to 5 separate cost rates for each resource via resource cost rate tables A through E. This is accessible through the Cost tab on the Resource Information window. Varying cost rate tables for each resource are applied via the Cost Rate Table field at assignment level on either the Task Usage view or the Resource Usage view.
Hope this helps.
JohnThanks John-project, this helped a lot. I read the articles you suggested, and understand better the differences between Task, Resource and Assignment data now.
I agree with your suggestion, the Cost Rate Tables seem indeed the natural solution.
I'm now trying to wite a macro creating the Cost Rate Table B for the EC hourly rates using the raw hourly costs of Table A:
Sub AssignHorizonEuropeCostRatesToCostRateTableB() Dim projApp As Object Dim resource As Object Dim costTableA As Object Dim costTableB As Object Dim rateIndex As Integer ' Create an instance of MS Project Set projApp = CreateObject("MSProject.Application") If projApp Is Nothing Then MsgBox "MS Project is not installed." Exit Sub End If projApp.Visible = True ' Set the active project Set ActiveProject = projApp.ActiveProject ' Loop through all active resources For Each resource In ActiveProject.Resources ' Specify the resource cost rate tables Set costTableA = resource.CostRateTables("A") Set costTableB = resource.CostRateTables("B") ' Table B rates = (Table A rates) * 1.25 For rateIndex = 1 To costTableA.PayRates.Count costTableB.PayRates(rateIndex).StandardRate = costTableA.PayRates(rateIndex).StandardRate * 1.25 costTableB.PayRates(rateIndex).OvertimeRate = costTableA.PayRates(rateIndex).OvertimeRate * 1.25 Next rateIndex Next resource End SubIt's nearly working at the exception of a type mismatch error in the last couple of instructions (I'm completely new to VBA, this was largely inspired by Copilot), which I should be able to fix.
But the next step then will still be the creation of a custom field Cost1, which will use the Table B rates instead of the Table A ones. Would that be possible? I haven't found how.
I'm glad the reference links gave you some insight. What I don't understand though is why you still think you need a custom cost field. Maybe a marked up screen shot would help.
I also don't understand why you need a macro to create the cost rate tables. Unless there are several tables with multiple time based changes, setting them up should only take a few minutes manually. If you still want to pursue a VBA approach and the code you posted is coming from Copilot, I find another airline.
John
- christophe_schram --
It is not possible to use a formula to calculate cost rates for resources in the Std. Rate, Overtime Rate, and Cost/Use fields. These values must be manually entered. Hope this helps.Thanks Dale_HowardMVP, I was more referring to the way the costs of the resources assigned to a Task would be aggregated to build up the Task cost. I realize my message was probably confusing. Nevertheless, it's good to know that these cannot be calculated using formulas, thanks!
