I have searched the internet for an answer to this problem. There are a number of suggestions but none seem to address the issue.
I have set up a complex project with a cost assigned to each task. I now want to export that as a monthly cashflow to excel so I can then manipulate the data.
Any ideas?

Have you tried the Visual Report? It creates a Pivot Table and Chart in Excel.

Thanks Julie
I tried that. I got the tasks, start and finish dates, total cost, but no cashflow
Max

How did you put costs against the tasks? Cost Resources? Fixed Costs?

I added a "Costs" column.
These costs are fixed against each task.
If you click on the task useage button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, then right click in the Details section, then select "Costs" you get a very nice staged cashflow.
The trick is how to get it into Excel.
I would have thought that cashflow information would always be manipulated in a spreadsheet

There is no "Costs" column. There is the Cost column and then Cost1, Cost2, Cost3, etc. When I create a simple project add the Cost column to the view and add costs and durations - I see the data in the Task Usage view and it exports using the Excel Visual Report - Cost Report. Do you see data in the pivot table exported to Excel if you put data in the Fixed Cost field?

Do you have Service Pack 1 installed to Project 2010?

I just noticed you said you had Tasks, Start and Finish Dates, Total costs - that doesn't sound like the Visual Report.

When I try to run a visual report all I get is a graph, which is not much use

In the Excel spreadsheet, click the Task Usage tab at the bottom. The export creates a chart and on a separate sheet tab the pivot table.

I guess that I am too stupid for this.
Thanks for pointing out the Task Usage Tab, which I hadn't noticed.
Unfortunately the Table contains only Cost and Cumulative Cost; neither number bears any relation to reality

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've cracked it.
Thanks Julie, you're fantastic.

You're welcome and thanks for the enthusiastic feedback. What finally made everything work?

I am not an expert in Pivot Tables. I used to use them years ago, but now it's all Greek to me.
Anyway, I started clicking on various drop down boxes and select5ing things and finally I got what I wanted. Not exactly in the format I want, but at least it is in Excel and I can manipulate it to look like I want.
I can't understand why Microsoft hasn't made it an easier process. Heck, even I could probably attempt to write a macro linked to a button that would do this.
Thanks again, you're the best

You're welcome for the assist. If you want to manipulate the data outside of pivot table, you can convert the pivot table to formulas. That may be a bit easier for presentation purposes - but you'll remove the ability to pivot the data.

Hey:

I had the same problem and I resolved it by exporting the Project Data to XML where I could manipulate it in Microsoft Access. While it may be using a very big hammer to kill a fly, the flexibility and capacity for producing generic reports is well worth it.

I put some notes together on the steps I used.

https://userweb.jlab.org/~akers/Docu...hFlowModel.pdf

Walt

Attached Files

HowToGenerateCashFlowModel.pdf (31.1 KB, 8 views)