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Old 01-31-2015, 08:40 PM
cag8f cag8f is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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Default [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost?


Hi all.

I'm just starting with MS Project, and am encountering an issue with costs. I have created a task and assigned one of my resources to the task. The resource will only commit a certain percentage of his time to the task. In my case, the duration of the task is 4 days, while the resource will only commit 2 hours to it. The percentage is then 2/96 = 2.08333%. But Project rounds that to 2%, resulting in a large (~25%) error in the calculated cost. Is there a way to carry this out more accurately?

Thanks in advance.
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Old 02-01-2015, 03:45 PM
JulieS JulieS is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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I don't follow. Did you just assign the 2 hours of work against the task? The cost is calculated by Work * Rate. If it's two hours of work, the cost should be 2 hours worth.
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Old 02-02-2015, 04:58 AM
cag8f cag8f is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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Default OK maybe back up then...

Thanks for the reply. Like I said, I'm new to all of this, so bear with me. Let me further clarify what I'm trying to do.

I have a task that will take 4 days to complete. I would like to allocate 2 hours of that task to one of my resources (Resource A). To do so, I opened the task information for that task, clicked the "Resources" tab, then assigned Resource A. The "Units" column in the "Resources" tab takes a percentage. So to allocate 2 hours (out of a total duration of 4 days--96 hours), I calculated X% = 2/96 = ~2.8%, which Project rounded to 2%, which is quite inaccurate. So this led to the question in my original post.

I *may* have taken the wrong route here though. Is there an easier/more correct way of allocating 2 hours to Resource A for this task?

I created the task as type Fixed Duration, if that matters.
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Old 02-02-2015, 08:02 AM
JulieS JulieS is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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You're very close. If you set the task as Fixed Duration the next step is to display a view that allows you to enter the work and let Project worry about the assignment units.

From the Gantt chart view, right click in the graphic portion (right side) and select "Show Split" from the shortcut menu. This should show the Task Form in the lower portion of your screen. Select the task, click in the task form under "Resource Name" and select the resource you wish to assign. Click in the Work column and enter the 2 hours of work. Click OK.

See:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/project/arch...ject-2010.aspx

for a discussion about the assignment units not showing correctly in the Task Form. Although Heather's post talks about 2010 - the same applies to 2013.

Using Fixed Duration task and assigning work is much easier than you doing the math to calculate assignment units.
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Old 02-03-2015, 08:15 AM
cag8f cag8f is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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Thanks for the very informative reply. It did the trick! But...again for some reason I wasn't completely up-front with what I am trying accomplish. Here is what I'm trying to do. I have a task that will take 2 hours of my employee's time, but will take 2 weeks to complete (since my client has to review/send comments/etc). In MS Project, I would like to track the 2 hours my employee works (including costs), as well as track the 2 week duration, for scheduling purposes.

Here is what I have done, and the issue I am encountering. I have added my employee to the project as a resource. I have also added the task in-question, at a duration of 2 weeks. Per your instructions, I allocated 2 hours of my employee to this task without issue. But my issue arises when I try to add a second similar task. This second task is identical to the first (duration, resource allocation, etc), except for a different task name. When I add this second task, I am met with an overallocation warning for my employee resource, in both tasks. Why would there be an overallocation warning here, and how can I address it? Surely in-practice the same employee can easily carry out both of these tasks, since they both require only 2 hours of his time, while spread out over a duration of 2 weeks? Perhaps I am misunderstanding something. edit: the overallocation warning remains until I alter start dates of the task until there is no overlap between them.

I have also considered adding lag to various tasks to account for waiting on the client. But lag can only be applied to the project if the task in-question is a predecessor to another task. That is not always the case with my project.

Sorry for the miscommunication. I thought that asking these very specific questions would be more efficient than one broad involved question. If you want, I can start a new topic with these latest questions.

Thanks.
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Old 02-03-2015, 03:59 PM
JulieS JulieS is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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What is your setting in Resource Leveling Options? If it is set to "hour by hour" or worse yet "minute by minute" then the resource IS overallocated. Change it to day by day (at a minimum) and see if that does not resolve the overallocation. Also, what are the max units for the resource?
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Old 02-03-2015, 04:48 PM
cag8f cag8f is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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Hi thanks. I have checked my leveling options in the resource tab, and it is set to look for overallocations on a day-by-day basis. I tried increasing it to week-by-week, but there was no change.
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Old 02-03-2015, 05:56 PM
JulieS JulieS is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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What are your resource's max units? Check the Resource Sheet view. Assuming the resource's max units? Take a look at the Resource Usage view - how many hours per day is the resource assigned during the two weeks? If you have 2 - week fixed durations task and the resource is assigned to both tasks at 2 hours spread out over two weeks - the resource should be working .2 hrs per day on each task for a total of .4 hours per day.

You did assign the resource at 2h on the second task, yes? Can you take a screen shot of the Resource usage view and attach it to your reply?
Attached Images
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Old 02-03-2015, 06:11 PM
cag8f cag8f is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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Thanks for your time.

OK I have looked at the Resource Usage page and see the issue. Task 1 has my resource spread out evenly over its duration, while task 2 has my resource working for only 2 days, as many hours as possible. Here is a screenshot of the Gantt chart reflecting this http://imgur.com/T27K9TN How can I spread the resource evenly over task 2?

The tasks seem to be identical other than the name.

Also, sorry for the confusion, but the duration and resource time were actually 4 weeks and 12 hours respectively. That shouldn't change issue though.
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Old 02-04-2015, 07:52 AM
cag8f cag8f is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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OK sorry--user error it seems. The task 2 work allotment for my resource was set to 160 hours (the full 4 week duration), rather than 12 hours. I changed that, and it resolved the issue.

Thanks very much for your time. This was still a good learning exercise for me. We can consider this resolved.

edit: actually, this is related to an issue I've been experiencing with Project 2013. In the Task Form, I can set task type to Fixed Duration, enter a duration for my task, then enter a different duration in the "Work" column for my resource. When I press OK to accept these changes, the duration in my "Work" column resets to match what I entered for task duration. This was the reason for this issue (my carelessness persisted it). It also slows me down when entering such information, as I have to do it twice. Is this a known issue, or am I doing something wrong?
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  #11  
Old 02-04-2015, 02:57 PM
JulieS JulieS is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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Great - glad you found the source of the problem and you're welcome for the assistance.

When working in the task form, you need to be very deliberate. Enter the task an duration. In the task form, select Fixed Duration and click OK. Then select the resources and enter the work.

If the majority of your tasks will be fixed duration - you can either change the default task type in File > Options, Schedule. You may change the task type to fixed duration on all already created tasks.
  • Select all tasks (click the Task Name column header).
  • Click the Task Ribbon and select Information.
  • Click the Advanced tab and select Fixed Duration
  • Click OK.

I hope this helps.
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  #12  
Old 02-04-2015, 07:08 PM
cag8f cag8f is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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Thanks. I have indeed set my default task type to fixed duration. I will try clicking "OK" more frequently.

Thanks again.
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  #13  
Old 02-05-2015, 07:00 AM
JulieS JulieS is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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You're welcome and thanks for the feedback.
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  #14  
Old 12-31-2015, 02:30 AM
bnkglb bnkglb is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 10 [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2016
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Default Understanding Duration vs Budgeted Labor Units

The scheduler developed a 5 day, 10 hr per day calendar for one of my projects yet developed budgeted labor units as 8 hrs per day, 5 days per week.

Example; Activity OD RD Budgeted Labor Units Remaining Labor Units
Perform 20hrs 20 hrs 15 hrs 15 hrs

When I questioned this, the response was that in schedule space you don't receive 100% productivity for duration, duration hrs is one thing and budgeted hrs to perform work is another.
So my question is; If he is correct how can you have more time in the schedule to perform work than what you have budgeted?
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Old 12-31-2015, 02:44 PM
JulieS JulieS is offline [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Windows 7 64bit [Project 2013] More accuracy with resource, unit %, and cost? Office 2013
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You can assign resources at less than 100% to indicate that the resource doesn't generate the 10 hours of work per day - there are other things that take away from the "productive" time.
For example, you have a task that has a work budget of 50 hours - original duration 5 -10 hour days. But during a given week (5 days) the resource can only 8 hours of work per day. So in a duration of 50 hours, the resource can only generate 80% or 40 hours of work. If the task really is 50 hours of work, the duration will be 6.25 days.
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