We will work with two ways of applying costs in Microsoft Project at the assignment level – resource rates and Expense Cost resources.
Rates can be assigned to resources that have been entered into the Resource Sheet. For Work Type resources, an hourly rate is assigned and for Material Type resources, a per Unit rate is assigned.
To enter rates, open the Resource Sheet view and assign rates in the Standard Rate (Std. Rate) column.
Once rates are entered into the Resource Sheet, and resources are assigned to tasks, costs are calculated. Costs are calculated at the assignment level and rolled up to the task level, the summary task level, and all the way up to the project level.
Costs are also visible at the resource level in in the Resource Sheet and Resource Usage views.
There are two kinds of Cost Type resources, Expense Cost and Budget Cost resources.
Expense Cost resources can be created that represent costs that are not associated with an amount of Work. They are created as Cost Type resources and are assigned a dollar cost each time they are assigned to a task. No Max. Unit or Standard Rate assigned.
An example is Travel Expense.
When an Expense Cost resource is assigned to a task, a cost is entered for that resource on that task. This can be done in the Task Entry view.
On the View ribbon, in the Split View section, check the Details box. Right click in the blank area of the bottom pane and select the Cost format.
Select the task to assign the resource to, add the Expense Cost resource and click OK. Then enter the Cost for that task and click OK.
To enter the project budget, Budget Cost resources are used. Multiple Budget Cost resources may be created, e.g. Travel Budget, Labor Budget, etc., or everything can be entered into an overall budget.
There is a field called Budget in the Resource Sheet, that will be set to No for Expense Cost resources and set to Yes for Budget Cost resources.
Budget Cost resources are entered in the Resource Sheet view exactly like the Expense Cost resources, except the Budget field is set to Yes.
Budget Cost resources can only be assigned to the Project Summary Task – task ID 0.
In the Task Usage view, insert the Budget Cost field.
Add the Budget Cost resources to the Project Summary Task using the Assign Resources Dialog Box.
A total Budget Cost for each of the assignments can be entered in the Budget Cost field. It will be spread evenly across the working days for the entire span of the project.
Or, you can insert the Budget Cost field into the grid. This is done in the same way that we added fields to the grid in the Analyzing and Leveling Resources section. Then you can add or edit Budget Cost in the grid area at whatever timescale is desired.
