Author: raywhite

This post will illustrate how to calculate costs in Microsoft Project.  As you will see below, each tasks has a total cost and an actual cost.  The actual cost are those costs that have actually been incurred during the execution of the project.

Costs in Microsoft Project and Standard Time® are very different.  Each task in Microsoft Project may have an arbitrary dollar value.  We’ll assign some below to demonstrate.  This is not true of Standard Time®.  Standard Time calculates task costs by multiplying hours times rates.  (C = H * R)  There are various rates a project may have, but the formula is always true.  Microsoft Project is different.  Follow the steps below to calculate costs in MSP.

Create some tasks:

1. Add a task named “Task 1”
2. Add a task named “Task 2”
3. Set the Duration to 100h and 40h respectively
4. Remove all columns by the Duration column (right-click and choose Hide Column)

 

The results look like this:

 

Insert the following columns:

1. Cost
2. Actual Work
3. % Complete
4. Actual Cost

 

The results will look like this:

Microsoft Project Cost Fields

 

Experiment with the Duration, Cost, and Actual Work fields, and you will see updates costs values.  The image below illustrates this.

Updated Microsoft Project Cost Values

–ray

This post discusses how to display WBS codes in Microsoft Project.  WBS stands for Work Breakdown Structure.  It is an (arguably cryptic) way to number tasks in a project so you can tell the hierarchy position.  The first number in the sequence represents the task id.  Each dot represents a subtask.  Follow the steps below to show the WBS number.

1. Enter three tasks
2. Right-click in the column header area
3. Choose Insert Column
4. Choose the WBS column
5. The results will look like this

 

WBS Codes

 Next, we’ll insert some new tasks and demote them.

1. Right-click in row #2
2. Choose New Task
3. Enter some tasks
4. Demote them
5. The results will look like this (notice the WBS codes)

 

Indented WBS Codes

 

If you really want to make your WBS codes exotic, try these steps.

1. Choose Project, WBS Codes…
2. Enter a prefix
3. Choose a custom numbering scheme
4. Click OK
5. The results may look something like this

 

WBS Prefix

 

–ray

This post will discuss the simplicity of using master projects in MS Project.  The image below shows a master project with two subprojects under it.  Three MS Project MPP files are required to create the project below.  The master project file is independant of the individual subproject files.  Follow the steps below to create a master project with subprojects.  Notice the green icons next to Sub1 and Sub2.  They indicate the sub-files included in the main master mpp file.

 

Master project and two subprojects

 

To create a master project in MS Project:

1. Create a new MS Project file named Sub1.mpp (see the example above)
2. Add some tasks
3. Create another mpp file named Sub2.cpp
4. Add some tasks to it
5. Create a third mpp file to act as the master project
6. Click in the first row of the master project
7. Choose Insert, Project…
8. Choose Sub1.mpp
9. Repeat steps 6 – 8 for the second subproject (the results should be similar to the image above)

 

–ray