Cost Loading

Hi Shareef

There is no need to post multi threads - if you deserve an answer you will get one.

Best regards

Mike Testro

this is a very typical problem to every Planner.

in your third programme (recovery) you would load remainnig budget of all activities.

also in your recovery programme add a bar and call it (actual cost to date), which should spread from the start of the project to the latest data date, this will give you planned and actual value for the history i-e before data date.

as you would not be worried about the history, because history is gone, and for generating cash flow going forward we are not bothered about history.

anybody, please advise something different if i am wrong,
or is there any other better way of acheiving what is desired.

regrads

Shahzad

Thanx Shehzad

But you havent explained how to load cost...

Should i add cost individually to all resources that i have defined and allocated or to sum up cost of activities and insert a resource called cost.

Regards
Shareef

Shareef

i haven’t tried cost loading with resources,

i have had used resource (non labour) called cost, and put monetary value against that.that also yields earned value figures.

sorry i don’t know which is more efficient.

please consult with your commercial department / QS and ask the type of data they could give your and also actual against that data.

regards

Shahzad

Shareef

You should be comparing your most recent updates against the last approved baseline, this can be your last recovery schedule that if accepted is already your actual baseline.

You have to cost load your actual baseline and your most recent update.

A PAIN ON THE BUTT METHOD:

If you are required to model your Progress Payment Applications then the most precise approach is to create a cost account per payment breakdown item. For this I recommend using a prefix such as PPA or BOQ and then sequential numbers with trailing zeros as needed to keep the sorting.

For example:
BOQ-0001     Mobilization
BOQ-0010     Insurances
BOQ-0250     Concrete Footings
BOQ-0400     Cement Plaster
BOQ-0601     Lamps Type A
BOQ -0602     Lamps Type B

Then I would create a resource named BOQ and cost load my activities with a combination of the BOQ resource and the BOQ-XXXX cost codes.

Because SureTrak does not provides cost codes then in such cases you can create a numbered resource for each BOQ item. The curves generated by SureTrak were limited to Early Curves and the distribution was approximate as SureTrak des not keep per period postings. If you are using P3 remember to update all your period performance in sequential order as they occur.

For your own costing records then I would create a cost coding similar to the company cost coding standard. I would distribute costs to either a single resource called Cost or to different resources such as Labor, Equipment, Materials, Subcontracts and Other, this will give me a better detail on the cost distribution as per traditional Job Costing. P3 provides you with some cost loaded sample jobs, look at the sample job named Apex.

Not an easy task to get an S Curve Envelope for Early and Late Progress that is just an approximation and does not gives as much information as the Critical Path. I consider it a waste of time.

THE HANDS DOWN APPROACH:

Of course you can cost load at the summary bars and get an approximation and for your updates using Hammer’s Rule (if don’t fits, hit it with a hammer until it fits) you can make it to match your Payment Requests. After all the above B.S. this is the approach I would follow if forced to cost load my schedule at gunpoint.

You can also opt to cost load using a single cost per activity as you used to do before. This is an intermediate method that will also require the application of Hammer’s Rule.

If you are using P3 remember to update all your period performance in sequential order as they occur.

Good luck my friend, good luck.

R.D.

Hello Rafeal,

Thanx a lot for your reply,

I read your reply a couple of times but I have a lot of doubts. I would like to inform that I use P3

I have thought of creating a new programme combining my Revised Baseline programme and my recovery programme and to cost load this programme and call it my revised programme 2.

and about creating costcodes you mentioned to create for eg: BOQ-XXXX and then create a resource called BOQ and cost load activities with a combination of both.
What does this mean .....

And what are the information that I get fromall this.
I would also like to know about storing period performance. What does this do? and how should I do this as you have mentioned in order of occurance

I have yet another doubt..
let me give you the whole story...

I prepared a Baseline programme for a project, which was already 6 months complete,when I was aksed to prepare the programme. I was then asked to prepare a revised baseline programme very soon. My revised Baseline programme thus contains sectors with activities which had already completed. I would like to know if it is allowed for a baseline programme to have activities with actual start and finish dates.

Please pass me your email id..so I can send you my programme and you could guide me directly....Please

Hello Rafeal,

Thanx a lot for your reply,

I read your reply a couple of times but I have a lot of doubts. I would like to inform that I use P3

I have thought of creating a new programme combining my Revised Baseline programme and my recovery programme and to cost load this programme and call it my revised programme 2.

and about creating costcodes you mentioned to create for eg: BOQ-XXXX and then create a resource called BOQ and cost load activities with a combination of both.
What does this mean .....

And what are the information that I get fromall this.
I would also like to know about storing period performance. What does this do? and how should I do this as you have mentioned in order of occurance

I have yet another doubt..
let me give you the whole story...

I prepared a Baseline programme for a project, which was already 6 months complete,when I was aksed to prepare the programme. I was then asked to prepare a revised baseline programme very soon. My revised Baseline programme thus contains sectors with activities which had already completed. I would like to know if it is allowed for a baseline programme to have activities with actual start and finish dates.

Please pass me your email id..so I can send you my programme and you could guide me directly....Please

Shareef,

I have done the PAIN ON THE BUTT METHOD and it works, I still believe an electronic spreadsheet does it so much easier that it does not makes any sense unless you are required to do so.

Once you cost load your job with cost codes similar to your BOQ items then you can create a layout table organized by cost codes. With the adequate columns you can update here your monthly application data.

Because I don’t have P3 maybe I cand send you a sample P3 file created from SureTrak, I will not be able to use cost codes, instead it will be many resources, one per BOQ item. Then from here you can get the idea and change it to a combination of a single resource and a cost code per BOQ item.

About storing period performance please look for the keywords, "period performance" under P3 help. Unless you store period performance resource usage distribution will be spread uniformly from the beginning of the activity to the end or data date if not completed, when in reality actual performance is not necesarily linear.

Best regards,
Rafael

CY = cubic yards
CM= cubic meter
If the British mix miles per hour for speed limit and kilometers for distance why we cannot?
Death to Sir Francis Drake.

As you can see resources provides more versatility, you got to figure it out with cost codes in P3 to see if the alternative works better, if not use resources only, sorry I don’t have P3.

With regard to your question: I would like to know if it is allowed for a baseline programme to have activities with actual start and finish dates.

I believe a revised baseline should be an updated schedule with actuals prior to the Data Date / Revission Date and after the date unstatused activities. The ustatused activitiesw with revised logic, resources and durations shall reflect a plan to accomplish actual contractual conditions, therefore the job might have a revised finish date.

It might have legal implications so do not leave any delay issues prior to revission date.

By the way if you look in detail the Insurance %complete and cost to date you will find it does not make sense for a Payment Request one of the many possible data entry errors common in the way CPM schedules work, they are full of traps. You see, it can be done but it is substantially easier using a spreadsheet.

Do you know how a Primavera P6 developer laces his right foot shoe? He stand up in front of a desk, put his left foot on top of the desk, keeps his right foot on the floor and then he bends to tie his right foot shoe lace. Don’t become one of them.

This seems like a better layout, as you can see there is a variance column you must keep in 0 values, this will help you to find errors in data entry, You can enter your %complete directly into the table.

Just imagine the unnoticed errors with true job costing where budget and cost at completion are not to match. To use CPM to keep Job costing is in error, and as a matter of fact usually only budgeting as volumes of work are usually not followed in this kind of systems.

Well I was once forced to do it at gun point, that might be your case, this is why I care, if cost loading by your own initiative don’t let me know, otherwise I will not help you.

Best regards,
Rafael