Microsoft Office Project 2007 helps you to develop cost estimates for the resources and tasks that are needed to complete your project. To obtain realistic cost estimates, you may want to review historical data to use as a basis for entering cost information in Project. Then you can review and fine-tune your costs to create an accurate budget.
The best cost-estimating method for your project depends on the scope of your project, the level of accuracy needed, and the practices of your organization.
Tip This article is part of a series of articles within the Project Map
that describe a broad set of project management activities.
We call these activities "goals"
because they are organized around the project management life
cycle: Build a plan, track and manage a project, and close a project.
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Review historical data
Examining the cost histories of similar projects helps
you to better estimate the costs in a current project.
Enter cost information
You can establish cost estimates in Project 2007 by entering costs for resources (resources: The people, equipment, and material that are used to complete tasks in a project.), tasks, or both.
Click all of the following that apply:
- Set pay rates and fees for resources if you want Project 2007 to calculate cost totals for resources, assigned tasks, and the entire project. You need to enter rates and per-use (per-use cost: A set fee for the use of a resource that can be in place of, or in addition to, a variable. For work resources, a per-use cost accrues each time that the resource is used. For material resources, a per-use cost is accrued only once.)fees for resources (resources: The people, equipment, and material that are used to complete tasks in a project.), such as people and equipment.
- Set fixed task costs
for the use or purchase of resources, such as equipment. Project 2007 can then incorporate these fixed costs into the total cost of summary tasks and the entire project.
- Set material costs and other miscellaneous costs if you plan to use consumable resources, such as supplies, or costs that occur only once, such as airfare. Project 2007 can calculate cost totals for these material resources (material resources: Consumable materials or supplies, such as concrete, wood, or nails.)
and cost resources (cost resources: Resources that don't depend on the amount of work on a task or the duration of a task, such as airfare or lodging.)
from the base rates and quantities that you enter.
- Change the cost rate tables on a resource assignment if you want to apply the resource rates that you entered in different rate tables.
Review planned costs
After you enter costs for resources, tasks, or both, you can examine them to see if they need to be adjusted to meet your goal for costs.
Click all of the following that apply:
- View cost totals to verify the cost totals that Project 2007 calculated, based on cost information that you entered.
- Review a budget for the resource in your project if you already created
a budget for project costs and want to review it for possible adjustments.
- Export cost information
to Microsoft Office Excel 2007 or another program to analyze the cost details.
- Create a visual report if you want to use Microsoft Office Visio 2007 or Excel 2007 to create reports that help you to analyze and report on costs, at any phase of your project planning.
Optimize costs Before you establish your cost estimate as a budget (budget: The estimated cost of a project that you establish in Project with your baseline plan.) for your project, you can make final adjustments to the cost totals to ensure that your estimates are as realistic as possible.
Click all of the following that apply:
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