Tag Archives: Costs

MERLIN – DO A BIT OF MAGIC IN REPORTS – PART XIII

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Those of you who have checked our new post series about “Merlin report templates” know by now…

Now let’s do some magic with the reports.

Report element costs by type
Should you choose to record costs on elements of Merlin projects and define the cost type, you may want to have a report outputting costs by type.

So you need to get first all elements of a project. Following python method does so, excludes private elements…

Continue reading →

MERLIN – DO A BIT OF MAGIC IN REPORTS – PART XII

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Those of you who have checked our new post series about “Merlin report templates” know by now…

Now let’s do some magic with the reports.

Report billable costs entered on elements
Costs entered on elements may or may not be billable to your customers. This report may output such costs in a table.

So you need to get first all elements of a project. Following python method does so and excludes private elements.

Continue reading →

Merlin – Do a bit of Magic in Reports – Part X

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Those of you who have checked our new post series about “Merlin report templates” know by now…

Now let’s do some magic with the reports.

What if you want to report resources work cost per phase?
We have used snippets from previous report templates posted in this series and related thread of Merlin’s user forum in Google.
In the WBL we mainly output all resources in the header of the table. This is possible over the following method in the Python script

And related WBL code iterating their titles

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Merlin – resource pricing and work costs

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As a Merlin PM you can schedule your projects and create professional Gantt charts meeting your professional requirements. You can balance the magic triangle and keep not only track of time but also of the costs, budgets and financial aspects of your projects.

To define ‘default work rates’ for unassigned tasks (activities), just use the according field in the project settings (via File > Project Settings > General > Default Work Rate)

Whenever you assign a resource to an activity, the entered rates will be used as a basis for the cost calculations:

  • Standard Rate: Rate per assignment in the specified unit. For example, $10/hour or $100/Kg.
  • Overtime Rate: For all assignments, working more hours than considered working hours. For example, $10/hour
  • Cost per Project: One time cost when the resource is assigned to any activity in this project. If the resource is assigned more than once, this cost will be counted only once.
  • Cost per Assignment: It is added each time this resource is assigned to an activity.
  • Accrual: You can decide how to accrual your costs. The choices are start, prorated, immediate or end
  • Actual: Actual Standard, Overtime and Cost per assignment can be added here so you can compare the planned vs. the actual values.

So… how do the planned vs actual values calculate?

  • Planned work costs take into account standard rate, cost per assignment and project.
  • Actual work costs take into account actual rates if defined, otherwise calculate using the standard and overtime rates.
  • Expected work costs use both rate sets if they are both defined.

Some examples Continue reading →

Merlin, managing base costs

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Base costsProject Management with Merlin is very flexible. Take project cost management for example. You enter cost rates on your resources and let Merlin calculate expected or actual costs due to the assigned work. When necessary you can also note costs directly onto activities or elements.

These costs are the so called ‘Base Costs’, entered and edited in the ‘Finance Inspector’.

To allocate multiple costs or to define the accrual mode, expand the disclosure triangle. If more than one amount is entered in the Base Cost, the combined base costs cannot be changed.

When determining the cost accrue, you can choose between at start, prorated, at end and immediately.

accrue

Let’s assume you need to travel for the review of the current work to your customer and know that you will have to stay there overnight. Continue reading →