Tag Archives: Expected

Planned – Actual – Expected

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When managing a project with Merlin, you can juggle with different kinds of values: given planned, planned, actual and expected.

‘Given Planned…’ values are values you enter while you schedule your project.

‘Actual Start’, ‘Actual End’, ‘% Complete’ are values you update while recording work done in your tasks. They may or may not contain any data. ‘Actual Work‘ will be then calculated based on above data.

‘Expected…’ and ‘Planned…’ values are calculated. That means, they will always contain data.

Planned values:

If you have entered given planned values for the task, milestone, activity group, assignment or resource the planned values, planned values will be equal to those given planned values. Planned values can also sum up given planned values on sub activities or assignments.

Expected values:

An activity which had not been started yet, has expected values based on the planned values.
An activity which is in progress, has expected values based on the actual and planned values.
A completed activity has expected values referencing only the actual values. Continue reading →

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 →