Entering Activity and Assignment Units and Costs

This topic explains the rules for entering unit and cost values at the activity level and resource assignment level.

Units and costs can be defined directly at the activity level if you do not plan to assign resources or roles to your schedule. If assignments exist on the activity, units and costs are entered on individual resource and role assignments. Values entered at the activity level are distributed among assignments with the same type as the activity field. Values entered at the assignment level roll up to the corresponding activity fields.

The cost of your activities is determined by multiplying the amount of work performed, measured in units, and the price of each work unit, measured as a rate. An activity without assignments uses the Default Price/Unit rate set at the project level. An activity with assignments uses the Price/Unit rates of each of its assignments. Because costs and units are interdependent, it is important to be aware that modifying units will recalculate costs and modifying costs will recalculate units. The Calculate Costs from Units setting controls the link between corresponding unit and cost fields. When enabled, costs and units are linked. When disabled, costs and unit values can be edited independent of each other. This setting can be set for each resource and role assignment. At the activity level, the link between costs and units depends on the setting of each of its assignments. When there are no assignments, cost and unit fields are linked.

Entering Activity Units

Units can be entered in the following ways:

• At the activity level
  • You can enter units directly or enter costs to indirectly update units on activities without resource or role assignments. Cost and unit fields are always linked on activities without assignments.
  • You can also enter units directly on activities with resource or role assignments. Unit values entered on fields that share the same type (Labor or Nonlabor) as an assignment will be distributed among those assignments. Unit values on fields that do not share the same type as an assignment do not get distributed to any assignments. Roles are counted as Labor type assignments.
  • Depending on the activity's duration type, modifying an activity's duration values may cause one or more assignment units to change. Because assignment units roll up to the corresponding activity fields, the activity's units may also change. Updated units will roll up to the corresponding activity fields.
• At the assignment level
  • You can modify all unit fields on an assignment. The updated units will roll up to the corresponding activity fields.
  • Depending on the activity's duration type, modifying an assignment's duration or units/time values may cause the assignment's units to change. The updated units will roll up to the corresponding activity fields.

Entering Activity Costs

Costs can be entered in the following ways:

• At the activity level
  • You can enter costs directly or enter units to indirectly update costs on activities without resource or role assignments. Cost and unit fields are always linked on activities without assignments.
  • On activities with assignments, you can directly modify activity cost fields if they do not share the same type (Labor, Nonlabor, or Material) as an assignment. Activity cost and unit fields are linked if the fields do not share the same type as an assignment. Cost fields that share a type with an assignment must be edited at the assignment level. Roles are counted as Labor type assignments.
  • Modifying unit fields on activities with assignments may indirectly affect activity-level costs. Units entered on activities with assignments distribute those units to assignments of the same type as the activity field. Costs are only calculated from these updated units on assignments where Calculate Costs from Units is enabled. If Calculate Costs from Units is disabled for an assignment of the same type, then its costs are not affected. All assignment costs roll up to the corresponding activity cost fields.
  • Depending on the activity's duration type, modifying an activity's duration values may cause one or more assignment units to change. If an assignment's Calculate Costs from Units setting is enabled, the change in its units will recalculate its costs. The updated costs will roll up to the corresponding activity fields.
• At the assignment level
  • With the Calculate Costs from Units setting enabled, modifying a unit field will affect the corresponding cost field. If the Rate Source is set to Override, you can also modify the assignment's Price/Unit value to recalculate all of its costs. The updated cost values will roll up to the activity level.
  • With the Calculate Costs from Units setting disabled, you can modify costs independent of units. All assignment cost values roll up to the corresponding activity fields.
  • Depending on the activity's duration type, modifying an assignment's duration or units/time values may cause the assignment's units to change. If the assignment's Calculate Costs from Units setting is enabled, the change in its units will recalculate its costs. The updated costs will roll up to the activity level.

    Notes:

    • You must have a Default Price/Unit value greater than 0 configured before you can enter costs on an activity with no resource or role assignments.
    • If an assignment's Calculate Costs from Units setting is disabled, modifying the Price/Unit value will have no effect on the assignment's unit or cost values. However, if you enable the Calculate Costs from Units setting, the costs will be recalculated based on the current Price/Unit and unit values. See Configure Assignment Calculation Options for more information on configuring an assignment's various calculation settings.

Additional Rules:

• If a resource or role is assigned to an activity without existing assignments, and the activity has existing unit and cost values, the activity values in fields of the same type as the new assignment will be overwritten by the assignment's corresponding values, which will roll up to the activity level. All other unit and cost fields will remain the same. For example, assigning a nonlabor resource will only overwrite the activity's nonlabor unit and cost values.
• Depending on its type, an assigned resource can overwrite labor, nonlabor, or material values. Assigned roles always overwrite labor values. If a resource staffs a role, the assignment values will roll up to the activity fields with the same type as the associated resource.
• Start and Finish Milestones do not support resource or role assignments, but you can enter lump sum labor, nonlabor, and material cost values directly on the milestone activity.