Outstanding Philip

One shoud be qualified as a planner to call themselves a planning engineer. THIS MEANS, TOSS THE COMPUTER, DO IT LONGHAND AND KNOW ABOUT PLANNING FIRST, then go back and use a computer as a TOOL to ASSIST in Planning.

Otherwise they should call them selves Student Planners or Junior Planning students.
bill

ASSLAAM ALIKUM MOHAMMED

Dear Mohammed, if you need to ask, then you need to hire a Site Cost Engineer. On a jobsite is not the place for a beginner, unelss guided and tought by a qualified Cost Engineer.
Reason,
you cannot learn in 5 minutes what takes 5 years to learn. You need a guide.

Salam, Bill

ASSLAAM ALIKUM MOHAMMED

TO DO THE COST CONTROL USING CCS- WHICH HAS MODULES CANDY (ESTIMATING), VALUATION, MATERIAL RECEIVED, SITEPLAN AND CASHFLOW.

1. ESTIMATE THE JOB FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES IN CANDY

2. DO THE VALUATION IN THE VALUATION MODULE.

3. COMPARE THE ACTUAL COST FROM YOUR COMPANY COSTING SYSTEM TO THE REPORTS AVAILABLE IN THE VALUATION MODULE.

4. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY COSTING SYSTEM. USE THE MATERIAL REC’D MODULE TO RECORD THE MATERIAL, PLANT, LABOUR, ETC.,

AND COMPARE THE REPORTS TO THE ACTUALS TO THE EARNED VALUE.


BEST REGARDS

MUNEER

Guys,

It’s important to have the right tool for the right job.

Mohammed would like to do cost control using P3, and some of us are suggesting that it’s not the best tool for that purpose.

Bill’s suggestion on exporting the data to Excel and doing cost control there, could work, but my experience with spreadsheets is that they are designer dependent. They have a tendency to become very complex, especially when trying to attempt cost control and performance measurement, as Mohammed is wanting to do. I’m sure we’ve all been in a situations where we’ve inherited someones else’s spreadsheet. You’re afraid to modify a cell as you don’t know what affect it’s going to have. So, I wouldn’t recommment going with spreadsheets.

I’m not familiar with CCS, but I do know that PRISM Project Manager does cost control and performance measurement (BCWS,BCWP,ACWP,CPI,SPI and I-EAC) and it has a seamless interface to P3 and P3e/c and MS-Project. It can also tie in estimating, procurement, contracts adminstation, engineering progress and materials management,if required.

Still, it’s only a tool. What’s more important is to understand what cost control is all about and a good learning source is the AACEI organization.

Good knowledge with good tools... can’t be it.

Hi guys, there is a lot to be said about cost control, but P3 is not the program for it. Bill is quite correct and the problem will just escalate if you try and confuse planning and cost control. You could probably handle the problem if you understand both disciplines correctly, however Mr Daya’s proposals of quick fixes is not the ultimate solutions, and you need to think the problem through. But not think this site will give you the answers, as most respondents are not aware of all the problems, and as such give half answers. The final desicion remains with you

Regards

Philip

Mohammed,

There are books written on how to properly do cost control for projects.

As a start, I recommend looking at the AACEI website...

www.aacei.org

Ett

Or try "PRISM Project Manager" software.

Mohammed,

Doing cost control using a scheduling tool is awkward and inefficient.

A better solution is to use a tool that was designd for cost control and has the ablitiy to integrate with you schedule. It’s easier to manage a time-phased budget than to manage a cost loaded schedule.

Mohammed,
What kind of information you are looking for in Cost Control?. Specify you requirements, i will try to help you.

Cheers!!!

Daya

Hello Mohamed,

The following may help you............
1. use Income as a resource code and assign your selling price for all activities.
2. for internal budget, you have to use different resource codes(for LCARP,LMASON,LLabour etc.,) according to your company standards if any and assign their respective rates
and for plants, use PJCB, PEXCAVA... resource codes and assign their corresponding rates(working + idle rates)and for materials use appropriate codes and assign their rates, all things could be done in the resource dictionary

and assign all resources budgeted hrs(man-hrs/plant-hrs)and material qty in the budgeted qty section in the activity form.

then make this schedule as a baseline or target schedule, then you can update your actual expenses in the current schedule activities while you status the programme.

HTH

Daya